Deaths will occur on pages 14, 46, 65, 75, 174, 208(ish), 218, 227, 249, somewhere between 243 and 250, 262, and 355.
I enjoyed this little Australian crime novel from the first murder to the last. Written from the perspective of Ernest, an author recounting a family reunion with a high body count. There’s plenty of humor to be found, but what I loved most was how the fictional author manipulates the reader. It’s playful. Right from the start he tells the reader in which pages there will be deaths, recommending you dog-ear them.
The book felt like a sibling to Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club. The dysfunctional adult family at the core of the story is a train wreck you cannot look away from. Ernest, the protagonist, is what his name says, and an immensely entertaining narrator for it.
A great first book for 2024. It looks like the author, Benjamin Stevenson, has a sequel due to release in a couple weeks. I’ll be picking it up.