Read a Q&A with Benjamin Stevenson! | Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone

Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and author. His first novel, Greenlight, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction, and published in the USA and UK. His second novel, Either Side of Midnight, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Original Paperback. He has sold out live shows from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has appeared on ABCTV, Channel 10 and The Comedy Channel. Off-stage, Benjamin has worked for publishing houses and literary agencies in Australia and the USA. He currently works with some of Australia’s best-loved authors at Curtis Brown Australia. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is his third novel, and is currently being adapted into a limited series with HBO, Made-Up Stories, and Endeavor Content.

Today, Benjamin Stevenson is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about his new novel. Read on …

Benjamin Stevenson (Photo by Monica Pronk).

Please tell us about your book, Everyone In My Family has Killed Someone!

BS: Ernest Cunningham, crime fiction aficionado, is dreading his family reunion, which is taking place at a remote mountain-top ski resort. And that’s before the first murder. Because the Cunningham family doesn’t really get along. In fact, they’ve only got one thing in common: they’ve all killed someone. As a snowstorm traps them in the resort, can Ernest find a murderer amongst his family of killers?

This book represents a bit of a change in tone from your previous crime novels. Where did the inspiration for it come from?

BS: I wanted to write something fun! And so I approached this novel with a Sherlockian relish. I’ve previously written quite gritty crime novels, and after the gruelling 2020/2021 I wanted to really treat this novel, even with all the murder and twists and suspense, as a joyous escape. To do that, I revisited that charming cleverness of Golden Age mystery novels – and Ernest is a big fan of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Ronald Knox – where cleverness trumps violence, and playing fair to the reader is paramount to dealing with a satisfying mystery.

And I really wanted to play fair in this novel. Modern crime fiction has a slew of unreliable narrators lately, and I wanted to do the opposite. So for inspiration, I set myself the challenge: can I spoil the entire novel on the first page and still surprise the reader? I hope I’ve done that.

This book also seems to be playing on a lot of classic crime fiction tropes – the remote, snowed in location, the family with mysterious secrets trapped together, and so on. Why do you think these tropes are still so prevalent in crime fiction?

BS: Crime fiction is about what people can do to one another – and trapping a group of people, all with history and backstory, in a single location is a perfect way to discover what people will do to each other under dramatic circumstances. So I think these tropes stick around because amongst these classic beats we are able to see new things every time, and that’s what makes it exciting.

But also, there’s just a lot of good fun to be had within the genre. Nothing beats gathering a dozen suspects in a library and having a detective deliver a spirited dissection of a crime. These are classic tropes for a reason – they are hugely satisfying!

Who was your favourite Cunningham family member to write and why?

BS: I’m going to cheat and say a couple: Katherine and Andy. Katherine is an uptight tee-totaller who sends Excel spreadsheets with itineraries to all her family members, and Andy is a gormless patz of a husband, who’s a bit of a lad and only has one conversation topic: cryptocurrency. They were a lot of fun to write as they felt very real to every family gathering.

If you were planning a literary dinner party, which three authors (dead or alive) would you invite?

BS: Anthony Horowitz, Stuart Turton, and Agatha Christie – all writers that variously paved the way for this novel, and all writers who display sheer inventiveness at every turn. I just hope one of them can cook.

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?

BS: I am the classic, dare I say cliched, archetype of someone who had a childhood full of reading and writing, including many dodgy hand-written childhood books (including one where I increased to font size to 50 in order to increase the page count to better impress my parents). I was lucky enough to bring that creative streak with me into my adult working life – where I’ve toured the world as a comedian and also enjoyed working with books in my day job. But I always held that itch to write my own novels, and eventually I just took the leap.

What do you love about writing crime fiction?

BS: I write books like I read books – by trying to solve the crime. And I love trying to imagine how the reader is feeling. There’s a point where you find something, some clue or mystery or suspect, or unlocking a piece of the puzzle that is causing you difficulty, that makes you feel clever as a writer, but also that you know will be satisfying (read: fair!) for the reader – and it’s an amazing thrill. There’s no feeling like it.

What is the last book you read and loved?

BS: The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh.

What do you hope readers will discover in Everyone In My Family has Killed Someone?

BS: I hope they’ll enjoy reading it as a mystery novel, with satisfying twists and turns, but that they’ll also feel they’ve never read anything like it before. I’ve never seen a book like this on shelves, and can’t wait to hear people’s responses. I also hope people discover in it my real love and affection for Golden Age mystery fiction – and perhaps that compels them to read or reread some classic favourites.

And finally, what’s up next for you?

BS: I’m excited to see the television adaptation of the novel come together, I’ve got comedy shows in Melbourne and Sydney (performing as ‘The Stevenson Experience’) and I’m going to be writing my next book – another Golden Age inspired mystery – which I’m plotting now. And by plotting, I of course mean staring at a wall and putting off writing.

Thanks Benjamin!

—Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (Penguin Books Australia) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Benjamin Stevenson

I was dreading the Cunningham family reunion even before the first murder.

Before the storm stranded us at the mountain resort, snow and bodies piling up. The thing is, us Cunninghams don't really get along. We've only got one thing in common- we've all killed someone.

My brother. My step-sister. My wife. My father. My mother. My sister-in-law. My uncle. My stepfather. My aunt. Me...

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