Review
The prologue of this book opens with the narrator explaining the rules for murder mystery novels as established by the greats of the genre and advises the reader to bookmark that page so we can check he follows them. He explains that he aims to be a reliable narrator. He then lists the page numbers of every death in the story. (Kudos to the editors and typesetters for making that work!) With all that done, you’re not going to expect many surprises from this book.
But what follows is a very twisty story involving serial killers, bank robbery, kidnapping, and tragedy. The deaths and killings in the family are varied, ranging from simple car accidents to premeditated murder. And it’s not until they’ve all been spun out and you see how they relate to each other that the deaths in the present day, at an isolated ski lodge in Australia, start to make sense.
Although it’s ostensibly a comedy, it’s more of a light comedy compared to the Thursday Murder Club series, which are books this one has been frequently compared to by reviewers. It’s amusing without being truly funny. If you’re hoping for a laugh a minute, you probably won’t find it here.
But you will find a great mystery, and a very original, very engaging style of writing.
