Cover image from Goodreads.com
A snowed-in ski resort, a body, and a tense family reunion; all the elements for a locked room mystery.
Ernest is the narrator who promises to play fair and assures the reader that he’s quite reliable. Everyone in his family has killed someone and the overachievers have killed more than once. But they aren’t the Mansons and they’re not psychopaths, just people who are at the wrong place at the wrong time, Ernest assures the reader.
Up on a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm, the family has come together to welcome Michael back from his stint in prison for, you guessed it, murder. A body shows up just before Michael arrives and the hunt for the murderer is on. Ernest recounts the events and points out important bits to the reader as well as immediately dispelling suspicion where necessary. A storm moves in and bodies start piling up.
This novel references Agatha Christie and Ronald Knox’s “10 Commandments of Detective Fiction” from 1929 quite a lot and does seem to be an homage to that style of mystery. The clues are all laid out, even pointed out by the narrator, and assembled into a picture by the end. All loose ends are tied up nicely as well.
I felt like this novel would have been better if I’d read it all in one sitting. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and a lot of clues scattered about, so each time I picked the book up I had to remind myself of what was going on. The narrative voice was delightfully consistent throughout, Ernest’s personality came through in every word.
Should Be Writing 