Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

In interviews, author Benjamin Stevenson explains his concept for the book as an update to traditional mystery novels such as those by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, noting that the genre is rooted in certain “rules” that allow the reader to be able to solve the mystery along with the book’s detective (Brewer, Robert Lee. “Benjamin Stevenson: On Combining Humor With Mystery.” Writer’s Digest, 18 Jan. 2023). These rules were devised by mystery writer Ronald Knox in 1929. By adhering to these rules, the writer can create a suspenseful tale that challenges the reader by keeping them guessing as to the correct solution but also makes the solution a logical and viable one. Stevenson specifically represents the novels of Agatha Christie, who is known for centering the conflict amid a web of complex family relations in which many characters have a motive for committing the crime. Stevenson utilizes this trope, but he modernizes it and then further complicates it by devising a problematic backstory for each family member in which each has already “killed someone” and thus could potentially be the novel’s culprit. The