After reading and loving 'Everyone in my family has killed someone' last year for book club we were eager to read the sequel to round out 2023. 

When Ernest Cunningham is invited to speak at the Australian Mystery Writer's Festival, despite being riddled with imposter syndrome he takes the chance and boards with his girlfriend Juliette in tow. The once in a lifetime scenic journey down the continent of Australia is not the break he needs though and when one of the guests aboard the Ghan is killed, Ern cannot help by try and solve it. 

What I enjoyed about this book was the familiarity of the character of Ernest, especially his narration style. I like that it breaks the fourth wall and you forget it isn't actually a memoir by the author. I think what made this sequel unique was the way in which the character referred to the previous book and the events after its publication. There were some especially funny scenes that make fun of traditional mystery novels while also adhering to the conventions (eg proposal and moving train scenes) and the plot was certainly twisty. 

I think the biggest issue that I had was this novel was the ginormous cast of characters, there was too many to keep track of and meant that I was exhausted reading some of the finer details of the case. It become information overload on top of being a bit boring and lack lustre - perhaps because I'm more of a thriller reader than a mystery reader? 

Overall I did like the book and look forward to chatting about it with my book club.