I’ve reviewed a couple of Ben Stevenson’s books in the past, and I remain a shameless devotee of his writing. These two represent the highs and the lows of it, but both remain part of my top twenty books for the year.
Fool Me Twice took me back to my childhood. It can be read from either side – flip the book and start a new story – and is comprised of two novella-length stories.
The first story, Find Us, is a pretty creepy kidnapping story, which kicks off with a discarded backpack and the words FIND US written in blood on the pavement. I solved this one before the end, but it actually reminded me a little of Michael Marshall Smith’s short story collection, What You Make It. Which is to say, I am still wigged out by it.
The second story, Last to Leave, was much more enjoyable (mileage may vary; I mean much less disturbing), though I solved it much earlier in the piece. One of those “last person to take their hands off xyz wins” competitions, held in a clifftop mansion. Seven strangers, brought together by a pair of influencers, compete to win the house. A locked door mystery, somehow not captured by blanket cameras, this story was the sitcom version of a murder mystery.
Overall, this was not at the level I’ve come to associate with a Stevenson novel; I thought that both of these read more like a treatment for a Black Mirror episode than a mystery novel. Both Either Side of Midnight and the Ernest Cunningham novels are much richer and better written journeys – Fool Me Twice is only for the completists or your short-attention-span little brother.
Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret, the latest entry in the Ernest Cunningham series, is the usual charming romp. Set in the Blue Mountains in NSW – Stevenson is living my best life with these research trips, seriously – Ernest answers a plea for assistance call from his ex wife, to find himself yet again caught up in a murder.
Ernest seems to be gaining confidence and expertise from novel to novel, which is a great transition for him – he was quite hapless in book one, to be honest, and it would have been easy to lose interest if he’d stagnated. The murder itself is another complicated, twisty piece of plotting that harks back to Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers.
If you’ve read and enjoyed the previous installments of the series, I feel confident you’ll also enjoy this one. If you’re not a fan of the high concept – these books are very meta, and this one in particular is styled like an advent calendar – you’re going to find plenty that annoys you.
I’m not immune to the nostalgic lure of the call backs to the classics, and I’m going to keep reading these until he stops writing them. As with Jim Butcher’s Dresden Series, I’ve lost any semblance of objectivity; while I’ll recommend them to everyone I know, you might want to ensure you’ve got plenty of time before you dive in, because we’ll be here a while.
