02571cam a2200385 i 4500 1659983948 TxGeo 20241017120000.0 241009s2024||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u bl2024027364 9780063412866 hbk. 0063412861 hbk. TxGeo rda Stevenson, Benjamin. Everyone this Christmas has a secret : a festive mystery / Benjamin Stevenson. First edition. New York, NY : Mariner Books, [2024] xi, 174 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Ernest Cunningham ; 3 "Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, “deviously good fun” (Nita Prose), Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe. My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong. So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection. THE MAGICIAN THE ASSISTANT THE EXECUTIVE THE HYPNOTIST THE IDENTICAL TWIN THE COUNSELLOR THE TECH My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas. If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it. After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?" -- Back cover. 20241031. Divorced women Fiction. Murder Investigation Fiction. Blue Mountains (N.S.W) Fiction. Mystery fiction. Suspense fiction. Christmas fiction. Detective and mystery fiction. Thrillers (Fiction.) Ernest Cunningham ; 3. QS5