Author Benjamin Stevenson returns with his second Ernest Cunningham adventure, EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT. This time around, reeling from the success of a runaway best seller, “Ern” finds himself as a guest of the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society’s annual crime fiction festival. Taking place aboard a train travelling from the northern tip of Australia through to Adelaide in the south of the country, Ernest readies himself for four days of author panels, socialising with fans, and schmoozing with publishers. The festivities are short-lived, however, once a guest drops dead and it’s once again up to Ernest to uncover the guilty party.

Given how much I adored the first book in this series, I was not prepared for quite how much more I would end up loving the sequel. It certainly helped that Stevenson stuck with what brought him to the dance by applying the same style and humour that worked so well with the first book. There were moments that gave me deep belly laughs and of course, the central mystery kept me engaged reading long into the night.

I thought the supporting cast here were stronger than those who made up the first book and I couldn’t wait to see what each character was up to when they were “off-page”. One of the novel’s more nail-biting action scenes had my eyes dancing over the page even though he wasn’t really in any danger, as he was quick to point out early in the novel that the book we’re all reading was, in fact, finished by him. This is the mark of a truly great writer; still finding a way to get you lost in the story when the stakes are relatively low.

It’s hard to believe that I started this series due to the fact that the author released a Christmas novel this year and I had been struggling to find some new non-romance holiday literature (and of course, I had to read the prior two books before I could start the new one). Now this series has become one of my favourite on-going mystery titles and I can’t wait to see what he has planned next.