Benjamin Stevenson for Fullers Bookshop

Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling Ernest Cunningham mysteries.

Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. It’s like 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 TWIN
THE COUNSELLOR
THE STAGEHAND

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…”

Join Benjamin in conversation at the Afterword Cafe for this rather special Christmas crime event.