I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Michael Joseph.

I can't say I fully understand the trend of getting popular mystery writers to produce Christmas special novella (even when they've published a full-length novel that same year) where they manage to get out a good whodunnit, but with less of the bells and whistles. 'Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret' once again takes us to a remote location and sets it mystery in a theatre, where two deaths, seemingly unconnected, must be knotted together. Ernest Cunningham returns with a suitably festive story - though, it's an Australian Christmas, so I didn't feel quite as bad about reading it in September.

The mystery was interesting. I felt the explanation went on for a far too long - there was literally an entire page of just Ernest explaining the mystery, which whilst was necessary because of the situation, you're literally the writer, you can fix that way quicker - but I enjoyed the reading process. I do think a mystery like this needs the expanse of a full novel to be really enjoyable, but it'll be a nice addition to this growing sub-genre, especially for fans of the author.

'Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret' will be available from 24th October.