Fool Me Twice

by Benjamin Stevenson

Two fiendishly twisty crime stories from the author of international bestsellers Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone and Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect.

A crime fiction double bill, from the master of brainteasing thrillers Benjamin Stevenson.

FIND US
There is a small yellow backpack - contents strewn around it, abandoned on a suburban footpath. There are the tracks of tyres coming to an end at a crippled stop sign.

Anyone walking past can feel the prickle on the back of their necks that tells them something happened here- a vehicle careening to a halt., a child's backpack left in a hurry. Then they see two words, hastily scrawled on the sidewalk. Written in blood.

FIND US.

LAST ONE TO LEAVE
Seven strangers are invited to compete to win a clifftop mansion. The rules are simple- each contestant must have at least one hand in contact with one part of the house at all times. The last one to take their hand off, wins the house.

Then, after 36 hours, a contestant is murdered. And soon they start to realise that it may not be the last person to leave the house that wins it, it may be the last person alive.

A locked room mystery where the door is open, but no-one wants to walk through it.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Thriller, Short Stories, Contemporary, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

[IN PROGRESS]

Fool Me Twice is a single volume that includes two novellas, presented in tête-bêche format, a new term to me that I learned from author Benjamin Stevenson's acknowledgements. Basically it means that each novella starts with its cover and reads from the first page, but you need to turn the book over and upside down to read the other story.

Novella #1 Find Us: Former police detective, now FBI undercover cyber expert Claudette Holloway assesses the risk of potential juvenile offenders by infiltrating their social media accounts and befriending them using a variety of aliases. As a single mother to fourteen-year-old Jason and nine-year-old Holly, working from home suits her lifestyle as well as supporting the covert nature of her assignments. Claudette is shocked to her core when Jason and Holly fail to return home from school one evening, the only clue to their whereabouts being Holly's abandoned backpack, found near tyremarks at a local accident hotspot.

Meanwhile, we follow the unfolding drama as a couple who use the aliases "Luna" and "Celeste" hold a boy and girl captive in a house that's disconnected from water and electricity. They clash over how they should treat their treat their prisoners and tension increases as time ticks by...

Novella #2 Last One To Leave:The story opens with the transcript of a livestream video in which four "contestants" argue about the presence of a dead body in their midst.

We then backtrack to the story of widowed single father Ryan, who has fallen on hard times since the death of his wife from cancer the previous year. He lost his job as a chef due to caring for his wife during her illness, and now works behind a bar on night shift as he juggles the need to earn a living with the demands of parenting his twelve-year-old daughter, Lydia. Things have gone from bad to worse as despair has led Ryan into a gambling addiction that now has him owing money to some very unpleasant people. Then Lydia signs him up as a contestant for a YouTube-based challenge, the details of which are sketchy, but that carries a prize which might solve all Ryan's financial problems.

Ryan finds himself locked inside a luxury cliffside house with six other individuals, all competing for the big prize - the ownership of the house itself - while being livestreamed via numerous fixed cameras inside the house and a drone watching them from outside the windows. The only stipulation - they must each keep one hand - the same hand - in contact with the wall of the house at all times. The competitors approach the task with various different strategies, and allegiances begin to form as they enter their first night in the house. Then they hear a woman scream outside...

[Ben Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last One to Leave - 4 ⭐️
Fool Me Twice - 5⭐️
So overall - 4.5⭐️

[Sophie S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Find Us' from a few pages in and it's plot twist!! In comparison to the other story it is fast paced and has characters that have more depth to them. I enjoyed 'Last One To Leave,' however I found it less enticing and a little bit of a boring concept. Unfortunately for me the end reveals didn't make up for the tedious plot, but I did still read it in one sitting so I didn't hate it!

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master of twists, both novels were so good! I absolutely tore through this and finished both within a day because I just needed to know what happened. So twisty, ‘Find Us’ had so many jaw dropping moments and was my favourite out of the two, but I did really enjoy the second novel too. Benjamin Stevenson, a favourite author for sure. Easy five ⭐️

[Kyla Davie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I was fooled twice alright…
Benjamin’s Stevenson plot twists haven’t disappointed me yet!
Not one, but two excellent mysteries - I slightly preferred “Find Us” to “Last One To Leave.”

[Zach Mullane]

Find Us had an amazing twist that I didn't see coming at all. I even noticed the clues and questioned them but didn't put it together until the reveal. I was blown away.

Last One to Leave was a fun little murder mystery. Nothing too mind blowing in there.

I do kind of wish there was something other than vague themes of influencer culture connecting the two stories. I guess I may have read too much into the Fool Me Twice title, thinking that maybe the final clue for both would be the same or something like that. That probably would have made it too easy. What do I know? When I wrote a murder mystery in primary school I got bored of writing all the interview scenes and just cut it off after they interviewed the killer with a 'and then they interviewed the rest'.

I'm a literary genius.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two short mysteries which were fun to read, though each quite different, and both not your standard whodunnit. I liked the length of both of them - short enough to keep you reading and for things to keep moving.

[Rohan · Rating 3 out of 5]

another "pulp fiction" to get me reading more fiction.

the twists were fun, but I guess this shows that you need more than twists to make a good murder mystery.

[Nicole Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in hard copy because of the gimmick but also because Benjamin Stevenson's "Ernest" books are awesome. This was 2 shorter mysteries. One I really found fun, "Last One to Leave" while "Find Us" was a little horrifying (probably the point!). Either way they were both super quick reads that I enjoyed whipping through.

[Sara Sidwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ☆'s

find us - 5 stars
last one to leave - 4

Benjamin Stevenson does it again with the twists!! And I will continue recommending his books to everyone i know because he is an absolute master of mysteries. This entire book can easily be read in one sitting, or one story per sitting that'll have you immediately wanting to jump to the next story! He continues to be one of my favourite authors.

[Michele (michelethebookdragon) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wowsers!!

I finished this two story flip book with Find Us, and it was sensational and I'm glad I read it last. What a great story that was.

Both stories had the internet or social media as the protagonist highlighting the power of social media and the dangers of being online.

In Last One to Leave seven contestants are vying to win a house with the last one to have a hand touching a wall in the house the winner. What the contestants don't count on is the psychological pressures of their situation, the physical stresses and the tricks being played on them by the YouTubers running the competition. The moral and ethical issues raised in this story made them question if the prize was worth it.

This story was also a locked door mystery and had me guessing to the end.

In Find Us we meet Claudette who works for the FBI as an internet sleuth who helps them find young people who may be a threat by monitoring their online activity. When her children don't come home one day she has to wonder if she has made them targets.

As an ex detective in the local police department Claudette works with the local police to try to find her children.

This story was so so good and the twists were jaw dropping 😲 - so well done!!

I enjoyed these two short stories with each about 150 pages so easy to knock off quickly.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all when I bought this book I thought it was a flip the book to read the other half of the story which would’ve been SO COOL but to then realise they were two unconnected stories was disappointing haha. Story 1 (Find Us) is very good, very good twists! Story 2 (Last One to Leave) is more boring and predictable. Neither story is like Benjamin Stevenson’s other work (Ernest stories) which was surprising and a bit disappointing (not as funny, more serious)

[nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two completely different stories in one book.
It’s hard to give this book a higher rating as one story was slightly better and engaging than the other.
If I could give the book 3.5 stars that would set an average for both.

[Shrez (Hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay so Find Us was brilliant and I was HOOKED. But I did find Last One to Leave a bit meh in comparison.

Somewhat of a spoiler???? But not really??? Idk anyway:

I just wish there was more of a connection between the two books though, it felt a bit basic.


But overall, it was an enjoyable read.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to give up on trying to read Last One to Leave as I had no interest in the topic. I find no enjoyment in watching Mr Beast on youtube, so I am definitely not going to find enjoyment in reading about similar situations.

I found Find Us interesting enough that I was able to continue reading. However it wasn't something that had me sitting on the edge of my seat. The twist at the end however, did leave me gobsmacked.

[Sue Thorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.02 ⭐️

[Natalie Penna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would give it more if I could! Loved both stories, especially Find Us and THAT twist that I did not see coming!!!

[Nicole Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. Very clever storyline for both.

[LotusBlade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stevenson serves out two more twisty murder mysteries, each very different and yet both brimming with sinister clues, chilling suspense, and cracker endings. Highly recommended.

[Rebecca Preedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars for one of the stories but three and half for the other.

[ArKayla Napper · Rating 4 out of 5]

can’t give it 4.5 but i feel like the orange side was a hair better than the blue side. genuinely enjoyed this though. LOVE benjamin!!

[Madalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two good stories

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benjamin Stevenson, you've done it again!
Both gripping reads. Once you start, you can't stop!

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

While disappointing not to read a full length Stevenson mystery, getting to double up with two premises, and two whip-smart stories more than makes up for that shortfall.

[Steph Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5

[Abby Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

find us was so good i literally couldn’t stop reading it but the last one to leave was so slow nothing happened until like the last 50 pages and it was really dragging out a bit

[Luisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I preferred 'Last One to Leave' over 'Find Us'. I enjoy the homages to Agatha Christie in Benjamin Stevenson's plots, and Last One to Leave aligns with one of my favourite Christie's.
I managed to figure out several of the twists in Find Us before they were revealed, but I still enjoyed the reading experience. Last One to Leave was more engaging to me, and had more interesting characters.
Both of these stories are more serious than the 'Everyone in my family has killed somebody' series, so may be a bit off-putting for fans of that series. The stories are much more aligned to the Jack Quick books by this author, which take a less humourous tone and tend to be sort of black-mirror-esque, where they each explore a modern day social topic (in the case of this book, social media and youtube). It is fun to watch Stevenson's writing style develop as he finds his niche, and this book is an interesting case study as a piece written early in his career but published after his breakout series, which has such a different voice than his current work.

[Gerrard Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not an actual short story. But not a decent length one either. Started ok but suddenly it was pretty.much over. No character development. No depth of plot. One minor twist but nothing exciting. Overall very average

[Isobel Aitchison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only read “find us” out of the two stories in this one book. Found it bland and boring. Didn’t bother reading “last one to leave”

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Find Us a lot more than Fool Me Twice. I did guess the plot twist in Find Us, but the pace of the story was great and I loved the ending. Fool Me Twice was too meh, like the “reveal” was not exciting at all.

In terms of the format, I like the idea of two short stories in one. The four stars is mainly for Find Us.