Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack Narrator: Elizabeth Evans
Series: The Vacation Mysteries #1
Published by Macmillan Audio on April 30, 204
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 9 hrs 34 mins
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies . . . one trip to die for.
All that bestselling author Eleanor Dash wants is to get through her book tour in Italy and kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next in her Vacation Mysteries series―is that too much to ask?
Clearly, because when an attempt is made on the real Connor’s life―the handsome but infuriating con man she got mixed up with ten years ago and now can't get out of her life―Eleanor’s enlisted to help solve the case.
Contending with literary rivals, rabid fans, a stalker―and even her ex, Oliver, who turns up unexpectedly―theories are bandied about, and rivalries, rifts, and broken hearts are revealed. But who’s really trying to get away with murder?
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is the irresistible and hilarious series debut from Catherine Mack, introducing bestselling fictional author Eleanor Dash on her Italian book tour that turns into a real-life murder mystery, as her life starts to imitate the world in her books.
Every time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a great title and the setting is fabulous. Bestselling author Eleanor Dash is on a book tour in Italy with several other authors, her ex-lover, and about 20 contest-winning fans. A fictionalized version of the ex-, Connor, is one of the main characters in Eleanor’s mystery series, and he has been using that to his advantage for years. Now, however, Connor is convinced someone is trying to kill him. Of course, Eleanor does want him dead, but only the fictional version of course.
This book was fun enough. We’ve got murder, lies, gorgeous scenery, and even a touch of romance. Eleanor is a good character. She’s writing the story that we’re hearing. (I listened to the audiobook.) She breaks the fourth on a regular basis, either pointing something out to the reader or reassuring us. She also includes a lot of footnotes, but on the audio, they just blended in to the narrative, so weren’t distracting. The narrator did a good, both with Eleanor’s voice and tone and differentiating the other characters. I will say the whole book author as narrator would have struck me differently if I hadn’t recently read Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (also a bunch of authors and fans on a trip and a murder) and was in the middle of Close to Death, both of which do it better.
The mystery itself was fine. I did guess who the bad guy was but not the motive, even if it should have been obvious.
Overall, it was funny and entertaining, but not outstanding. It would make a good summer pool read.
About Catherine Mack
Catherine Mack (she/her) is the pseudonym for Catherine McKenzie, the USA Today and Globe & Mail bestselling author of over a dozen novels. Her books are approaching two million copies sold worldwide and have been translated into multiple languages including French, German, Portuguese, and Polish. Television rights to Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies and its forthcoming sequels sold in a major auction to Fox TV for development into a series, with Mack writing the pilot script. A dual Canadian and US citizen, she splits her time between Canada and various warmer locations in the US.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I’ve got this one preordered. We’ll see what I think when I get a chance to read it (which may be a while).
I hope you enjoy it when you get around to it.
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