Book Review - Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack

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Title: Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

Author: Catherine Mack

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: MacMillan

Publication Date: 2nd May 2024

Rating: 4 Stars

Ten days. Eight suspects. Six cities. Five authors. Three bodies. One trip to die for.

Eleanor Dash, bestselling author of the Vacation Mysteries series, is on a book tour along the gorgeous Amalfi Coast when life starts imitating art as her ex-boyfriend (and book protagonist) Connor Smith is targeted by a killer.

Eleanor’s sleuthing skills are about to be put to the ultimate test as – among literary rivals, rabid fans, a crazed stalker and another ex-flame on tour with her – suspicions are flying faster than paperbacks off a bestseller shelf. But who is really trying to get away with murder?

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is The White Lotus meets Only Murders in the Building and the first in an irresistible and whip-smart mystery series.

Eleanor Dash will return in the next book in the Vacation Mysteries series, No One Was Supposed to Die at this Wedding.

Wow, I had no idea what I was expecting before I started this, and I was definitely pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this book and I definitely now I have a feel for this author's rather different writing style, and the characters, am keen to read the next book in the series. 

For the writing style is very chatty, breaks the 4th wall often, even going behind the scenes of how a book is constructed, and there are more footnotes than I have ever seen in a fiction book before.  In fact due to the footnotes I think this may be a book best read in paperback. 

Eleanor Dash is a best selling author and is doing a real life 10th Anniversary tour of the Amalfi Coast for her first book, which was largely based on a previous holiday to the coast and featured Connor who was the only name she didn't change and is a real life person. 

A real life person who is also on this tour and is convinced someone is trying to kill him.  Also with them are Eleanor's other ex boyfriend, Connor's ex-wife, an author who might be ripping of Eleanor's plots, someone from the same publisher, and a few others, who conveniently may also have axes to grind with Connor.  Oh and there are a group of big fans touring alongside them which just happens to include Eleanor's stalker too! 

So this is part absolutely escapist travel fiction, giving us a look at some highlights of the Amalfi coast, we get the past history between Eleanor and Connor and Oliver.  We are treated to a real life murder mystery playing out, with a rather incompetent police detective involved.  And a whole lot more. 

The more I read of this, the more I was enjoying it, I was curious to find out who the murder was, and I think I had figured some bits out slightly ahead of the reveal but without key guesses of motive! 

This is a light hearted, sun filled cosy mystery that is perfect for the upcoming hopefully hotter days, where you just want to escape into a book and be entertained! 

Thank you to MacMillan and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.