🌞 🔪 Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies - Catherine Mack 🩸 🏝️

For fans of The White Lotus, Knives Out/Glass Onion and good old Agatha…

A murder mystery - a classic genre but with a difference. The protagonist is an author - Eleanor who has written ten incredibly successful books is on a book tour she’s really not that arsed about being on. Her stalker’s there, so are two of her exes, her sister, and some other awkward and…. challenging characters from her past.

Her ridiculous ex is convinced someone’s trying to kill him and won’t shut up about it. Everyone’s dismissive at first, but then people start meeting their demise and nobody can figure out why…. Until they do.

This is a refreshing and funny take on the standard whodunnit format. Eleanor is real and likeable and talks directly to the reader throughout the book in an interesting format (there are lots of coded messages throughout). Another thing that was great is that we get recaps of what happened already which I’ve never seen done before in such a simple and refreshing way.

The twist was a great one too!

Read this before the TV adaptation is released, it’s a great one… especially if you’re taking a trip to Italy any time soon and have any big fat secrets you’re hiding!


Reading method: Kindle -ARC. Provided in exchange for an honest review.
Perspective: 1st Person
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Length: 406 pages
Would I read again?: Yes
Recommended?: Yep!

✨RATING 4/5✨

#cozyreaders #cosyreaders #bookworm #booksnug #booktok
#ukbookstagram #tbr #murdermystery #catherinemack #funreads #mysterybooks #nellereadsthings

To be upfront I DNF at 7%. I was enticed by the front cover and the comment that it had 'knives out' vibes. I see from Good Reads that there is another cover (US version?) and if it had that cover I wouldn't have tried the book and it gives away more of the rom-com flavour that isn't for me. I like a cosy mystery but this didn't hit the mark. I also really disliked all the footnotes as I felt alienated as an e-reader user as they weren't displayed on the same page and by the time I got to them I forgot what they were referring to. I've seen from other reviews that this isn't an issue with the audiobook.

This story is so unique in the way it’s written. Catherine, the author, leaves footnotes the reader to get a better insight into how Eleanor, the author in the story, really thinks. I did find the footnotes a little confusing at first but soon got used to them and enjoyed how they helped tell the story. I will say the group of characters aren’t the most likeable but I believe that’s intentional. There are lots of humorous moments within what I would describe as a cosy crime book. I didn’t find myself desperately wanting to reach for this book but in all it was an easy read. I’m not sure I’d reach for the next instalment as I enjoy a much faster paced book. However if you are looking for a slower paced, easy read then I’d say this is a great book for that.

In this fun and fast-paced novel, we follow murder-mystery author Eleanor Dash as she heads off on a planning trip to Italy for her next novel. As this is tenth in the series, her publisher has made it into more of an event and she has 20 of her biggest fans (including possibly a stalker and Eleanors muse/ex-lover) along for the trip. Along with her assistant, who also happens to be her sister, it isn't long before suspicions are abound that someone is plotting something, and not necessarily fictional.

This was a easy read with the main character talking directly to the reader making it interesting!

Does making a real person into a character make them love you or want you dead? Or make you want them dead? Does it depend on their payment? Ten years ago, in Rome, Eleanor (El) helped her lover Connor, a private detective, solve a series of bank robberies. I the flush of excitement following this, and completely to her own surprise, she wrote a book about it all, fictionalising everyone except Connor; her hero. The book became a runaway best seller, and she was contracted to write nine more (one per year) featuring Connor, because that’s what the readership wants – in fact to them he is more famous than she is. She has an agreement whereby he receives a percentage of her royalties, but this is not a publisher’s requirement, it’s more a subtle blackmail payment. To celebrate the upcoming tenth book (which El has not written, or even plotted, or even outlined) the publisher has sent her back to Italy on a nine-day tour. To get the most publicity out of this event, her sister (and PA), Harper, a few other authors, Connor, and ten members of her (or should that be his) fan-club are included in the ‘package’. El hates Connor by this stage, and is intending to kill him (the character that is) in book ten, once she’s worked out how to do that. But her thoughts are pre-empted when he tells her that he’s in deep trouble, under threat of death, and that he has been saved from one attempt already. And then evidence suggests that she is also a target.
This is a fairly standard murder-mystery, in that we have a target, a raft of suspects, and a restricted environment (well fairly restricted in that they all have to continue on the trip when, logically, they should hightail it back to the USA). It isn’t that difficult to work out the plot. The style is light-hearted (some might call it “cosy” but it doesn’t fit my definition of that genre). The cast of characters are all quite well differentiated and the general language and descriptive sections are well written. There are, however, a number of features making this a work of metafiction: the author inserts over 200 footnotes ‘explaining’ the writing process and other expansions, and on occasion talks directly to the reader, even challenging them on how they are progressing. The former device is interesting in that it reveals a lot about the main characters and their background , the latter I liked for what it added to the character of El. Overall, it’s hard to judge where we are here, as a basic murder-mystery it’s around 3.5; as an entertainment it’s probably around 4 and a bit. I make that a 4 overall.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This was a fun, light read with bubbly plot twists. I can’t imagine what it’s like to think you have found your soulmate, only to end up being blackmailed by him, but, this is what our heroine faces, that, and looming book dilemmas with a dash of murder thrown in.
I enjoyed this, I liked the setting and the premise however, personally, found the footnotes a little too much and I couldn’t quite believe how long the MC spent being extorted by Connor.
Thank you to the author and publisher for the chance to read this ARC, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this book drew me in. A quick read and interesting idea a sort of book within a book. Interesting ending but I have to agree with other reviewers the footnotes don't work on ereaders and just distract. Interesting how a trip to Italy inspired the book and for me bought back memories of holidays long ago. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

This one wasn't a favourite unfortunately. From the synopsis, it is something I'd usually love, but I found myself disliking the main character from pretty much the get go. I also thought that the writing was a bit cringy for the subject matter. I just didn't like th way the characters communicated. It also took a while to get to the point IMO.

10 days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies……… one trip to die for…

In this book we follow Eleanor Dash, best selling author of a series of Vacation Mysteries. She is on the 10th @anniversary tour of her 1st book. The 1st book was based on her trip to Italy where she got involved with handsome Connor Smith and together they investigated a series of bank robberies and helped the police catch the criminals. Eleanor used this to write her 1st Vacation mystery and since then has written 9 more books with the same lead character. However she has now had enough and has decided to kill of the main man. But suddenly real life throws a curve ball as it seems someone really is trying to kill off Connor. Who and why? This is what Eleanor and the rest of the group on their tour begin to investigate together. Things take a turn when one of them ends up dead and the police become involved.
Can Eleanor find the perpetrators before it’s too late?

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The humour, the style of writing and the narrative all worked well together.
I am seriously looking forward to reading more (I do hope the series really comes out)

I have to admit I was drawn to the title - what an excellent book to be reading on the beach. But I stayed for the story. Eleanor is an accidental author who feels as though she's stolen her sister's lifelong dream by becoming published and famous. She's currently on the 10th book of her contract for a series of books including the hero Connor Smith - but the real-life Connor Smith is someone she is desperate to get away from and during this Italian book tour Eleanor is trying to find a way to write him out of her story. Then Connor tells her someone is trying to kill him - should she believe him? A series of misfortunes unfold around the book tour group - a group of authors who are all linked to Eleanor's original story - including the one who has copied her plots and the man who she regrets hurting in the past - and all have reasons to want Connor and/or Eleanor dead. Can Eleanor (and the reader) solve the mystery before someone ends up dead? (Spoiler: someone ends up dead - but who did it?)

With thanks to #PanMcMillan and #netgalley for early access to this book in return for an honest reveiw.

I enjoyed this book. It has lots of humours parts, and was a very easy read.
The main character shares her dialogue direct with the reader, which I enjoyed, and made me feel more involved in the story.
The murder aspect added another dimension to the story, and made me more intrigued and wanted to find out the end of the story.
The main aspect of the story is a writer being sent on a tour of Italy along with some other Authors. There were lots of light hearted moments, and I wanted to know more of the background story of some of the characters, which I felt could be explored more.

This book was very light to read, but it just didn't really grab me in the way I thought it would do, and I wasn't particularly in a rush to finish it. That being said, I did really like the main character, and there was fun, murder, and romance, but it wasn't OTT or to the detriment of the storyline!
Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced reader copy

I really struggled with this book. The footnotes were really distracting and I didn't like the writing style stall which made it incredibly difficult to get into the story.

Oh dear!
I wanted to like this but I couldn't.
The story is probably a 3 out of 5.
The footnotes drag that down to 1 out of 5.

What was the editor thinking to let this writer do something so awful?

Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies is an OK mystery that's thoroughly spoiled by the extreme affectation of hundreds of footnotes.
In a paperback format they'd probably be easier to ignore but on Kindle, they are annoying, distracting, and I had to really force myself to keep going.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers but please, don't let her do this again with the footnotes. Sometimes a writer needs to be saved from themself.

Brutal. I had a headache trying to read this. The story is jumpy and erratic. The writing style is a NIGHTMARE. Murder mystery style books are what I adore and this sounded so promising but it did not make for an enjoyable read in any way. I can't believe anyone thought inserting footnotes into every paragraph was a good idea.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I did enjoy this book but the footnotes don’t work on an ereader and it really detracts from the enjoyment of the story.

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.

I received an ebook ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very middling book for me but it did begin to pick up towards the end there.

First of all, let's address the elephant in the room. The footnotes. From reading the other reviews they have been very divisive but I actually didn't mind them! They didn't massively contribute to my enjoyment of the book but I liked the meta-ness of some of them and honestly, they aren't integral to the story so they're easy enough to ignore if you really can't deal with them.

I did, however, HATE the main character. She was just so irritating and whiny and I do not understand why anyone puts up with her (her sister and love interest especially). Anything I enjoyed about this book I enjoyed in spite of the main character not because of.

There was also an awful lot of time in this book where nothing was happening. The actual murder doesn't occur until around the 60% mark so that means that over half of the book is spent establishing characters and relationships and backstories and locations and having hijinks and near misses that are inconsequential. So while things did pick up and get fairly fast-paced after the murder it was a bit of a struggle to get there and I can definitely see some people being unwilling to stick it out for that long.

Overall though, after the 60% mark when the 'murder mystery' really starts I did find myself invested and I got through the back-half a lot quicker and was pretty satisfied with the ultimate resolution. So whilst I didn't love this book, I would be interested enough to give the next book in the series a chance.

Every time I go on vacation someone dies by Catherine Mack is the debut book by the author. Introducing bestselling author Eleanor Dash on her world book tour, that turns into its own murder mystery tour.. Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies, who is responsible and will Eleanor find out before the next person is killed.
An entertaining storyline and the start of a whole new series of books.
Recommend

Every Time I Go On Vacation by Catherine Mack is a delightfully entertaining and humorous mystery novel, the first in The Vacation Mysteries series, which I both read and listened to on audio, just over 9 hours and 30 minutes long, marvellously narrated by Elizabeth Evans, who juggles the wide cast of different characters, the drama, and foot notes with aplomb, keeping me joyously engaged from beginning to end. There are beautiful rich and vivid descriptions of the Italian locations and the coast, along with insights into Italian culture. The reader gets deeply immersed in the narrative, what with the author using the handy device of having well known, best selling and established author, Eleanor Dash, speaking directly to the reader in the present tense.

The dysfunctional and chaotic Eleanor is on a 10 day book tour organised by her publisher on the Amalfi coast with quite the entourage that includes her sister, Harper, other authors, fans and stalker, Oliver, and the dislikeable con man Connor Smith, ex-lover and blackmailer. He is certainly no hero, but he has featured in her mystery series, and she is desperately trying to kill him off in a literary sense, but this proves not to be so easy! Her goal meets the muddying and mystifying waters of the real life harsh reality of someone actually trying to kill Connor, and is Eleanor herself facing dangers too? Eleanor turns sleuth in this mystery of twists and turns, with its references to Agatha Christie and Goodreads, and a vibrantly colourful large collection of suspects to look into.

Mack writes a intricate and well plotted murder mystery, with its fabulous locations, and an appealing protagonist in Eleanor Dash with her own brand of snark and wit, embarking on a career as sleuth. This has me greatly anticipating the next in the series! I can recommend this to readers of crime and mysteries, particularly those looking for a break from the intense and heavy darkness of the genre. I would urge readers to consider listening to the audio as the narrator is simply wonderful. Many thanks to the publisher for the ALC and the ARC.