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Review of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

jodiwebb9

More About Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies


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.


More About Catherine Mack


Catherine Mack (she/her) is the pseudonym for the USA Today and Globe & Mail bestselling author Catherine McKenzie. Her books are approaching two million copies sold worldwide and have been translated into multiple languages. Television rights to Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies and its sequels sold in a major auction to Fox TV for development into a series. A dual Canadian and US citizen, she splits her time between Canada and various warmer locations in the US.


My Thoughts on Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies


I picked this book up at the library. We were past the days of beach reads and heading for sweaters, cups of tea and cozy autumn reads. But I wished I was on vacation. With no vacation on my schedule I settled for the next best thing, a book about a (working) vacation in Italy.


This was not the book I thought it would be. I was expecting a cozy murder mystery that just happened to take place in Italy. An amateur sleuth, a romantic triangle, a cute little village full of quirky characters. True, Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies has some of those elements of the cozy mystery but it's turned the genre on its head. It's like looking at yourself in a funhouse mirror. You recognize yourself..but not exactly.


First, the main character Eleanor Dash is talking directly to you, the reader, through some hilarious footnotes sprinkled through the book. She talks about the murder investigation (is someone even trying to kill Connor?) but she also talks about her publishing career, her past and the clues she's left for you in her manuscript. It's full of action, secrets and ever changing vistas but best of all you're kept guessing. Is it murder...or blackmail...or just a cruel joke? Are these people friends...or enemies...or something in between? Has everyone gotten over the slights from the past or are they just biding their time?


This is a book that you will both want to savor as long as possible and read in one setting because...how could you stop? Then when you finish you'll be sad because you never get to experience this book for the first time again.


I give this book ALL THE STARS.


A Little Extra



There's a second book! No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding will be released on May 13, 2025. I usually don't get this antsy about the next book in a series (OK, maybe Harry Potter) but I seriously can't imagine how I will wait over half a year for this book.


The second in a witty, USA Today bestselling series following author Eleanor Dash as she goes from wedding guest to murder mystery investigator at her best friend’s wedding on Catalina Island.


Attending your best friend’s wedding should be a piece of (wedding) cake, but not for Eleanor Dash, bestselling author of the Vacation Mysteries series. Because murder seems to follow her every time she goes on vacation and is definitely her uninvited plus-one to the special occasion.


Emma Wood, Eleanor’s best friend since childhood, is starring in the movie adaptation of When in Rome, Eleanor’s first novel. Emma is also marrying Fred Winters, a major movie star and Emma’s co-star, who just happens to be playing Connor Smith, Eleanor’s ex and leading man of the series.


Filming wraps and they invite the whole cast and crew to their wedding at nearby Catalina Island. There may be a storm headed their way—because of course there is—but nothing will stop their nuptials . . . that is until Emma receives a note that says “Someone is going to die at the wedding.”


Eleanor is a professional at this point, and she’ll do everything she can to uncover the murderer so true love can prevail . . . before it’s too late for her and the rest of the storm-trapped wedding party.


If you want to check out the books she's written under the name Catherine McKenzie check them out HERE.

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