Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies (The Vacation Mysteries #1) by Catherine Mack – refreshing and humorous cozy mystery

Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies is a witty, refreshing and humorous cozy mystery with quirky characters and an amazing setting in Rome and Italy.

Synopsis

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.

Review

Every Time I Go on Vacation is a breath of fresh air that I really needed after the last one I didn’t enjoy. Eleanor Dash, a famous murder mystery writer, gained fame with her first book, inspired by her experiences in Rome with the dashing and charming Connor Smith.

While her book became a blockbuster, their budding romance dissolved when Connor blackmailed her for royalties, as she had used his real name in her story. Despite the series’ continued success, Connor’s unwanted presence persisted in Eleanor’s life.

Eleanor is fed up with Connor, and as she approaches the last book in her publishing contract, she decides she wants to kill off his character to rid herself of him once and for all. Though the idea of doing it in real life is tempting, she only plans to do it on paper. But someone else gets there first. During a 10th-anniversary tour of her first book, set in Rome by her publisher, someone tries to kill Connor for real.

The mystery deepens with a plethora of suspects on the same tour:
Allison – Connor’s ex-wife (writer)
Guy – Connor’s former business partner
Oliver – Eleanor’s ex-lover(also mystery writer)
Shek (Abhishek) – Eleanor’s rival whose books aren’t selling well
Harper – Eleanor’s sister who is also her assistant and has always wanted to be a writer
Cathy – Eleanor’s stalker
Emily – a new popular author from TikTok who has gained fame by stealing Eleanor’s plots

It was fun to read how she will kill Connor in her series and if she figure out who want to kill him in real life before it’s too late.

As mentioned in the synopsis, Every Time I Go on Vacation is truly irresistible and hilarious. The author’s writing is refreshing, engaging, and fast-paced with pithy, fun dialogues and interesting characters. What I loved most were the footnotes. While they might be a bit inconvenient for ebook or audiobook readers, reading the physical book made it easy to check the footnotes alongside the text on the same page.

The idea of using footnotes is unique and brilliant. I enjoyed reading Eleanor’s inner thoughts about other characters, her books, events related to them, and even clues. The author’s references to other books, movies, and the Bridgerton series were delightful.

I also loved the chapters that included lists of her Vacation Mystery series, a synopsis of her first book, her interview with the NYT, and her diary entries where she plotted her last book and figured out how to kill Connor in the most satisfying way.

While the plot and the setting of Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, and Capri were fabulous, it was the characters who brought Every Time I Go on Vacation to life. I loved Eleanor and rooted for her from the beginning. Her dislike for Connor was infectious, and after reading the real reason behind his blackmail, I wanted to kill him myself. He was that charming, manipulative person who confidently relied on his looks and left a trail of broken hearts in his wake.

I wanted to hug Eleanor for thinking she never did anything right in life, especially when it came to Harper and Oliver. Her feelings of guilt over stealing Harper’s dream of being a writer felt unfair. I wanted to shake her for blaming herself for something she stumbled upon by chance and excelled at. It wasn’t her fault Harper never managed to get published and it wasn’t she who stopped her from writing. Despite this, I still liked their sibling relationship and would love to see it develop more in the next books of the series.

As for her relationship with Oliver, it was natural for her to feel scared after what Connor did to her. I loved how she tried to make things right with both Harper (even though I believe she wasn’t at fault) and Oliver, and also for apologizing to Connor’s wife (again, not entirely her fault). Besides Eleanor, I liked Allison and Oliver the most. They were the only characters who genuinely felt nice.

It was fun to solve the mystery alongside Eleanor. It was well written and filled with plenty of red herrings and deceptions, making it hard to figure out who the culprit might be. There were many murder attempts with numerous twists and turns, and also a couple of actual murders. While I had my suspicions about one character and Eleanor came to a similar conclusion around the climax, the real culprit turned out to be someone else, and their scheme was impressive.

Overall, Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a witty, refreshing and humorous cozy mystery with quirky characters and an amazing setting in Rome and Italy.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

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