Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies- is such fun! I was sad to read the last words.

The author masterfully created a narrator that by the end involves the reader in the story and gives you an inside view of the crime, publishing and being an author. The characters are fun, except for Conner who I enjoyed not loving right along with Elinore (the main character)

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook copy. This was a cute and funny read I am interested in reading more from this author

What a delightful cozy mystery for fans of “Knives Out” and “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone”! And a perfect book to be listened to! The main character, Eleanor Dash, is the sarcastic, self-deprecating narrator/main character, a travel-themed mystery author who is tired of her ten book series, and sort of plotting to kill off her “hero.” Why? Because the first book was based on a true life misadventure which featured her then-lover, Connor. Eleanor made him the series star but soon regretted it once he started blackmailing her for 20% of her continued earnings. Now ten years later, she’s on a “fact-finding” tour again in Italy (going back to the original location) with Connor, her sister/manager, a crew of “”BookFace” fans, and other mystery authors. Even as Eleanor is only wishing it, Connor is insisting someone is trying to kill him. Oh, my! Of course, there’s a murder, and everyone is a suspect, in true Agatha Christie type form.

But Eleanor is the absolute star, breaking the fourth wall with us, bemoaning the life of an author and the publishing world, giving us clues, and eventually stumbling on the solution. Elizabeth Evans gives Eleanor a breakout personality - to the point that you so much want to have an aperol spritz (or two, or three, or…) with her. The narration and dialogue is laugh out loud funny, and you do end up hoping Eleanor continues her crazy mystery writing career. 5 stars!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a free advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It had quite a bit of profanity at the beginning that I almost stopped reading but in a weird way I’m glad I kept going. Eleanor was annoying as heck. She just seemed so full of it. Like she felt sorry for Harper (her sister) but didn’t really seem sincere about that. I liked Harper the best. There were quite a bit of contradictions l, first she said she wasn’t a liar but later she said she actually is a liar, there were other things too about her relationship with Oliver and for a moment I thought that the reason they broke up was because she cheated with Connor but I’m not sure if she did or not. The footnotes and the outline drove me nuts, it was way too distracting and took away from the story. I felt like Eleanor wanted to be funny but she wasn’t, she was simply annoying. I didn’t even feel sorry for her and what happened to her parents. She just didn’t seem sincere at all.

Maybe if it is true that this will be a TV show, it will be better than the actual book, because you’ll have the voice over giving you all the commentary. But still I don’t know if I’d watch it. There are better books to turn into shows than this.

Overall, it was a bit entertaining—but miles away from an Agatha Christie novel.

I really enjoyed this. Listened to it in less than 24 hours. It was fun and quirky. Will definitely recommend to friends. I am looking forward to the sequel.

Eleanor is headed on book tour in Italy, and is finally ready to kill Connor off in her books. He has blackmailed her for a portion of her book sales for too long. But when a real attempt is made on Connors life, everyone on the tour is a suspect. Eleanor now has to deal with her stalker who someohow made it on the trip, her blackmailer, her sister, and her ex all in one place.

I did this one on audio and really enjoyed the listening experience. I liked that the story was written to include the fourth audience in solving the mystery of who was trying to kill Connor and why. It felt a bit dragged out for me at times, but I still enjoyed the story and the antics. I think I expected this to be more of a relaxing vacation with someone dying based on the cover, but I loved all the Italy references throughout the book. Also, now I need some pasta!

The Vacation Mysteries #1
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies
by Catherine Mack, narrated by Elizabeth Evans

El's life is a mess. It might look like a nice mess from the outside but from the inside it's a deadly dysfunctional mess. On this latest research trip (an Italian tour) for her 10th book in her hit series, most of her dysfunction is along for the trip. There's her younger sister, Harper, who both depends on El for a living but resents that El is living the career Harper wanted to live. There are two ex boyfriends along on the trip, Connor, the cad, who has a strangle hold on El that she hasn't been able to break although she's finally going to do it by killing him off in the tenth book of her series. That is, if she can get away with doing so, because it looks like she might just die trying. Then there is Oliver, the former boyfriend that now won't get back with El and it serves her right for what she did to him.

Also on the trip are some of her super fans who won the chance to tail El's group and have scheduled contact with El and the other authors in her entourage (too bad one of the fans is stalking El). The authors are a competitive lot and if El wasn't snarky enough for us, just add in more authors with biting (or not) wit and the snipes, snarls, and snark abound. El has enough snark on her own to fill a book with footnotes galore (more about that later). Luckily it seems most of the folks have thick skin.

But figurative thick skin may not be enough to save this group when it seems someone is trying to kill Connor. Oh wait, maybe someone is trying to kill El. Or both? There will be bodies and the mystery just gets more mysterious as time goes on. El goes so far to wonder if her own sister is trying to kill her. Or one or both boyfriends are trying to kill her. Through it all she keeps working on her plot to kill Connor off in her next book (did I tell you he's the hero of each of the books in El's series?).

About the footnotes. There are lots of them. I was able to experience the book via both the audiobook and the ebook. I started with the audiobook and I must say that the narrator nails the 4th wall breaking El. She's talking right at us, letting us in on all kinds of dirty secrets and crazy thoughts while also holding back on us at times. She'll even give us spoilers for what's ahead so we don't have to fret too much about who might or might not die soon. Starting with the audiobook, I didn't realize there really were real footnotes in the book since they are delivered to us more as constant blabber, just El running at the mouth with all these asides. I liked this method of dealing with the footnotes in the audiobook.

When I switched to the ebook I saw there really were footnotes. Lots and lots of real footnotes as the end of each chapter. You can read them as they come up in the story, you can wait and read them at the end of the chapter, or you can skip them all together. Footnotes in an ebook can be pretty clunky so I just read them at the end of each chapter to avoid losing my place switching back and forth as I read. I think I'd prefer them to be written as asides throughout the story, the way I experienced them in the audiobook.

Overall, I didn't mind El talking right at me. She is funny, snide, and as much a cad as Connor. I'll let her tell you all about it, IF she will tell you. She doesn't always spill the beans right away and I'm pretty sure she's holding back on us half the time. There will be more to come in future books according to El. She's got books to write (or not) and a new crime to solve.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Catherine Mack (pseudonym of author Catherine McKenzie) introduces a new series with “Every time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies.” The novel’s protagonist, Eleanor Dash, is the author of the bestselling “Vacation Mysteries” series. Celebrating her tenth book, the publishers have arranged for fans to tour Italy with Dash, her old boyfriend/series protagonist Connor Smith, recent ex-boyfriend Oliver and various other authors tangential to the series. Dash is currently considering how to kill her main character off so that she can move on to another series, a choice no one else seems to support. Unfortunately, Connor is also claiming that someone really is trying to kill him. His fellow travelers essentially ignore him until too many coincidences and one death indicate that something more sinister is afoot. Can Eleanor solve the mystery before there are other deaths?

The novel is a literary rom-com in the vehicle of predictable mystery. Told in first person by Dash, the writing is very informal but natural sounding, but heavily reliant on pop-culture references that I imagine will grow old quickly. I won’t be eagerly waiting for the next installment, but wouldn’t hesitate to pick up the next in the series if I was looking for a light read. “The Vacation Mysteries” has already been picked up by Fox TV for future tv series development. I’m not surprised, as the beautiful scenery and colorful cast of characters are tv-ready.

“Every time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies” will be released in the US on April 30, 2024. Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audio ARC given in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was really cute and fun! I ripped right through it. I was excited for the opportunity to read it as we just took a vacation to Naples & Rome and all the scenery in Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies was such a perfect Italian tread for a little travel longing heart. I totally called the killer early on (well, sort of), but the twists and red-herrings seriously kept me on my toes. I loved all the nods to classic mystery writers (though there are definitely some spoilers) as well as the current pop culture references. The language isn't totally PG, but the overall feel is pretty cute & clean. I really loved the third wall breakage with all the talks directly to the readers as well. This is a unique cozy mystery and I'll definitely read more in the series.
The audio narration is also really well done, though the author sounded older than I pictured Eleanor to be (but also the name Eleanor doesn't evoke a hip 35yo to me).

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the audiobook ARC of Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack and narrated by Elizabeth Evans.

Evans does a wonderful narration - there are quite a lot of characters in the book and each had a distinct voice, including Italian accents, faux British accents, and a wonderful Manhattan ambivalance for the TikTok star that reminded me of Shannon Fiedler's Manhattan girl comedy sketches.

Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies opens with Eleanor in Rome on a tenth anniversary book tour. for her bestseller and series launching book. The past ten years have been many layered for Eleanor, her sister & personal assistant Harper, and her ex, Connor, the star of her debut novel and her casual royalty blackmailer. Other authors are included on the tour, and all of them combined make up the multiverse of Eleanor's work - only these are people all directly affected by her first publication in personal and professional ways that don't make for a happy family. When Connor begins to think someone is trying to kill him, he tries to convince Eleanor to help solve his murder before it can occur. From there are spoilers, so I won't say more.

I think I may have made up what I thought the description was - this is not a murder mystery in the sense that we have a body early on in the novel - it's a slow burn. In that lead time we are meeting the many characters on the tour, their relationships, their histories, and trying to figure out if anyone is really trying to kill Connor besides Eleanor murdering him in the final book in her series. Everyone has something to hide and everyone has something to gain. For me this meant I was kind of confused by the pacing and wondering why bodies weren't dropping - I think if you go into it knowing that side of pacing is slower, it really helps. It does pick-up but I would say that doesn't really occur until 60% or so through the book.

I think the other author/book this reminds me of is Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. In that book (and the next that came out earlier this year), our protagonist, Ernest Cunningham, is a mystery writer who is telling about a series of murders where you are unsure who to trust when everyone is already a killer. Ernest talks directly to the reader, breaking the fourth wall, and has the same elements of unreliability as Evans main character, Eleanor Dash. Both Stevenson's and Mack's work is entertaining, a bit self deprecating, a bit comedy - but I think I've struggled with the breaking of the fourth wall both do. Every time it happens it completely draws me out of the story - and it kind of feels like being goaded in a way I think just isn't enjoyable to me. I'll stop mentioning Stevenson, but I think in this book the final 8% or so has Eleanor just telling us all these things that are happening in the future and setting leads and trying to draw the reader in to whatever is going to occur in the future but for me it grated on my brain a bit. It seemed almost to diminish everything that happened in the rest of the book because of "wait to see what happens next" and then providing like 7 different strands of story that as a reader I don't have any context to be excited about yet. I think without the fourth wall breaking I would have been a bit more receptive to book 2 than I feel right now.

Such a fun and utterly enjoyable murder mystery. In a similar style to "Everone in my Family has Killed Someone", it is self aware and breaks the 4th wall as the our protagonist Eleanor speaks directly to the reader in her footnotes. Although, I find that this book executed this concept even better. She even gave insight into the next two books and has me excited for them.

Certainly a great summer read as Eleanor is on an Italian tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her hit book "When in Rome". The tour consist of her sister, who is her assistant, her ex Conner who she regrettably used for the basis of everyone's favorite character in her book, Other authors whose books are loosely associated to hers and a group of fans who won a social media contest to be there. But somebody is trying to kill one or more of those in the party and it seems everyone has a motive.

Definitely a book I can see myself re-reading. Can't wait for the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

I am grateful to say that I was allowed both an advanced audio book and ARC provided by Minatour Books, St. Martin's Publishing Group, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley and I can honestly say this may be a case where the audio book will have a slight edge over the actual book which in no way is a bad thing!!!! The audio book is not too long and would be perfect for a road trip.

First of all, Elizabeth Evans does an amazing job narrating the story. Her voice is soothing, consistent and easy to follow. The story consists of many footnotes that are an integral part of the storyline and are actually pretty funny at times but when reading the actual book some may not be comfortable waiting to the end of the chapter and might feel the need to flip back and forth where the narrated version flows seamlessly.

The original format and writing style of Catherine Mack makes this one an easy 4.5 (rounded up of course)! This book was so quirky with the many snarky, sarcastic, humorous footnotes, the actual personal invitation to help solve the mystery and the hints on which clues to follow makes you truly feel apart of the story. The book is filled with motive, jealousy, blackmail, greed, revenge and many possible suspects set within a book tour in Italy highlighting the complexity of the publishing world- what more could you wish for? Honestly, it was a fun, modern take on the cozy murder mystery genre and the ending was the perfect set-up for more to come.

My review and comments are my own thoughts and opinions which I give voluntarily with no influence.

The audio narration was fantastic. I love Elizabeth Evans as a narrator but the format of this book was just so good as an audiobook. I felt like I was listenning to the main character the long her story, footnotes and breaking the fourth wall and all, and it was done really well. I did read parts of the book on my kindle and listened to the audio for parts of it and the audio experience is superior and I highly recommend it.

The story itself is super fun. It follows this mystery author who writes a series of books and now there might be someone trying to kill her or someone in her entourage. We get to try to guess what is going on while she reveals things at her own pace, and with style. I liked her as a character and I laughed a lot. I also really enjoyed the mystery part and the way it unfolded.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but I reached a point where I was hooked on figuring out who was behind the shenanigans on the trip. Some of the one off comments that broke through the fourth wall didn’t sit well, but the style was fun and refreshing.

EVERY TIME I GO ON VACATION, SOMEONE DIES is the first book in the brand-new Vacation Mysteries by Catherine Mack. Oh my goodness, what a fun, fun read this is! Laugh out loud moments, zany adventures, a blackmailing ex, and an ex who still deserves attention, all the while on an author trip to Italy. The protagonist, author Eleanor Dash, is clearly a flawed character, yet those flaws work to make her humorously intriguing. Her snarky commentary provides comedy as the plot thickens. There were several twists and many times I had to wonder if Eleanor was an unreliable narrator or if one of the many suspects was the culprit. Ms. Mack certainly knows how to spin a story and keep readers on their toes, all the while providing nonstop entertainment! Sign me up for the next book in the series, please!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for providing the audiobook version. Narrator Elizabeth Evans’s voice added to the enjoyment. She effectively differentiated between the voices, whether female or male, but what made her shine was the personality she brought to Eleanor’s voice.

THIS BOOK! I'm in love!! It was absolutely hilarious, kept me on the tip toes, and was so binge-worthy! I'm not sure if this is considered a cozy mystery - if it is, I'm new to the genre, and have to ask: do all "cozies" have this much murder? Either way, I'm its newest fan!!

This book would be perfect for people who loved Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone and/or Finlay Donovan is Killing It. It has dark humor, witty banter between the characters, unsolvable mysteries, and (!!) the narrator/main character frequently breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the reader, which is something I loved. There were apparently a lot of footnotes in the physical book too, but they were easy enough to follow in the audiobook as well!

It follows Eleanor, who goes on a book tour with an assortment of connected friends and family members to Italy. Not *all* are friends though, as it quickly becomes apparent that one of them is trying to murder her...

Absolutely highly recommend. I loved it so much!

This was a fun, cozy mystery! I really liked the format with there being anecdotes between some chapters and the footnotes were fun too. I also love how the author speaks directly to you in parts! It felt like a very unique read. It included humor and the characters were very intriguing. Also the setting of the Amalfi Coast was amazing as it’s a place I have always wanted to travel to! The narrator really kept my attention and the cover is so pretty!

Y’all I love @catherinemckenzieauthor’s thriller novels and she does an equally excellent job at writing cute cozy mysteries under the pen name Catherine Mack! In her new series, Eleanor Dash, a bestselling fiction author, is on a book tour in Italy when someone on the trip is murdered. The murder imitates one that is in one of her books. The story is a mix of classic who-done-it and humorous events. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series and highly recommend jumping into this series this summer! It’s a perfect beach, pool, or vacation read.

Thank you @macmillan.audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

(This same review was shared on the Barnes & Noble website)

Books, writing styles, plots, characters - it's like art - it's all subjective. I want to connect with every character and be blown away by every novel I read. But is that the case? No. And that is perfectly fine. What I think is a masterpiece, someone else may think is garbage. And that's okay, too!

For this book, I did not feel a connection, and I didn't get excited to continue to the next chapter. I'm likely an outlier. The plot is in Rome, and it involves mystery and romance - the perfect recipe for a perfect novel! It could have been my mood or a number of things, but this one fell flat for me. I see mostly amazing reviews, so this is just my opinion!

I truly am thankful to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to the book in exchange for an honest review.

Eleanor is a famous mystery writer. When she embarks on a vacation with fans, and apparently other writers from her publisher, she stumbles on a plot to kill her ex boyfriend. As the plot thickens, Eleanor finds herself in the middle of a real life murder mystery and hopes to get out alive.
Opinion
This books style was refreshing. Written in the first person, Eleanor has hints and tidbits for the reader as she presumably narrates her own story. I loved how she tried to give me hints and flat out told me what would or would not happen in certain chapters. This book was fabulous.
I did listen to the audiobook as well. The narrator had a beautiful cadence that kept my mind occupied while listening (which is a feat as my mind seems to go at a speed of roughly 1000 mph.)
Many thanks to Net Galley, St. Martins Press and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of the book and audiobook.