This is such a light and funny murder mystery. I have a slightly dark sense of humor and this is the most amusing book I've read in ages. I loved Eleanor Dash as a main character with her slightly introverted and awkward personality, perfect for an author who occasionally acts as an amateur sleuth. Her history with Connor added so much to their relationship dynamic and justified her reasons for hating him and wanting to kill him in her fictional Vacation Mysteries series. I also enjoyed Eleanor's relationship with her sister/assistant Harper. Also, the idea of a European book tour was so original combined with the fun history tidbits thrown in along the way. The narrator, Elizabeth Evans, did a fabulous job bringing the story to life. I'm so glad I also purchased a signed copy of the paperback to add to my shelf in anticipation of the next book in the series.

Bestselling mystery author, Eleanor Dash, is ready to kill off her main character. She also wouldn't mind if his real-life namesake and inspiration, Connor, met an untimely demise either. The blackmailing, lecherous, sleezeball would get what was coming to him. But when it actually seems like Connor's life may be in danger Eleanor can't help but wonder who's behind it--especially when she's a suspect, and someone seems to be after her, as well. Traveling across Italy with both a killer and the police hot on her heels, surrounded by her sister, fellow authors, and multiple exes, Eleanor is having the trip of a lifetime, and perhaps her last.

This book was so much fun. With tons of fourth wall breaking and footnote commentary, Eleanor is just such a fun character. The book feels fresh yet not annoying, similar to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a bit. Because of the footnotes it's almost impossible to read on an e-reader or other digital device, though, and is much better suited to a print copy. But I loved the descriptions of travel and food, the presentation of clues, and the unraveling of the mystery. I guessed some pieces, but certainly not all, which is exactly how I like my mysteries! I can't wait to see what the next book in this new series brings.

Thanks to Minotaur for my ARC and ALC of this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 9/10

The story is well paced, the characters all have depth, and I have the biggest urge to take off to Italy. I feel like this is an excellent book for some people, but for whatever reason it wasn’t my cup of tea. The narrator did an excellent job, but I think the footnotes pulled me out of the story too much.

Thank you, @macmillan.audio for this early listen. This was recommended to me because I’m obsessed with the Finlay Donovan series, and it did not disappoint. If you like some light-hearted thrillers or whodunits, this is a great summer read for you. The banter and sarcasm is so good. Throughout the whole story, you’re trying to figure out who is trying to kill who on a summer book tour overseas. Action-packed and messy, and so much fun! 4 ⭐️

A vacation read that's to die for!

Catherine Mack's "Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies" is the perfect beach read with a killer twist. Meet Lexi, a travel enthusiast with a knack for stumbling upon dead bodies. It's a hilarious and suspenseful mystery that will keep you turning pages faster than you can say "all-inclusive."

Mack's writing is witty and engaging, and Lexi is a relatable protagonist you'll be rooting for from page one. The supporting characters are quirky and memorable, adding to the charm of this unique mystery. The plot is fast-paced, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the very end.

If you're looking for a fun, lighthearted read with a touch of mystery, "Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies" is the perfect escape. Just be warned, you might think twice about booking your next vacation!

Thanks, Minotaur Books, for the early review copy via NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook. #macaudio2024 (Available Now!)

What a fast and fun series debut! Eleanor Dash is an accidental best-selling novelist of nine murder mysteries at various vacation spots. She’s plotting how to k!ll off her MC (real-life ex-boyfriend Conner) while on an Italian trip with her ex, her other ex, a couple of rival authors, a group of rabid fans, and her sister when she realizes someone is trying to murder Conner IRL. Hilarity and hijinx ensue.

I’ve heard chatter about the footnotes used as part of the story and was concerned about reading this via audiobook, but they completely worked! Maybe even better than in print, as each one felt like an aside from the author/main character, like she was breaking the fourth wall to wink at the audience. They made me cackle. “Foreshadowing? Duh!”

Narrator Elizabeth Evans was perfect as Eleanor! She captured her unique blend of snark, wit, and insecurity, and I could see each character in my head. I can’t wait to watch the Fox TV series.

Pair this with your favorite sunnies in a comfy lounge chair by the bluest pool, sipping something crisp and lemony.

Vacation and mysteries, what could go wrong? The fact that the main characters were all authors was a bonus for me. I liked the twists, and trying to guess "who done it." I hate when i know right away who the perp is, makes for a boring book. I'm glad this book wasn't that way.

It was a fun “who dunnit” that kept me guessing, even when I figured it all out. I like a good mystery that makes me question my deductions.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exhibit for an honest review.
#EveryTimeIGoonVacationSomeoneDies #NetGalley

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack: is this a cozy mystery? More. On the steamy side? A little. Has you laughing? Check. Has you anxious? Check. Want to read the next book? Check. It’s a win.

Book Review
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies
Catherine Mack
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


The ultimate beach read has arrived with this zany, cozy mystery romp. Lovers of Knives Out, Only Murders In the Building, and the Finlay Donovan book series will gobble this beauty up like dessert. Catherine Mack has concocted a pitch-perfect romp set in the picturesque Amalfi Coast of Italy, filled with a cast of colorful, imperfect characters, delicious food, and a touch of romance.

Her heroine, Eleanor Dash, is a mystery writer on a promotional book tour with a group of people with extremely diverse backgrounds and motivations. Supposedly, she is working on details and settings for her next book in her wildly successful series. It happens to be the tenth anniversary of her first bestseller, When in Rome, a somewhat fictionalized account of her own adventure in Italy, when she met and had a whirlwind romance with the dashing but equally smarmy private eye, Connor Smith. She got involved in solving a series of bank robberies that brought down an Italian crime family. In her book, she kept Connor’s name as her love interest. This was a gigantic mistake. He then began extorting her for 10% of her profits from that book. The book was so successful that her fans clamored for “more Connor,” which ended up costing her 20% of the next eight books.

Lately, she has been devoting great energy and thought to how to kill Connor—in her next book. Accompanying her are a cadre of “fan readers” who have won the trip as a promotional prize, her sister Harper Dash, who is her valued assistant (whose own literary dreams were “dashed” by her sister’s success), Allison Smith, the ex-wife of Connor (whose existence she was unaware of when in Rome), Oliver Frost (her boyfriend at the time of the Rome tryst), several other mystery novelists (one who apparently keeps stealing her plot lines), and several other guests of dubious purposes and motivations. The romance with Oliver is rekindled but put on hold. Connor announces that someone is trying to kill him—glory be—and asks for Eleanor’s help. Bodies start dropping around them. It becomes unclear if Connor or Eleanor is the actual target. Who is stalking them and why is unclear… clues and red herrings abound.

Catherine Mack proves to be a marvelous storyteller as she weaves multiple plotlines and motivations into a zany narrative with escalating intrigue and suspense. Intermittently, she utilizes a second-person soliloquy to impart possible clues and red herrings to the “reader” (or audio listener). She pauses the story to discuss it with the reader. Eleanor continually drops in morsels to consider in her thought process of solving the murder. In the book, they are presented as “footnotes,” but in the audio version, they are presented more effectively in a linear fashion as the mystery unfolds. The excellent narration is provided by Elizabeth Evans, who expertly captures the personality, tone, wit, and snakiness of Eleanor Dash.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for providing an advance audio version in exchange for an honest review. Hopefully, we will follow Eleanor Dash on her further vacation adventures.

This book feels like it's trying too hard to be Finlay Donovan, but without the charm that makes those.books work for me. The footnotes are really hard to follow in audio format and I just feel like I can't keep everyone and everything straight. Our FMC is obnoxious and while I know this book will be a hit for some, it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to MacMillan Audio for my complimentary ALC. All opinions here are my own.

An author wants to kill off her main character, but while on a book tour event in Italy, someone might actually be trying to kill her? Lots of potential victims, and too many suspects. First-person POV makes great use of footnotes and breaking the 4th wall.

This was a fun genre change. Felt like a mix of Agatha Christie and Clue. Fans of Finlay Donovan will probably enjoy this one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Murder Mystery
Age Level: Adult
Content: some strong language, closed-door

I really like how the narrator tells the story and talks to the reader. Most of the time breaking that 4th wall is very hard but this book does it well. The who Did it kept me guessing and changing my mind each chapter. I will be keeping my eye on this writer.

Consuming this book in audio format was such an experience! I really enjoyed it, since Eleanore, the narrator and protagonist, consistantly breaks the fourth wall throughout the story to bring us, the readers, in to solve the mystery. It's refreshing and different from anything I ever read! The narrator being excellent really helped, too, because it felt like a friend was telling me an impossible yet true story.

This story, inspired by the likes of Murder on the Orient-Express, is its own murder mystery that details the treacherous travels of a group of authors and fans in Italy. The protagonist, Eleanore, and her nemesis, Connor, start thinking someone is out to get them during this trip and the suspects are quickly identified : the entire party witch which they are traveling.

Bodies drop, theories are born and mystery ensues.

I loved the fourth wall breaking, the numerous possibilities, the pop culture references and the humour.

I didn't love Eleanore, though. She annoyed me at times and I felt like she was sometimes a little bit of en entitled author who left everything of importance to the good care of her little sister and manager, Harper. This made me ick a little and prevented me to really like her character!

Still, I had a wodnerful moment listening to this book and I will definitely read the second one!

I'm not usually much of a cozy mystery fan, but I really enjoyed this first book in a series about a mystery author who wants to kill off her long-time lead character--only the character is based on a real person, and someone seems to want him dead too!

There were a lot more moving parts to this book than I expected there to be, and it kept me on my toes. The cast of characters were quirky and they easy to differentiate.

The narrator of the audiobook did a really good job conveying both the sarcasm of the 1st person narrator/famous author and the serious fright of who's-going-to-be-murdered next.

Eleanor Dash is traveling Italy in honor of the book series that was launched after a vacation there several years earlier. Her publishing company is sponsoring the trip which includes several fellow authors and a group of lucky fans of Eleanor's series. One of the people on the trip is Connor, the man she fell in love with on that initial trip and who starred as a character in the book that resulted from it. Even though Eleanor no longer loves Connor, her readers do. That and a bit of blackmail on Connor's part keep him in the picture.

Harper Dash is Eleanor's sister, personal assistant, and usually her memory. Harper always has the details and itinerary that Eleanor either forgot or never bothered to learn. When Connor confides that he thinks someone is trying to kill him, Eleanor doesn't believe him. Furthermore, she begins thinking about how she can kill him off in her next book and finally be free of him.

After a series of near-misses for Connor and Eleanor which may or may not have been murder attempts, someone actually dies. The trip includes Connor's ex-wife (who was Connor's wife when he met Eleanor, unbeknownst to her), Eleanor's rebound boyfriend Oliver, now also an ex, and other authors with various motives to dislike or distrust Connor. There is no shortage of suspects. Eleanor's reasoning and investigation point to one suspect after another (perhaps further evidence of why she's an author and not a detective) before we finally discover the culprit.

This is a fun little cozy mystery with a lot of fourth-wall breaking, through innumerable footnotes. Eleanor is a mostly likable character, particularly redeemed by her relationship with her sister Harper. Listening to it on audio, the footnotes were maybe the funniest part of the book and didn't interrupt the flow at all. Reading it either digitally or in print I think would have been exceptionally frustrating.

Elizabeth Evans is the narrator who did a wonderful job with the voices, and particularly the accents which helped cement the location. Her pacing kept the story flowing and she was particularly adept at incorporating the footnotes and elevating the humor.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

I saw this book compared to the Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano and that was all I needed to request it from the publisher. Unfortunately, it didn't land for me at all. Maybe, that comparison was unfair and set my expectations too high from the start, but I was bored while listening to this book. I found Eleanor Dash, the FMC fairly obnoxious and the solved the mystery about halfway through reading. Elizabeth Evans did a terrific job with the narration and differentiating between all the different players. I know this book will be a hit for many readers. It just didn't work for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the audio ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is the start of a new series by Catherine Mack.
I would love to give an opinion but it was a DNF for me, I pushed through the first half. I was just bored and had no desire to finish

I loved the writing style of this one! The fictional mystery writer Eleanor Dash is experiencing a real-life mystery while on a book tour in Italy. She is talking to us as readers as though we are just casually sipping cocktails in Italy together. I loved the witty, interactive, conversational tone. The footnotes throughout were a unique touch, and they actually translated quite well on audiobook!

This is teed up to be the first in a series, and I’m definitely keen to read more & see where else these characters will take us!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook which comes out April 30.

I am so thankful I got the opportunity to discover a new author! This audiobook was exactly as described. I was very entertained by this murder mystery book! If you’re looking for a book reminiscent of Finlay Donavan, then this is for you! It’s quirky, hilarious, and witty.

A famous author is sent on a trip abroad for a book tour. She has to put up with her ex who is profiting off her famous book series. She is done with him and wants him out of her life! She has her sister who is her assistant in the same trip, along with other authors who seem to copy her books, a stalker, and another ex. Someone is trying to kill her main character and now everyone is trying to figure out who on their trip is the murderer.

The narration was phenomenal, keeping me highly engaged, entertained, and at the edge of my seat. I loved all the sarcasm and funny moments along with feeling the intensity when everyone is trying to figure out whodunnit.

I can’t wait for the next installment in this series!