Review By Veronica
Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies is a fun and quirky murder mystery that is so addictive.
Favourite Quote:
“Someone’s trying to kill me,” Connor repeats when I don’t say anything for longer than is normal for me.
“Are you joking?”
“I most definitely am not joking.”
My brain is whirring. I was just thinking about killing him and someone’s beaten me to the punch? Is this God answering my prayers? No, no. I’m going to hell for even thinking that. And Connor’s still here, alive. So my prayers haven’t been answered.
Not yet.
Goodreads 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?
We are big fans of Catherine McKenzie’s books, so when I learned she was writing under a new pen name and that she was writing a fun, cozy murder mystery, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. I’ve been having trouble getting into thriller suspense novels lately. I’m a mood reader, and I just haven’t been loving the darker novels, not because they are poorly written, but because I haven’t been in the mood to read them. I absolutely adored this book. It’s the mystery novel I’ve been craving. It’s fun, quirky, and has characters that have larger-than-life personalities. Yes, people die in this story, and yes, there is a murderer on the loose, but the overall story isn’t dark. It reminds me of the movie Glass Onion (the second Knives Out movie with Daniel Craig). This book is really well written. The plot moves along steadily, and Catherine has time for those dramatic twists perfectly. It’s an easy and enjoyable book to read. An added bonus is Catherine has included other fun tidbits in this book. There are footnotes and excerpts from various documents discussed in this book. It’s made the reading experience more immersive.
The characters in this book are unforgettable. They all have these very loud and strong personalities, and when they are forced to spend time together on Eleanor’s book tour, shit hits the fan on multiple occasions. The character interactions in this book are fabulous. They are all divas in their own way, and I just ate up all that delicious drama.
Eleanor is an interesting main character. She is far from perfect and would be the first to admit she has made big mistakes. Personally, I really enjoyed her character and loved spending time with her. Even though she writes murder mysteries, she is not a very savvy detective (something she admits), which I liked. She makes mistakes and makes wrong guesses along the way, but heck, so did I when I was trying to figure out who the murderer was. The fact that her character was flawed made it easier to connect with her.
I loved the mystery in this book. It was so much fun figuring out which character the murderer is. Catherine kept me guessing right until the very end. You know someone is out to kill Conner and possibly Eleanor, but you have no idea who. Every character has the motivation to want both Conner and Elanor dead; the question is who has the means and opportunity to do so.
Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies is a fabulous start to a new murder mystery series.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
