Every Time I Go on Vacation was a Book Recommendation on Mystery Books Podcast Season 5, episode 5, which gave book recommendations for travel mysteries.

Best-selling author Eleanor Dash is on a book tour in Italy and is also plotting her next book, in which she plans to kill off a character who is based on a real-life person, but then the real-life version of the character has a brush with death and things get complicated.

I enjoyed the entertaining footnotes, the Italian ambiance, and the light tone. If you liked Finlay Donovan is Killing It, then you’ll enjoy this book.

Episode aired on Mystery Books Podcast on April 3, 2024 and is available for download on all podcast apps. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved the location of the book being placed in Italy. Although the location was nice the book was on the slower end. Took me awhile to get into it more near half way through the book it got interesting. I wish the book was shorter, the ending was very good. But in all honesty it was a little of a drag to get to the good stuff. Definitely had room for improvement.

I just couldn’t get into this book. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style, and found the characters unlikeable. The plot was also very slow and it seemed like nothing really happened until the second half of the book. The ending was somewhat interesting, but overall I did not enjoy this book.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND this romp of a mystery!!

I enjoyed this spectacularly fun novel set in Italy that had me guessing, laughing, cringing…all the feels! I sped through the pages in record time while getting a kick out of the clever “footnotes.” This is a feel good mystery with plenty of red herrings & who-done-it aspects which isn’t “mystery light” at all & has something for everyone. I absolutely loved it!!

I loved this book. It’s funny without being over the top and charming. Reminded me of the best of Agatha Christie. Can’t wait to see what this crew gets up to next!

This was a fun, but sometimes frustrating, novel. There are humorous footnotes at the end of each chapter and the cast of characters is quirky and secretive at times. The main character, Eleanor, is relaying the story’s happenings to the reader. It’s an interesting approach for a mystery.
S

I could not connect to anything in this book!! I hated the footnotes after each chapter, I didn't even like the concept of the book and I was really hoping for a cozy mystery but I didn't get it. DNF

When I first saw this book being promoted I thought it looked like a fun, cozy mystery. That may be what Mack intended, but this is just a mess with the occasionally funny line here and there. The plot is really weak. Eleanor has an "agreement" with her ex Connor after she used him and their Italian escapades in an enormously successful book deal, and on a travel to Italy he tries to convince her that someone is trying to kill him. Besides her, in the next book in the series. In an odd move that doesn't really make any sense, a whole bunch of other people with some strong to weak connection to Eleanor and Conner are also on the trip, and they periodically connect up with a group of fans of Eleanor's books for various excursions. The point of all these people (I'm pretty sure) is to plausibly give the reader suspects, but the bringing of all of them together has no good explanation. Eleanor is horrible about uncovering clues, which is incredibly ironic since she makes her living off of creating them. The Italian inspector that gets involved is incredibly incompetent and serves very little point in the story. The setting is generally under utilized and Eleanor spends a lot of time being drunk and waffling over her love for Oliver, one of the people invited on the trip for no explained reason. It doesn't help that Mack has an unhealthy obsession with footnotes*, sometimes even footnooting the same sentence twice. In the advanced digital copy I read these show up in random places and I just gave up trying to read them, but in all honesty I think I would have in a print copy where they would show up at the bottom of the same page. This could have been funny, with clever plot twists in a scenic location, but it's mostly it rambles and is hard to follow. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

* Seriously. It's a mystery novel and has over 200 of them.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio/Minotaur Books for the gifted audiobook/book!

This was overall a fun cozy mystery that was easy and enjoyable to read!

I know people are probably sick of hearing "this is for fans of Finlay Donovan", but this is the only one that has actually seemed to capture the perfect balance of humor and plot and fun like the beloved (by many, but especially me) Finlay Donovan books.

Eleanor Dash was truly an easy character to love and root for! I loved hearing all of her internal thoughts as "footnotes" and following along on her crazy tour through Rome. I always love books about authors (once again, hello Finlay Donovan) so this was right up my alley!

I think everyone will be falling in love with Eleanor Dash and her shenanigans soon!

Also, I would be remiss not to mention how ADORABLE this cover is! Clearly cute cover art sells because this one sold me and I'm glad it did!

I'm so glad to hear that this is a series and will be first in line ready to read book 2 when it comes out!

3.5 rounded up to 4 for GR

This will be available on April 30th!

The author had me at footnotes. The author breaks so many writing rules I am sure someone at her publishing company was screaming "this will never work!". Wrong!!! It works. The heroine is flawed. One her main characters we wish would just "go away". 1 Unfortunately he is an intricate part of the story. It is a love letter to Italy expect for all the steep stairs. 2 Literally the stairs could be a character. This book just so entertaining. Can't wait for the streaming series. 3Yes the rights have already been sold.

In “Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies,” a cozy-mystery author gets caught up in a murder mystery while on a book tour in Italy. This is a fun book, with humorous footnotes. The author is stuck in a deal with her ex and the only way to get him out of her life and her books is to kill off his character. It doesn't go exactly as planned and makes a fun mystery.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. Some of it worked for me while other things didn’t. I did like the writing style. Breaking the fourth wall, talking about the book that’s being written while reading this book, and referencing future books as a sequel in this book, was all very meta and fun.

What didn’t work for me was the footnotes.
Possibly reading this on my kindle, and it not being the version of kindle where the footnotes actually pop up at the bottom of the screen hindered my experience. But I think the footnotes in general just didn’t work. They took me out of the story too much. I don’t read a lot of books with footnotes, but over 200 seemed excessive.

Overall, I found this to be a very fun read. The location setting was great, especially since I went to Italy last year and did quite a few of the tours referenced in the book. The murder mystery was set up well and kept me guessing. And as I mentioned, this book, and well as the book within a book, is set up perfectly for a sequel.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Book 1 of the Vacation Mystery Series, Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, by Catherine Mack, begins with bestselling author, Eleanor Dash, goes on a book tour in Italy with her sister, Harper, who handles all of her affairs, and the main character in her book series, Connor Smith, who is very good looking, but very manipulative and evil – because she used his real name in her books and he blackmailed her into giving him a percentage of her sales, as well as her ex-boyfriend, Oliver. Eleanor is saddled with the task of finding out who is trying to murder Connor.

Cozies are supposed to be fun, fast, light reads for readers of all ages because they don’t contain graphic violence, sex, or foul language. However, apparently Mack didn’t get the memo. The characters are obviously low classed people because they use profanity like a sailor. The profanity isn’t there to develop a character and show that that character is unsavory, rather all of the characters, including the protagonist, show that they are skuzzy as people. Usually the protagonist in a cozy is a delightful person that everyone loves. And while Eleanor is, for the most part, delightful and funny, she still swears constantly, and it doesn’t add anything to the novel; actually it makes it unreadable. While I understand that many young people talk like that, it doesn’t make it right. There is also a fair amount of sexual innuendo.

If that doesn’t bother readers, then maybe they can get through this novel and enjoy it. Apparently the author thinks that if she doesn’t have a big enough vocabulary, she can inject swear words to fill the pages instead of writing a quality book.

I wouldn’t recommend this cozy series to anyone. There are plenty of good cozies out there that follow the protocol.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

4.5 stars!

This. Was. So. Much. Fun. I love a good cozy murder mystery but this book took it to a different level. First, can I be friends with Catherine? Her writing style is so personable and you truly feel like she’s talking to you with her words. The banter. The sarcasm. The dry humor. The quick wit. Shall I go on? This book was beyond entertaining and I’m so happy that I was lucky enough to read this ARC. I truly ate it up. My only issue would be the footnotes in the story. Although I liked the idea, I think because of how my pages were formatted via e-book, I missed the essence it was suppose to provide. I found myself having to swipe through pages to find the footnote reference and it kind of threw off my pace of the book. BUT that was my only gripe. I loved this book immensely and felt like it was very well done!

"Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack is a humorous and suspenseful novel that follows Eleanor, a witty and relatable narrator. Eleanor's unique use of footnotes adds an entertaining and original twist to the story, breaking the fourth wall in a clever and engaging manner. I was hooked from the beginning, laughing out loud at times, and sitting on the edge of my seat.

The author’s voice hooked me on the dedication page with a remark about footnotes and her wonderfully humorous tone continues throughout the story. This book reminds me of both Lisa Lutz and Agatha Christie. The main character, author Eleanor Dash, speaks directly to the reader through footnotes, and once in a chapter. I enjoyed trying to guess not only who is the murderer but which of the tour group is the intended victim. I’m happy to discover - in a footnote - there are more adventures to come. Clever and intriguing, this romp through Italy while plotting murder is highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

4.5 stars! I found myself laughing way too much for a murder mystery! I loved how the the narrator breaks the 4th wall often to give us little snippets of her opinion or how things are going to turn out. It did take awhile to get to the murder but I actually enjoyed that in this book! Overall a great fun murder mystery!!

I did not finish this book. It was just not for me. It was too chaotic, had too many footnotes, and kept referring to the characters’ pasts without providing enough context.

Every Time I go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a fun, quick, unusual mystery. It’s interesting how the author talks with the audience throughout the book. Eleanor Dash, a mystery author, finds herself wrapped up in a real life murder case, while on her current book tour. This book kept me up late each night wanting to see what happens next. This was my first read of Catherine Mack’s but it won’t be my last.
Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I really liked the premise of this story and it sounded so fun. Unfortunately, I found it hard to follow due to the digital formatting. The footnotes were a constant interruption since they were placed in the middle of the text. This took away from the momentum of the story and made it seem choppy and disconnected.