Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack is a fun mystery packed full of humor and an interesting cast of suspects, I mean characters. The reader is thrust into the mystery as our narrator Eleanor is on a publicity book tour in Italy with her main character the dashing Connor Smith. Most main characters are not living, breathing humans but Eleanor wrote her first book based on a real adventure and forgot to change his name. He has since blackmailed her into giving him part of the royalties for the book which is now a bestselling series. With her next book, she plans on killing him off in the book series, if someone doesn't kill him in real life first.

Mack's excessive use of footnotes, the constant breaking of the fourth wall, and a mad dash through some of Italy's most beautiful settings make this book a joy to read. I did figure out who did it, but Mack had me second-guessing myself the whole time, leaving enough twists to surprise me at the end. It had everything I love in a mystery including a humorous narrator, a never-ending line of suspects, and a page-turning pace.

When Eleanor goes on book tour with friends, family, exes, super fans, and maybe an enemy or two, she doesn't expect real life murders to overshadow her fictional crimes.

This is an easy read that I'd recommend to those who enjoy an easy cozy mystery. It's a little slower, in my opinion, but the quirky voice made it fun.

I will say, the formatting of the footnotes in the arc made it a little challenging to not have my reading experience interrupted, which took me out of the story fairly frequently. I'm sure the final reading experience will be much smoother.

Eleanor is a famous author who writes a mystery series. The first one was based on her real life experiences with mysterious and charming Connor Smith, but now she is linked to him forever because he is one of the main characters in her books. She is planning to end this though by killing him off (only in the books of course). She is using the book tour in Italy as inspiration to end her series. However, Connor reveals to her that someone is trying to kill him in real life, and soon Eleanor also finds herself a target.

I loved this one! I thought the writing was so witty and fun. Mack did a great job with building suspense, and Eleanor was such a fun and funny narrator (I'm obsessed with the footnotes). It had some clever nods to traditional mystery/detective style but was a great take on that. I hope the back of the book isn't a lie and this truly is the first in a new series (which it seems likely since the epilogue had another murder in it), because this was such a good read.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book! What a hoot! Famous author Eleanor, along with her sister Harper, and other assorted authors are on the book tour from hell. Who goes to Italy in hot steamy July? And why is the bane of her existence Connor there whining someone is trying to kill him, and Oliver, the ex love of her life as well?
Connor is right. Someone is trying to kill him and Eleanor doesn’t mind that at all until she realizes they’re trying to kill her as well. Written with humor and terrific characters, this is a fun mystery and I’m happy there will be more.

Now on to the footnotes. They were a pain to read on Kindle. The type was too small, they appeared at the end of the chapter when you forgot the original sentence being footnoted. Then I figured out if you touch the number next to the footnote it opened up a box with the footnote in it. Better, but still not necessary. I remember the footnotes in The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz, and they worked because at the time people were reading hardcover and not ebooks. Now everyone reads on many different readers and the footnotes are more of a hindrance than being necessary. They add nothing to the story, and if you want to express those sentiments write it as part of the body of work. There’s no reason to have them. They actually took away from the enjoyment of the story.

This was a fun cozy mystery. I loved the humor and the characters. This is the first in a new series and I am looking forward to the next book. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @stmartinspress and @minotaur_books for an early copy of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐.5/5
Release date: April 30th, 2024

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790849-every-time-i-go-on-vacation-someone-dies?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=hL0MciEKyN&rank=1

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

If you’re reading this on a Kindle, get ready to be annoyed with the number of footnotes this novel has, which consists of side comments from the narrator and main character, Eleanor, that could have been easily included within the main text. I honestly did not see the point of adding the side comments as footnotes when there are already a lot of them within the main text.

Every Time I Go On Vacation’s blurb was very promising and intriguing, but the execution was quite meh. Eleanor’s narrative was always trying to be funny the way she puts the pieces of the mystery surrounding their trip was quite messy, given that she’s been a detective series author for ten years. She started writing accidentally/by chance, an amateur, but come on, within those ten years she might have picked up on getting her thoughts more organized, right?

Overall, the story didn’t quite meet my expectations and the suspense wasn’t that thrilling, but I did like how every clue that was mentioned throughout the book turned out to be something else entirely, it was a twist I didn’t really expect. I would have enjoyed this more if the author had given more explicit descriptions of the sights of Italy at least.

I had a lot of fun with this book, set in the publishing world and bringing some plotlines to real life. I loved the setting of Italy during a book tour and just how funny the writing was! This book just really seemed to have a good amount of really fun adventure, bookishness, romance, culture, mystery, and funny. The murder/attempted murder storyline was not overdone or anything gory, and that worked well with this overall book. I maybe could have done without the footnotes, but they personally didn't bother me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Successful murder mystery author Eleanor Dash is doing her best to get through her Italian book tour. What should be a light and breezy trip through the country has become a bit of a headache. First, there's Conner, the devilishly handsome con man that Eleanor would love to get out of her life for good. Then, there's her sister Harper, whom she loves dearly, but can't help but feel guilty for accidently stealing her dream of being a writer. There's Oliver, her ex, who may or may not be interested in giving it another go. And then there's the handful of authors, some of whom hate her and one who seems to have stolen her first novel's plot. Oh, and then there's the fact that someone's trying to kill her.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a fun and light murder mystery filled with a variety of characters and witty banter. Readers who enjoyed Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone will also find this book to be clever, endearing, and quite relatable - despite all of the murder.

For me, this book is tough to review. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in just about any other format. When I downloaded it to my Kindle, the footnotes made this book a nightmare to try and read. There is clearly some work to be done in the digital download of this book. However, once I switched over to my phone, where the text actually looks like a book page, I was able to get into the story a lot better. I did end up guessing part of the reveal, but found this mystery to be overall engaging and fun. Definitely a great read for the poolside or on vacation!

2.75 stars rounded to 3.

I really had a hard time finishing this book. I did not like the footnotes and ended up just skipping over them. I also didn't really connect with any of the characters and thought they were under developed. I did like the plot of the story and the way the book flowed. I did have an idea of who I thought was behind everything and I ended up being right, but the book does try to lead you to the other characters, which I liked. Overall, this book was just an OK read for me. If you are looking for something a little different to read I would recommend it.

Eleanor is an accomplished author who goes on a tour in Italy with her sister, other famous authors, her ex boyfriend, and a man named Connor, who is a character in her books. Connor informs Eleanor that he thinks someone is trying to kill him. Turns out, it looks like someone is trying to kill both of them, but who could it be and why?

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Great witty read! This book is really fun. I was expecting a light, airy read (which it is), but it's also so much more than that. There's humor and murder and attempted murder and romance and a fabulous setting, and it's all really well written. There's even some fourth-wall breaking, which is one of my favorite tropes in all of literature (and cinema). Would love if this was a series!

Set on the Amalfi Coast this is a charming mystery with a side of murder. An author and a group of her fans and an entourage set up by her publisher embark on a tour, which does not end quite like it was supposed to. Well written, with great quirky characters - especially the author who also narrates this tale - and a setting so well described that the reader feels like a part of the group. The tone is light and snarky and makes this a fun, quick read. Even though the twist at the end felt like it came out of nowhere, it was a very satisfying story.

I had a really hard time getting into this book, for a couple reasons.

First I have been in a really bad reading slump, I've been good with audiobooks because I can keep moving while I'm reading. But to sit and read a book, I fall straight to sleep. That's my problem, definitely not this books problem.

Secondly I found all the footnotes distracting. I was reading this on my kindle, I would have to have to make the font so big to be able to read them, that then the font was grossly oversized for the rest of the story. Once again not the author's fault.

I did like the story, enjoyed the characters and will definitely continue with this series, but will probably just get the actual book in print from the library.

3.75 rounded up

I wanted to like this book so much and when I first started it, I thought I was going to. The narrative voice that the writer uses is one of my favorite kind and it’s not commonly found. It actually reminds me a lot of Benjamin Stevens series, Everyone in my family has killed someone. But the problem was it’s like the author was trying to go for that and then just went way too far. I was actually really excited about the footnote aspect of it I thought that made it unique and fun, but the problem was, it eventually got very exhausting.

There were so many footnotes and in the Kindle version it was just really hard to keep up with them. It might be different in the print version, so I’m not taking off for that reason, but I do think maybe there were just too many footnotes to the point that it wore out the novelty of it.

The lead Character was also very tiring. I like the sarcastic style. I like when they break the fourth wall. I like what the author was going for, but it’s just too much. To the point, I got tired of the main character and I got tired of the footnotes and I got tired of the humor, even though I like humor, it just all needed to be scaled back just a little bit.

I just really had a hard time. I understand what the author was going for and I think it had really great potential. It just wore me out.

“Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies” by Catherine Mack is the story of a mystery writer who is on a promotional book tour in Italy. She wants to kill off her main character and is contemplating how to do it but the character is based on her ex husband. I was really excited to read this book because the premise really excited me but unfortunately the novel didn’t do it for me. The book is written with lots of comments to the reader as well as many footnotes giving the narrators views. I found this style of writing very distracting and found myself skimming over some of the pages which is the main reason for the 3 star review.

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martins Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had a love/hate relationship reading this book. The story is good, the setting (Rome/Amalfi Coast) was well done. I hated the footnotes. That in combination with the excepts from the fictional author's book or the story writing outlines all felt a little chaotic.
I actually went on a similar tour of Rome and the Amalfi Coast early last year. Reading through the stops and the historic sites visits in the context of a murder mystery was really fun. I could fully envision where the characters were. I really enjoyed the mystery of it as well. I can usually put together the outcome pretty quickly in similar stories but was surprised at the ending.
I would definitely read from this author again. Even with the footnotes and chaos. I think that the overall story telling outweighs some of that.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wanted to love this so bad. I love traveling and cozy mysteries. The author of this book is clearly familiar with these types of books, but doesn't follow the normal pattern.
For instance, the characters are terrible. Like, really terrible. I didn't like anyone -- the only people I thought might be likable were underdeveloped. The main character was the worst, and it was baffling that she was able to write mysteries. There was one character who was so, so bad and I thought great, here comes our murder victim, because one of the joys of cozy mysteries is not feeling guilty when a ludicrously bad character meets an untimely end. But no, it was just teasing.
And the footnotes. This isn't really the genre for so many footnotes, if any. One of the footnotes was used to tell the twist ending to a classic murder mystery, one of my favorites, which was confusing -- either people are familiar with the book and know the ending, or the author just gave it away for no reason.
This may have been better if it was a little shorter, but it dragged, with a lot of repetitive dialogue. Maybe the next one will be tighter.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Beautiful cover. Great title. Novel was a huge fail for me. I almost gave up several times but managed to get to almost half way. Footnotes VERY annoying and gimmicky. I stopped reading them. Where was the humor? I thought it was supposed to be a funny mystery. Cover and title make you think it is, for sure. Couldn't like or get into the main character - so one dimensional! As for the rest of the cast... so poorly developed I didn't even remember who any of them were. The writing felt rushed like the author. just churned this out. Maybe this is her first novel, but even so... Also annoying was lack of dialogue tags making it very hard to follow who was speaking - specially as they all sounded alike! Oh and the references to The White Lotus? Were we supposed to think this story is similar? Its not white lotus, let me tell you.

If you are as intrigued by the title, Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, as I was, chances are you will also find this book totally engaging and fun. The main character, Eleanor Dash, is on a promotional book tour through Italy. She would love to literarily (not literally) kill of one of her main characters who is based on a real person. Her reflections on Italy, the craft of novel writing, and some of her colleagues and fans on the book tour are hilarious. Lots of footnotes provide the narrator a chance to give her views. The mystery is actually good, and the characters are well developed. There is an interesting backstory on the narrator and her sister’s relationship.

Absolutely a fun read!

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for an ARC of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack for an honest review.


Rating: 4/5
Spice: 1/5

This book is absolutely hilarious. It's a murder mystery set in Italy, told from the perspective of a mostly reliable first-person narrator. I loved the author's little inside notes and pop culture references, as well as their habit of giving each character a celebrity lookalike. The book's pacing was perfect, and I highly recommend it as a beach read - or even better, as a companion on your summer trip to Italy. Reading it on a Kindle is also highly recommended, as it makes it easy to look up any fun things mentioned in the book. I hope this turns into a long-running series!

holding back review due to SMP Review Boycott. please... just... resoolve this. asap. please. ...............................