‘Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies’ by Catherine Mack is a very interesting and unique book about books, publishing and murder in the sun. We follow Eleanor, author of the popular fiction-based-on-reality ‘Vacation Mysteries’ series as she is joined on a tour of Italy by her sister/assistant Harper, members of the ‘Vacation Mysteries Extended Universe’ including Connor (the real-life inspiration for Book 1 who is still extorting her for royalties many instalments later) and a number of fellow authors/hangers-on, as well as twenty of her biggest fans.

I really liked the way so many suspects were floated throughout the novel, and that the tension was built so high even before the first fatality. I enjoyed the sly pokes at the publishing industry and laughed out loud many times as I was reading. The novel was also elevated by its immersive setting.

While I enjoyed the fourth wall breaking and encouragement to solve the mystery myself, I wasn’t so keen on the number of footnotes in this novel. I felt they distracted from the flow of the story (though I do think they were harder to ignore in the format I was reading, so perhaps this would be better in the final print). Despite this stylistic ick, I was very excited that the epilogue set up a second book beginning with a murder at a luxurious wedding - can’t wait to read that one!

Overall, I am giving this one four stars. It reminds me of the second Knives Out film (successful people, brought together somewhere fabulous, where everyone has a motive for mischief) and ‘Everyone on this Train is a Suspect’ by Benjamin Stevenson / ‘A Line To Kill’ by Anthony Horowitz because of the literary suspects list!

A really great story, although definitely more light hearted than my usual dark thrillers. Nonetheless this was excellent, clever and funny. Brilliant x

The life imitating art element of the story added lots of excitement to the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it overall.

Eleanor Dash has plans for her book tour, and they do not include having it derailed by overly-enthusiastic fans, possible stalkers, and definite murderer! But she may not have much choice.

Author of a popular series of vacation mysteries, her book tour on the Italian coast is meant to be the precursor to killing off her MC. But when there's an attempt on the life of a charming con artist who's partly inspired her character, find herself unwillingly dragged into the investigation...

I enjoyed, among other things, the meta aspect of this story - namely, that it features a writer who writes about murder mysteries in this murder mystery book!

The story is delivered with light touch, featuring amusing characters and their engaging antics. It was a nice variation on my usual reading fare of chilling psychological thrillers, and will be enjoyed by most readers who like a bit of fun served as a side dish in their murder mysteries. It gets 3.5 stars.