roman holiday gone wrong

Eleanor Dash is back in Italy, ten years after her first trip. The first time, she met a dashing investigator named Connor Smith and they solved a series of bank robberies together. She went back home to California with her head still spinning from everything that happened, so she decided to process it all by writing it down. That became her first book which became a runaway bestseller. Now, she’s back in Rome and working on the tenth book of her popular Vacation Mystery series. And she has a plan for it. But she’s not alone on the trip.

The publisher has set up this tour of Italy to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Eleanor’s book, and they are going all out. Not only is Eleanor there with her sister Harper (who also acts as her assistant), but Connor is there too, along with several other authors and twenty fans who won the trip through social media. And just to make things more interesting, the tour also includes Eleanor’s ex (the one after Connor), and Connor’s ex-wife (and no, Eleanor didn’t know that Connor was married that first trip to Rome).

So Eleanor’s plan for this trip, as she’s plotting this tenth novel, is to kill Connor.

Not the actual Connor, of course. But the character of Connor. She wants to end the series. She wants to stop being tied to this man, especially since he’s been blackmailing her for a cut of her royalties. But then he tells her that someone is trying to kill him. Before they left on the trip, someone cut his brake lines. And then in Rome, someone tried to push him into traffic. But Eleanor isn’t true that he’s telling the truth. She’s never completely sure if Connor is telling the truth.

And then someone tries to push Eleanor off a cliff.

It has to be someone on the tour who is trying to kill them, but who would do that? And why? And what if someone kills off real-life Connor before Eleanor can kill him off in her book? And worse, what if someone kills her off before she can figure out who is trying to kill them?

Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies kicks off a new series with a bang. This mystery sparkles with intrigue and interest, from the strong characters to the settings spread around Italy. With layers of secrets and lies and an assortment of crimes and victims to sort through, this novel is filled with questions, more questions, and pizza, pasta, and gelato.

I listened to the audio book for this one, narrated by Elizabeth Evans. Evans brings the character of Eleanor to life, complete with her snark and many, many footnotes. I think anyone who might be annoyed by those footnotes should try the audio book, as it just rolls right into the narration seamlessly, adding to the strong personality that Eleanor brings to the story. But there are so many footnotes that I think reading them would have been irritating.

But that being said, I loved this book. Author Catherine Mack opens up that fourth wall and invites the reader into the story. She encourages us to solve the mystery before her character does and offers fun spoilers throughout (including references to more books, which I really hope is true). This is not a traditional cozy, but instead a playful twist on the mystery genre, with nods to Dame Agatha Christie and notes about other good books to read. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a brilliant start to this series, and I can’t wait to see where we go next!

Egalleys were provided by Minotaur Books and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.