Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

 Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack

Eleanor Dash became a bestselling mystery author when she wrote about an experience she had in Italy when she was twenty-five: She fell for Connor and helped him solve a series of bank robberies connected to the Mafia. It's ten years later, and after nine books in the series, she wants to kill off Connor, the character, in order to get Connor, the real man—who she now knows as a con man—out of her life. Connor has been going to the author events with her over the years, including the current one, where they're on tour in Italy, along with a number of other authors and some of their fans. Connor thinks that someone is trying to kill him. Eleanor and her sister, Harper, are not sure whether to believe him or not. But if someone really does want to kill him, who? There's a long list of suspects, including about every author on the tour. When Eleanor becomes convinced that someone wants to kill her, too, that adds to the confusion and inability to know whom to trust.

The author's conversational first-person-style includes a huge number of footnotes, sometimes describing which real-life people her characters look like, discussing the works of other mystery writers, and much more. There are a number of times when she breaks the fourth wall and addresses her readers directly. I thought it was a quick fun read (although my colleague Kara has a differing opinion.) I'm looking forward to catching Mack's next book in the series, No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding. A television series is in the works for this series, as well.