Cosy mystery set in Rome and the Amalfi Coast

27th May 2024

Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack, cosy mystery set in Rome and the Amalfi Coast.

This novel takes the reader at a right old clip from Rome to Pompeii, through Sorrento, stopping along the Amalfi Coast and ending in Salerno.

The synopsis from the cover blurb:

Ten Days

Eight suspects

Six cities ([sic] actually half are towns but let’s not quibble)

Five authors

Three bodies

One trip to die for

Eleanor Dash pens the best-selling Vacation Mystery series which include titles like “When in Rome” / ‘ When in Nice” / “Death on the Thames” and 6 more. The tenth title is in gestation and may just be called “Amalfi Made Me Do It“…. All bode well for some #literarytravel!!

Eleanor is now on a 10 day publicity tour in Italy. She hasn’t familiarised herself with the itinerary and is in for a shock when she sees the people brought together on tour. She is supported by her sister, Harper, and tagging along is Connor, her ex-lover, who clearly appears as himself in her novels. She is determined to kill him off (in her books, she maintains) but he is more than miffed that she hasn’t had the decency to give him an alias. He has therefore, sort of, blackmailed her.

The motley group comprises, among others, a stalker, a couple of authors and several chosen winners of a competition to accompany her, as she tours the sights and carries out her research for her next book. These are The BookFace Ladies, inspired by “..that thing they do on Instagram when they hold up a book to their face to the match the image” (the cover of her novel “When in Rome” is half a woman’s face with a Rome backdrop). There are 20 participants, picked from 20,000 entrants. She is clearly a popular author.

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“I’m a tourist in my own life” she laments each day, as The Bookface ladies don a different T-shirt with an image of one of her books.

Connor is convinced that someone is trying to bump him off, as he is starting to join the dots between various events. But are the things that happen to him a smokescreen for attempts on Eleanor’s life?

The style of this novel is unusual. From the get-go the narrative has a cracking pace, equivalent to a whippet out of the stalls, a breathless concoction of smart dialogue and repartee (maybe 80% of the text at a rough guess?).

There is the curious use of footnotes, used to commentate on the main text, like a stage director addressing the reader directly from the wings. Doest it work? Not really. It is easy whilst reading the novel to overlook the innumerable tiny numbers in the text (237 by the end), and I sometimes found myself struggling to understand the relevance of the comments when I had missed a number, so as a device, it does rather break up the reading experience – and not in a good way.

There are wry observations and humour (like confusing carbonara when refering to the Carabinieri) which is entertaining, if a little tired. It feels as though this novel falls into ‘New Adult’ genre.

The author uses the novel to take a pop at book reviewers (NEVER refer to a book as “meh”: Footnote 50); she details the worry of the first review, especially on Goodreads (the worst) which, as you may or may not know, is universally referred to as Meanreads, where you “can review books you haven’t even read”: Footnote 101.

So I won’t use ‘meh’ (I never have and never will) to describe this novel but pace wins over style and construct, yet the story unfolds very slowly. It is generally a good enough read. There are glimpses of setting but not enough to conjure up a really good sense of place.

Overall, it just wasn’t for me, but don’t take my word for it – there are plenty of positive reviews out there.

If you are a fan of Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater, then you may very well enjoy this novel.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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