Audiobook Review: A Cozy Mystery

Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack

Narrated By: Elizabeth Evans

Publication Date: April 30, 2024

Summary from NetGalley:

ARC provided by MacMillan Audio via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This is the type of cozy mystery that I always enjoy. It was witty, had great dialogue and a nice cast of characters. There were a couple of things that annoyed me, but not enough to keep me from enjoying this delightful audiobook.

Elizabeth Evans did a very nice job with making Eleanor and the other characters come to life. She did a great job with all of the emotions and especially the witty sarcasms and dialogue that this book was full of. She was a little bit weak on distinctive voices for some of the characters, especially the men, which made it hard at times to understand who was speaking, but otherwise she was a delight to listen to.

Eleanor was such a fun character to spend time with. I loved her humor and her commentary on what it was like to be a well known author. I especially loved her relationship with her sister Harper, who is also her assistant. There were some very nice and tender scenes between these two and you could really feel the love between them Speaking of love, I liked the soft and light romance between Eleanor and Oliver. It was nice and didn’t overtake the story which I really appreciated. Connor was a piece of work, but I did enjoy his banter with Eleanor and the other characters. I unfortunately had a harder time keeping track of the backstories of the other suspects, and often forgot who they were and how they fitted into the overall plot of the story.

The plot of the story was pretty well done. I was pretty sure who was behind the murder attempts and the actual murder pretty early on, but I hadn’t figured out the motive until quite late in the story. Always a good sign in a mystery book, especially of the cozy variety. The writing was pretty solid, although as I mentioned above I had a hard time keeping track of all of the more minor characters and how they related to Eleanor and the overall plot. This had a little bit to do with it being an audiobook, as it is sometimes harder to keep track of characters when I am listening to a story. The author also did a great job with the pacing and the setting. I totally felt like they were in Italy.

So this all sounds good, but I did mention that there were a couple of things that annoyed me. The big thing was that whenever a new character was introduced, Eleanor would describe them by comparing them to someone who was supposedly famous, and I say supposedly because most of these people I had never heard of. I am a reader, not someone who watches a whole lot of TV or movies or keeps track of who is hot right now. If I had been reading the book I might have looked these people up, but I probably wouldn’t have bothered. I just found the assumption that everyone knows who these people are irritating.

The other thing was how the footnotes were handled. I don’t mind footnotes in fiction books, in fact I often find them amusing or even helpful. But they don’t often translate well to audiobooks. In the case of this book, it seemed like most of the footnotes weren’t necessary, because they fit so seamlessly into the narrative. I wasn’t sure sometimes if it was a footnote or not. Again this wasn’t anything so horrible that I didn’t find the book enjoyable, but it was annoying at times.

Overall I do recommend this book, I think it would make a great beach read. It is light and funny, and the mystery was well done. I look forward to picking up the next book in this series and checking out some of this author’s other works under her real name Catherine MacKenzie. Her other books look like more serious mysteries, which I think would be something that I would enjoy more.