On the HahaFiction shelf
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies
The Vacation Mysteries · Book 1 · 2024
Novelist Eleanor Dash plans to kill off her fictional Connor Smith and end the series. The real Connor has a different concern: someone on their Italian book tour may be trying to kill him. Eleanor has authors, fans and former lovers to consider while she works out whose danger is real.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies . . . one trip to die for.”Read the full description at Minotaur Books / Macmillan
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What makes it funny?
Eleanor opens by telling a priest she wants to commit homicide, then gets around to the fictional character she means. She also has royalties and contracts to complain about, and keeps interrupting her account to address the reader.
The comedy at work
Footnotes let Eleanor dispute, explain and digress as she tells the story. The asides turn her working life and the conventions of murder mysteries into subjects for jokes alongside the case.
Try this if…
Italian sightseeing surrounds a mystery with a limited group of suspects. A talkative narrator and jokes about publishing are a large part of the experience.
Good to know
Frequent footnotes affect how the book reads, particularly on an ereader. The opening also contains strong profanity.
A few distinguishing details
- A novelist wants her fictional hero dead while his real counterpart fears murder
More funny amateur sleuth
Sources & further reading
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