Review by Booklist Review
In this start to a new series, Mack introduces 35-year-old modern-day mystery writer Eleanor, who gets ensnared in solving a real-life mystery while on her book tour in Italy. Eleanor is just looking to finish this tour; conclude her successful series; kill off her main character, Connor Smith; and finally be free of her horrible ex-boyfriend, Connor Smith (yes, you read that right). Unfortunately, Connor is also on this tour, as the inspiration for her male lead, and demands her help in figuring out who is trying to actually kill him. This novel is funny and suspenseful, featuring Eleanor as a witty and relatable narrator who constantly breaks the fourth wall in an entertaining and original use of footnotes. Mack's tale is full of lively references (Taylor Swift galore), beautiful Italian settings, romance, fun chapter titles, and an interesting mix of suspects who are almost all mystery writers themselves. It is an amusing, light read that invites the reader to gather the clues and solve the crime before Eleanor reveals the answer.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The pseudonymous Mack's amusing debut and series launch centers on 35-year-old Eleanor Dash, author of a successful cozy mystery series about a woman who solves crimes in exotic vacation spots with the help of handsome con man Connor Smith. The problem for Eleanor is that, for the past 10 years, the real-life Connor Smith has been threatening to sue her for defamation unless she pays him a healthy chunk of her royalties. Fed up with compensating Connor for her own successes, Eleanor has plans to kill off the fictional character in her next book and finally bring the series to an end. She decides to plot the series' swan song while on a book tour in Italy with Connor, a handful of other authors, and a group of fans who've been tapped to post about the tour on Instagram. Partway through Eleanor's Italian jaunt, however, a desperate Connor informs her that someone is trying to kill him. But is he telling the truth? And if so, should Eleanor be watching her own back? Mack stacks the whodunit plot with perhaps one too many dead-end twists, but Eleanor's first-person narration is a delight, chock-full of amusing asides (often in footnotes) that wryly examine the craft of mystery writing and business of publishing. A sequel would be welcome. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
The pseudonymous Mack's first entry in "The Vacation Mysteries" series features author Eleanor Dash, who wants to finish her book tour in Italy so that she can get back to writing and fulfill her publishing contract by killing off her series' main character, Connor Smith. She also confesses to a priest her urge to kill the con man (and ex-lover) who inspired the character of Connor. Even so, Eleanor is shocked when the real Connor, also on the book tour, tells her that someone has tried to kill him--twice. She thinks he just wants attention--until someone tries to harm her. When one of their tour group is killed, the remaining group members realize they're all suspects. All of them, including literary rivals, Connor's ex-wife, and Eleanor herself, have secrets, and reasons to want Connor dead. Mack's unusual format includes footnotes that directly address the reader, offering a chance to uncover secrets and the killer. VERDICT This humorous mystery with a touch of romance was auctioned to Fox TV for development as a series, with Mack writing the pilot. For fans of Knives Out or E.J. Copperman's "Jersey Girl Legal Mysteries."--Lesa Holstine
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A mystery writer's celebration of the 10th anniversary of her fact-based debut novel entangles her in--spoiler alert--another murder. A decade ago, Eleanor Dash partnered with dashing private eye Connor Smith to bring down an Italian crime family. Flushed with success, she wrote When in Rome, a novel in which she changed her name but not Connor's; he responded by demanding 10% of her advance and then, when the book turned out to be a success, 20% for the eight novels in the series she's published since then. Now a mystery tour of Italy, during which she hopes to work on her latest, Amalfi Made Me Do It, has reunited Eleanor and Connor, along with Harper Dash, the younger sister whose dreams of publishing her own novels have been put on hold indefinitely while she works as Eleanor's assistant; Allison Smith, the ex-wife Connor hid from Eleanor during their romance back then; Oliver Forrest, the boyfriend Eleanor replaced with Connor at the time; and several other mystery novelists and their fans, including Crazy Cathy, who's so persistent in her attentions that Eleanor has served her with an injunction. Eleanor loves her career, loves Italy, and loves both Connor and Oliver. Mainly, though, she loves herself and her prowess as a mysterymonger who turns out to be a lot less tricky than her models. Readers with a taste for self-reflexive self-infatuation are advised to skip the story proper--which takes an unconscionably long time to produce a corpse and even longer before Eleanor reviews the evidence and comes up with the wrong conclusion--and just read the 237 footnotes, many of them referencing other footnotes. How adorable is that? Brightly written piffle. To use the heroine's own bugaboo assessment: Meh. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
