Review by jennifermreads - No One Was Supposed to Die at this Wedding

jennifermreads 's review for:

No One Was Supposed to Die at this Wedding by Catherine Mack

4.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Received audiobook from publisher in StoryGraph giveaway

With a series, inevitably I get the question “Should I read them in order?” The quick answer here is “For this series, yes.”

Now for the long answer. I enjoyed the second book in the Vacation Mysteries series without having read the first installment. However, in addition to the apparent character development that I am guessing occurred in the first, there also were numerous references to the first book’s plot as well as spoilers. At 25% of the audiobook, I contemplated pausing and looping back to read the Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies but opted to push on.

I found the first-person narrative refreshing, especially as the MC Eleanor frequently broke the fourth wall by using footnotes. Now, I know footnotes can annoy some readers. With the audiobook, those notes were eloquently integrated into the text by the talented narrator, Elizabeth Evans, slightly shifting her voice into an “aside” or “I’m telling you a little something extra” tone. Early on, Eleanor tells the reader that the footnotes are “optional. If you want to skip them, do. I promise not to drop too many clues in here.” So, there you go: your choice!

With murder mysteries, sometimes I like to try to figure out who-dun-it before it is revealed but other times, I just go along for the ride and leave the discovery to the story’s detective. No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding fell into the “along for the ride” camp. And what a ride it was! The twists, the turns, the bodies dropping, the drama that inevitably comes along with all-things-Hollywood. I did not see the ending coming, well, the solution. Because the ending? The epilogue ends with a quick peek at the next book (aka the next body) in the series.

This was a delightful, light mystery. While I’m not certain I will read other Vacation Mysteries, I may just click “borrow” on one when prepping for our next road trip. With the humor dusted throughout the tale, these stories would be wonderfully fun for long treks in the car.

Content Warnings