Published By: Macmillan
Pages: 416
Release On: 14/05/2026
Eleanor Dash can never catch a break, but she finally has the ticket to a relaxing weekend: an all-inclusive resort where she’s speaking at a conference for murder mystery writers. Then she checks in and finds a body on the floor of her hotel room.
Any one of the familiar faces at the resort could have been the intended target – or the culprit behind it all. Or perhaps it’s one of the other writers in attendance, who know all too well the many ways to craft a perfect crime.
Eleanor is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and must do whatever it takes to get out of this weekend alive . . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This is book three in the ‘Vacation Mystery’ series; the first being Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies, followed by No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding. I read all three in one weekend which I don’t necessarily advise as they do start to blend into one, so I will do my utmost to review just this third book.
I do love how Catherine has written it as if Eleanor is writing the book we’re reading and she’s talking directly to the reader. It really draws you in. She’s not just breaking the fourth wall, she’s destroying it.
It’s grittier than cosy crime but sweeter than a thriller so it’s hard to completely pinpoint what it is.
I read the first two in hardback and this one on Kindle. She litters each page with footnotes which are interesting. They’re not absolutely key to the plot so you won’t miss anything by not reading them, but I recommend you do as that’s where a lot of the humour lies. My e-arc copy did mean the footnotes appeared quite sporadically in the middle of sentences, but having read what they look like in a physical copy, I do recommend reading them.
We’ve got our usual character which add a sense of continuity and familiarity but we have some new ones to add a bit of freshness.
Her writing is smart and witty and is the standout positive about this series. The plot is well conceived and the characters believable and likeable – even if they’re not meant to be likeable.
This is probably my least favourite of the three. It’s still very good and I still enjoyed it and I’ll still recommend it, but I do wonder if the idea is getting a bit tired? It still works and, like I say, it’s still fun and enjoyable to read, but the three books are almost carbon copies of each other, so by the time you get to this one, you’ve sort of figured it out and it doesn’t quite have the same punch. But I admit that could be because I read all three in one weekend.
So in all, still enjoyable, I’d definitely recommend it (better in physical form), the writing is great, plot interesting, and characters fun to read about. But it’s lost a bit of the spark the other two, and especially the first one, had.
Books By Your Bedside 