"Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies"

Catherine Mack (she/her) is the pseudonym for the USA Today and Globe & Mail bestselling author of over a dozen novels. Her books are approaching two million copies sold worldwide and have been translated into multiple languages including French, German, and Polish. Television rights to her new novel, Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, and its sequels sold in a major auction to Fox TV for development into a series, with Mack writing the pilot script. She splits her time between Canada and the US.

Mack applied the Page 69 Test to Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies and reported the following:

Page 69 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies begins thusly:

“That asshole.”

“Be nice.”

“Why? He’s refused to blurb me a million times, and his review of Highland Killing in the New York Times called it ‘derivative’.”

“Amazing how good your memory is when it has to do with insults.”

This is an exchange between the main character, Eleanor Dash, and her sister, Harper. It is entirely indicative of the tone of the book and the dynamic between those two characters. They’re talking about a third character, Shek, who is, in fact, an asshole. So yep, yep, yep, ding, ding, ding. From this we know that Eleanor is 1) a writer of mysteries, 2) holds grudges, 3) being reviewed in the New York Times, 4) mad about it, 5) free with her thoughts, opinions, and swear words, and 6) comfortable with whoever she is speaking to. I guess we don’t know that a murder is about to occur, but the title gives that away! So, I’d say the book passed the page 69 test! Woohoo, I love passing tests. Passing is better than failing, don’t you agree?

Visit Catherine McKenzie's website.

--Marshal Zeringue