This Weekend Doesn't End Well for Anyone by Catherine Mack [Audiobook]

Description from Goodreads:

"Eleanor Dash can never catch a break. Not only has she had to solve two real-life murder plots in the past year, but both times it was when she was meant to be on vacation. Now she’s finally got a ticket to a relaxing weekend—an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas where she’s speaking at a conference for murder mystery writers—but she arrives to find a body on the floor of her hotel room. Because of course she does.

With plenty of familiar faces at the resort, any one of them could have been the intended target or the culprit behind it all. Was it Oliver Forrest, Eleanor’s dashing boyfriend who’s in danger of getting dropped by his publisher because his sales are dwindling? Or Connor Smith, Eleanor’s infuriating ex-lover-turned-bestselling-rom-com-author with a sordid past of his own? Or her sister Harper, whose own stilted writing career has been a sore point for years as Eleanor’s has soared? Perhaps it’s one of the other writers also in attendance, as friends, frenemies and foes from Eleanor’s past all seem to be invited to the island.

Surrounded by mystery writers who know all too well the many ways to craft the perfect crime, Eleanor is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and do whatever it takes to get out of this weekend alive."

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A resort mystery that got a bit too chaotic for me

I jumped into this audiobook expecting a fun, locked-island style mystery with plenty of twists. While it definitely kept me guessing, it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

The story follows Eleanor Dash, an author who finds herself at an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas for a murder mystery writers' conference. Instead of a relaxing weekend, she arrives to find a dead body right on her hotel room floor. It's a classic setup that I usually love, but the execution felt a bit messy here.

There were so many characters to keep track of, and unfortunately, I didn't find many of them particularly easy to root for. The pacing felt quite disjointed too and the plot got so convoluted towards the end with all the red herrings that it felt a bit far-fetched, even for a light thriller.

To be fair, I didn't realise until after I started that this is actually the third book in a series. That definitely might have affected how I felt about the story, as I felt like I was missing some of the background history between the recurring characters.

On the plus side, the narrator did a good job. She managed to give everyone distinct voices which helped me follow who was speaking during the chaotic group scenes, and she handled the quirky little footnotes where the main character pops in to talk directly to the reader really well.

I actually have the physical copy of the book to read as well. The story features a huge amount of those footnotes and modern slang, which felt a bit disruptive in audio format, so maybe I will prefer reading the physical version instead – I'm not entirely sure yet but I will give it a go.

Many thanks to the author, Macmillan and NetGalley for enabling me to listen to and share my thoughts.

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