Murder, Attempted Murder, Blackmail
Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley, MacMillan Audio, and Catherine Mack for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to audiobooks. They have really been able to help me read during the moments where I can’t just sit down and pick up a physical book. I am also so grateful that I have been able to get a bit more audiobooks on Netgalley, so thank you for this opportunity.
I really enjoy cozy mysteries and snarky books and this was that. From the moment that I saw the title and read a bit of the synopsis – I try not to read too much of it so I can go into a book without any preconceived notions as much as possible – I had a feeling that it was going to be a fun time. The main character Eleanor is a mystery author – talk about meta – who is on a tour in Italy to promote and celebrate her book series. During this time, she finds out that someone is either trying to kill her or kill the guy that her books are based on, all while trying to figure out how to kill the guy her books are based on… on the page of course. The footnotes in this book were so seamless in the story that I didn’t even realize that I was listening to them until later on in the book where Eleanor mentioned that they were footnotes. It almost reminded me of Nevernight by Jay Kristoff, and I feel like audiobooks that do a great job of making the footnotes such a seamless part of the book.
The story itself was entertaining and I found it funny to follow. I think what helped make it enjoyable for me was the snark and sarcasm from Eleanor’s footnotes. It was cool to be able to get into her head as she’s going through this trip. There were even some breaking the fourth wall moments where she talked directly to the readers to get them to solve the mystery of who was the killer, which almost made it seem like a murder mystery dinner type of thing. I personally don’t remember seeing that happen in recent books that I’ve read, so it was fun to experience.
Elizabeth Evans was a great narrator for this book, and I feel like she gave Eleanor life and voice for the story, and not just physically. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Elizabeth really was Eleanor and that this was based on a true story. I really enjoy when narrators are able to do this, and this is in no small part to Catherine Mack’s masterful writing style.
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 