This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone

Mack’s sly third whodunit featuring bestselling author Eleanor Dash (after No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding) finds her heading to the Bahamas to speak at a murder mystery conference. Upon arriving at the rundown resort, Eleanor and her boyfriend, fellow author Oliver Forrest, are shown to their room, where they discover the dead body of a man whom nobody else at the resort seems to know. Eleanor has little time to consider the victim’s identity before she’s whisked away to address her first group of students, including her stalker, Cathy. Also present at the conference are Connor Smith, Eleanor’s ex-lover who has become a successful rom-com author (“The protagonist of my novels and antagonist of my life,” as she puts it), and a host of publishing acquaintances who might plausibly want the worst for Eleanor. Soon after she finally finds the time to investigate the first murder, more bodies start piling up. The series’ signature humor, delivered via footnotes and Eleanor’s sardonic first-person narration, is as fresh as ever, but Mack nearly overwhelms the proceedings with more suspects and red herrings than usual. Still, there’s enough fun on offer here to smooth over the bumps. (Apr.)