Ask a Bookseller: ‘No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding’ by Catherine Mack

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

School is out (or soon-to-be-out) across Minnesota, and that means it’s time for summer reads! But just because you bring a book to the lake, that doesn’t mean it can’t be smart as well as a fun escape.

To that end, Julia Green of Front Street Books in Alpine, Texas recommends the lighthearted whodunit, “No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding” by Catherine Mack.

Readers might recognize this title as the second in Mack’s Vacation Mysteries series, the first being the USA Today bestseller “Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies,” but Green says you don’t need to have read the first to dive right into the second.

Mystery writer Eleanor Dash is on set to see her best friend Emma star in the movie adaptation of Dash’s first novel, after which the entire cast and crew head to a nearby island to celebrate Emma’s wedding.

There is a storm on its way, and soon they are trapped on the island with a dead body. Of course, the writer of mysteries feels the need to step in to solve the case, as does the method actor who played a policeman on film.

As Green tells it, “There are lots of shenanigans. It’s very funny. It’s silly, but it’s not superficial, and it’s not trivial. It’s a wonderful homage, if a little light-hearted, to Agatha Christie.”

“[The book] has smart characters who don’t make idiotic mistakes. It’s not stressful. And when you pick up this book, you know that you’ve got a few peaceful, really entertaining hours ahead of you. You’re going to sit there and you're going to get sunburned because you're not going to want to get off the beach because you don't want to stop reading!”