Catherine Mack’s Vacation Mysteries Are Coming to TV: What We Know So Far

Last Updated on September 8, 2026

If you like your cozy mysteries with sunshine, vacations, writers behaving badly, and a heroine who is very aware that she appears to have wandered into a murder mystery, Catherine Mack’s Vacation Mysteries are going to be right up your street!

And there are now two rather good reasons to put the series on your radar.

First, we have a fourth book. You’ll Never Kill in This Town Again will be published on April 27th, 2027, bringing bestselling mystery writer and accidental sleuth Eleanor Dash back for another case.

This time, she is heading to Los Angeles, where even planning her wedding apparently cannot be achieved without somebody ending up dead.

Second, and perhaps even more interesting, the Vacation Mysteries are being developed for television by Fox, with Catherine Mack herself writing the pilot script.

So, if you have been meaning to catch up with Eleanor, now feels like a very good time to start.

What Is You’ll Never Kill in This Town Again About?

Book four finds Eleanor hoping for something remarkably simple. All she wants is enough peace and quiet to plan her wedding to fellow author Oliver Forrest.

Given that she has managed to become involved in three murder plots in the space of around six months, you can understand why she might be ready for a change of pace.

She is even thinking about stepping away from writing murder mysteries.

First, however, Eleanor has one final promotional job to complete. She has agreed to take part in a one-day bus tour around Los Angeles visiting locations connected to famous murders.

What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, obviously.

Eleanor and Oliver are joined by a familiar collection of friends, relatives and people who might make perfectly reasonable murder suspects, including Eleanor’s sister Harper, her troublesome former lover Connor Smith and members of the publishing and movie worlds.

Then Devin Hollister is found dead, and unfortunately for Oliver, he and Devin have history.

The two were once supposed to write a book together about Agatha Christie’s famous disappearance, told from the point of view of her husband Archie. The deal went badly wrong, leaving Oliver with an excellent motive as far as the police are concerned.

Suddenly Eleanor’s little break from solving murders is over before it has even started.

Mack has said the idea came partly from taking a hop-on, hop-off bus tour herself in Los Angeles, which seems wonderfully fitting for a series that has always mixed travel with murder.

Catherine Mack’s Vacation Mysteries in Order

The good news is that there is still plenty of time to catch up before April 2027, and this is definitely a series I would recommend reading in order.

The murder cases change from book to book, but Eleanor’s relationships, writing career and increasingly complicated personal life continue throughout.

1. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies (2024)

This is where we first meet Eleanor Dash, bestselling author of her own fictional Vacation Mysteries.

She is touring Italy with several other writers when someone begins trying to kill Connor Smith, the real-life man who inspired the hero of her books.

There is just one small problem. Eleanor cannot stand him.

Connor is handsome, annoying, and firmly attached to her life thanks to a rather messy history between them.

Eleanor was already considering killing off his fictional counterpart, but dealing with somebody trying to kill the actual Connor is rather more complicated.

Throw in rival authors, fans, old relationships, and Eleanor’s ex Oliver unexpectedly appearing, and her Italian book tour becomes much less relaxing than advertised.

The twist in this book series is that Eleanor talks directly to the reader, complete with footnotes, comments about mystery writing and the occasional acknowledgment that she knows exactly what sort of story she is living through.

2. No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding (2025)

Next comes a wedding on Catalina Island where Eleanor’s childhood best friend Emma Wood is marrying movie star Fred Winters after the pair work together on the film version of Eleanor’s first novel.

Naturally, Eleanor is invited. Also naturally, somebody sends Emma a note warning that someone is going to die at the wedding.

With a storm approaching and the wedding party gathered together on the island, Eleanor once again finds herself trying to work out who is telling the truth, who has a motive, and whether the threat is quite as simple as it first appears.

It is a classic closed-group mystery setup, only with Eleanor’s usual commentary running alongside it.

3. This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone (2026)

By book three, Eleanor should really have learned not to combine travel with anything involving mystery writers.

Instead, she heads to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas for a murder mystery writing conference. Then she arrives at her room and finds a body.

The potential suspect list is not exactly short either. Oliver is there, Connor is back, Eleanor’s sister Harper is involved, and the resort is packed with writers who spend much of their professional lives thinking about ways people might be murdered.

The book continues many of the personal threads from the first two stories while giving Eleanor another vacation that quickly stops feeling like one.

4. You’ll Never Kill in This Town Again (2027)

That brings us back to Los Angeles, Eleanor and Oliver’s wedding plans, the murder bus tour, and another dead body.

The fourth book is currently scheduled for April 27th, 2027, and will be published by Minotaur Books.

So What’s Happening With the Vacation Mysteries TV Series?

This may be the part that gets many of you interested!

Television rights to Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, and its sequels were sold to Fox for development as a series, following a major auction, and Catherine Mack is writing the pilot.

There is one important bit of TV language to keep in mind here. Being in development does not mean the show has been ordered to series yet.

At the moment, there is no announced cast, filming date, or premiere date. We are still at the stage where the project is being worked on.

Still, Mack writing the pilot herself is interesting because so much of the appeal comes from Eleanor’s voice.

The footnotes, direct comments to the reader and jokes about authors, publishing and mystery fiction are not simply extras. They are a big part of what makes these books feel different.

And, how that gets turned into television could be half the fun.

A Very Good Time to Meet Eleanor Dash

Four books, four trips and what is becoming a frankly worrying number of bodies.

If you have never read Catherine Mack’s Vacation Mysteries, I would start with Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies rather than jumping into whichever setting appeals most.

The actual cases stand on their own fairly well, but the relationships between Eleanor, Oliver, Connor and Harper are much more fun when you know how they got there.

And with book four coming in April 2027 and a possible Fox series somewhere down the line, Eleanor Dash may be spending quite a bit more time solving murders before she finally gets the peaceful vacation she keeps asking for.

At this point, perhaps she should just stay home! But where would the fun be in that??