It’s June. It’s summer. It’s time for beach reads.

I’ve picked two new ones by authors who I’ve never read before. They’re both women. One is Canadian and one is British. I chose these books because I liked the titles and I wanted something light, funny and fresh – with murders in it.

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‘Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies’ (2024) by Catherine Mack

Ok, I’ve already said that I liked the title (I’ve often thought that Jessica Fletcher should have had a t-shirt with those words on it). The cover screams light, funny and fast. Besides, nothing says beach read more than a cover with a beach on it (although I also liked the Amalfi lemons). But it was the opening paragraphs that finally made me press the Buy With One Click button. Take a look and you’ll see what I mean:

I loved the relaxed style and the publishing references and the hit-the-ground-running pace. In less time that it would have taken me to walk to the till in Waterstones, the audiobook was in my TBR.

It’s the first book in a series so, if it works out, this series might become an annual summer read for me.

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‘You May Now Kill The Bride’ (2024) by Kate Weston

In addition to the title, it was the Hen Do thing that drew me to this book. Hen Dos and Hen Weekends became a major thing in England while I was living abroad. I was quite taken aback when I encountered them when I returned. They are ubiquitous, raucous, filled, with choreographed faux-playfulness, fuelled by enormous amounts of alcohol and taken completely for granted. I’m still astonished by them. They make stag nights seem tired, timid and unimaginative.

What fascinates me is that there’s always at least one woman amongst the gaggle of naughty t-shirt-wearing, phallic balloon-waiving hens rolling through town like an incoming tide, who looks like she’s been taken prisoner, is regretting every penny she’s spent on the weekend, is questioning her life decisions and starting to contemplate revenge.

When I read the prologue to ‘You May Now Kill The Bride‘, an email from the organiser to the rest of the Hens that is a masterpiece of anxiety, forced jollity and passive aggression, I knew that Kate Weston also saw that disaffected woman and wondered what she might do if she had either a consequence-free opportunity or a really good plan. I’m looking forward to finding out.