Vacations Can Be Murder: Book 1
Publication Date: March 25, 2025
As Close as You Can Get to True Crime While Still Breathing!
For the true crime lover—finally, a travel guide from an award-winning travel journalist and suspense author that gives you the down and dirty on exactly where the major crimes occurred, and where the bodies are buried. For aficionados of paranormal, prison, and tombstone travel, there’s a goldmine of tourism suggestions for you here as well.
Along with summaries of the major crimes committed in New England, you’ll discover where to find the best crime and ghost tours; which hotels and restaurants are former jails, courthouses, or harbor paranormal activity; where infamous criminals are/were jailed, and which venues and attractions might feed your fancy for murder and justice. Reading lists in each chapter will guide you to books expounding on the crimes discussed.. Best of all, suggested itineraries bring all the pieces together to help you traverse New England’s criminal landscape in an organized and entertaining way. Up for a true crime road trip? Let Vacations Can Be Murder be your ultimate travel guide.
With a scintillating title like Vacations Can Be Murder, readers probably expect a crime thriller or mystery.
However, author Dawn M. Barclay, who writes an amazing psychological thriller under the name D.M. Barr, delivers a fascinating travel guide to New England geared for true crime lovers.
Complete with helpful words and phrases that might sound a bit strange to Southerners, the guide lays out everything needed to experience the memorable crimes from this part of the United States.
Organized by state, the author lists crime statistics: summaries of serial killings, mass shootings, mob hits, and other crimes and a sampling of travel books specific to that area. Of special interest is the listing of accommodations/restaurants that are crime/justice-related or haunted, crime and paranormal tours, and other significant sites to visit.
As the first in a series on the topic, this installment covers Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Handy notes at the end of the guide provide resources for anyone interested in a deeper dive into specific items.
Vacations Can Be Murder provides true crime fans with a collection of crime-related and paranormal stops in New England.
Dawn M. Barclay is a veteran travel trade reporter and an award-winning author who writes nonfiction under her own name and fiction as D.M. Barr. Her first nonfiction book, Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) received a starred review from Library Journal, and won the 2023 Lowell Thomas Gold Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, Honorable Mention from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (Books that Make a Difference), and first prize in the Maxy Awards. When not writing, she edits for various authors and publishers, creates book trailers, ghostwrites (nonfiction only!), plays competitive trivia, rescues senior shelter dogs, travel, reads, and apparently, drives her family nuts…but they won’t admit it, of course, since she knows a lot about murder.
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Thanks for sharing. I will be starting this one today! Very excited!
So glad you enjoyed Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover’s Travel Guide to New England. Look for the Mid-Atlantic States edition (NY/NJ/PA), coming out in August!