Book Review: The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Last year I saw a few people talking about The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter and added it to my holiday tbr for this year. The book sounded good and the cover alone had me wanting to read it! I read it in just a couple days and loved it!

The novel follows Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt. They’re both popular mystery writers for the same publisher and have known each other for a few years. Maggie write cozy mysteries and Ethan writes crime thrillers. Maggie sees Ethan as her rival/enemy and she thinks he feels the same way. But, Ethan doesn’t even know they’re “enemies”.

When they’re both given mysterious invites to spend Christmas abroad, they are intrigued and go even though they’ll have to spend the holiday together. When they arrive at a huge estate in the English countryside, they are shocked to find that they’ve been invited by the most famous mystery writer of all, Eleanor Ashley. The Duchess of Death, herself! Maggie is a huge fan and can’t believe she is staying with Eleanor Ashley.

Maggie and Ethan, along with another famous mystery writer, Sir Jasper, have been invited much to the surprise of Eleanor’s relatives who are also there for the holiday. Then, Eleanor goes missing! From a locked room! Did she plan her own disappearance? Did someone kidnap her? Is someone trying to kill her? There are signs around the estate that someone may have been targeting her for a few weeks, but who? Some may believe Maggie or Ethan are responsible since they are new and no one really knows them. But, her relatives all seem to be more interested in their inheritance than in finding Eleanor, which seems highly suspicious. Maggie and Ethan take it upon themselves to solve the mystery.

I loved this book! It was such a fun mystery and I loved Maggie and Ethan. The banter was fun and really made this a romcom, but Maggie and Ethan’s backstories are so much deeper and a bit sad so I think it’s amazing that Ally Carter was able to seamlessly weave the lighthearted comedy with these deeper, sadder topics and themes. The way she wove in Maggie and Ethan’s past with their present was so good too. I loved how much Maggie wanted to hate Ethan and how much he just loved her anyway. It made the story so much more fun! I finished the book wanting more of them!

Read this if you want a holiday mystery romcom with the enemies to lovers (but he doesn’t know they’re enemies) trope.

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