The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Ally Carter

3 stars

Format: Kindle

Tis the season for a cozy mystery and deck the halls with poison and snipers.

This is a new genre for me, so I approached it with an open mind. I love a good locked-room murder mystery and what could be better than one set at Christmastime in the English countryside? The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is billed as a Knives Out-esque enemies-to-lovers romance and for an easy read, this is a fun one. 

Maggie is a mystery author inspired by the great Eleanor Ashley, a prolific author. Lonely and disgruntled at Christmas, she accepts a mysterious invitation to England, yet immediately notices her nemesis (and popular thriller novelist) Ethan Wyatt is also on board the private jet. Upon landing, the two find themselves in the manor of Eleanor Ashley, along with The Duchess of Death’s friends and family. The first night Eleanor disappears from her locked office and the race is on to find out what happened as a blizzard rips through the 20,000-acre estate. Maggie is forced to trust Ethan and while they piece together clues, the two find their own source of heat in the snowstorm. 

I wanted to like this, I really did. But Maggie was an unlikeable heroine. In the beginning I found her to be cruel and absorbed in her own misery. Maggie shows a sliver of personality during the final chapters but sounds like a completely different character during the police investigation transcript chapters. The things she says to Ethan are not flirty, but downright mean. Ethan needs a reality check too. His use of “sweetheart” was pretty cringey and his tight-lipped background fell flat.

Big picture, TMWCOTY is a great premise. Once you get into the details and the characters though, to quote Cher Horowitz, it’s a full-on Monet. I am just going to jingle all the way to another book.