The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year: A Novel
4.3 | 9,001 ratings
Price: 12.99
Last update: 12-05-2025
Product details
- ASIN : B0CRQHRDK1
- Publisher : Avon
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : September 24, 2024
- Language : English
- File size : 2.8 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 303 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-0063276734
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank:#73 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Action & Adventure Romance (Books)
- Women's Romance Fiction
- Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:4.34.3 out of 5 stars(9,047)
Top reviews from the United States
- Miss Printperfect all yearMaggie Chase doesn't have a lot after her ugly divorce and, well, everything else. But she has made a name for herself as the queen of Cozy mysteries--and a lot of other genres besides as one of her publisher's most prolific authors.
Ethan Freaking Wyatt is a bit of a mystery. But the mystery is part of the brand and when you're making a name for yourself in publishing, the brand is everything. He writes bestselling thrillers where the back cover is an author photo and the author is wearing a leather jacket.
He has an annoying habit of calling her Marcie, no matter how many times she tells him her name, and is the reason she can't return to several airports and publishing venues. In short, he drives Maggie nuts.
Which is why Maggie is more than a little hesitant when her editor tells Maggie that she and Ethan have both been invited by a fan to a Christmas house party at a sprawling English estate. The only thing Maggie might dislike more than Ethan Freaking Wyatt is Christmas. She has her reasons.
Maggie's reluctant agreement turns to shocked excitement when she finds out their reclusive fan is none other than Eleanor Ashley--the Duchess of Death and the woman who singlehandedly pioneered the mystery genre as we know it.
But then the snow starts to fall and Eleanor has disappeared from a locked room. It might be an elaborate test, a kidnapping, or a murder. No one knows for sure and as Maggie follows the clues she has to decide if Ethan is still her competition the way she always thought of if he might actually be the only person she can count on in The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (2024) by Ally Carter.
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is a standalone mystery romance (although fans will agree there is ample room for a sequel!). The story is primarily narrated by Maggie with a few scenes from Ethan's perspective, flashbacks, and excerpts from police interviews. Major characters are cued as white. Listen to the audio narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and Zachary Webber for an immersive reading experience.
With a dedication that reads "If anyone has ever tried to gaslight you into thinking you're the problem, congratulations! This book is for you." it's no surprise that Maggie's path to regain her confidence is as integral to the story as the romance and mystery. This book has something for all the Swifties as well with a plot that is very "mad woman" and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" coded.
Carter once again delivers the perfect blend of high stakes action and light romance, this time wrapped up in a story inspired by the real life disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926 (read more about it at the UK National Archives). The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is packed with banter, holiday sweaters, and plenty of romance tropes. We have "he falls first and harder," "touch her and you die," not to mention the impeccable vibes from the movie Knives Out but with 100% more kissing.
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is everything a reader could want for a holiday mystery or a holiday romance but, really, it's a perfect choice any time of the year.
Possible Pairings: All I Want is You by Falon Ballard, It's Elementary by Elise Bryant, The Knife Before Christmas by Kate Carlisle, She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke, Unromance by Erin O'Connor, You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego, I Did Something Bad by Pyae Moe Thet War, Knives Out - DW BookerFabulous Christmas caper balances whodunnit with low-spice romance with some nice depth!I forget where I saw this book mentioned, but after reading the description on the author's page, which I liked, I sent it to my "clean romance"-loving friend and kind of forgot about it? But a week later my friend thanked me for recommending it, saying it was really fun. So I got my own Kindle copy and started reading...but I wasn't hooked at first--more confused than anything. But that wasn't because of book; my life was crazy for a sec and my head wasn't in the reading game. As a result, I spent too much time between reading sessions on the first few chapters and forgot things. But I could tell the writing was good, my friend liked it, and the chapters were SUPER short, so I just restarted the book.
I'm glad I did! My friend pictured Ethan as Tony DiNozzo from NCIS and I thought that was a fine mental image of the rapscallion...who has much more to him than meets the eye! In fact, the main characters you spend time with have a lot of interesting pasts. I'm not sure if I'd call it "enemies to lovers" since he never butted heads with her; he was clearly playful the whole time, and she was clearly the grompy one in the relationship. But I liked their dynamic and banter, it was fun!
The "whodunnit" characters aren't as fleshed out, but that didn't bother me. I really loved the cozy Christmas atmosphere in this big spooky mystery mansion, and the ending is solid. I'm glad I bought this so I can read it again next year! - Bridget SheppardA fun, fast-paced holiday mystery and romanceI really enjoyed this book and happily give it four and a half stars (rounded up to five for the purposes of this review). It was the perfect book to end 2024 on. I’ve heard this book compared to Knives Out, and I can definitely see why. It’s a suspenseful murder mystery (but more cozy than thriller) with a nice swoony romance (closed door). It also delved into the main characters’ backgrounds, and they’d experienced more trauma than I expected in this type of book.
I always enjoy a good enemies-to-lovers trope, even though readers learn something about Ethan that makes that trope not quite accurate. I also like it when the male character falls in love first, which the book executes splendidly! I have to admit, I was completely clueless to the murderer plot twist until Maggie revealed it, and even though a big part of this story was the romance (which was wonderful), I think Ally Carter did a fantastic job with the mystery. I hope she’ll write more stories like this in the future!
I’ve heard many people say the one thing that aggravated them about this book was the use of the word “sweetheart.” I understand that, and it bugged me a little bit too (especially after we understand the cute bit about Ethan always getting Maggie’s name wrong; he could just call her by her name and it would be sweet enough), but it didn’t start until more than halfway through the book, so it wasn’t that bad.
I thought all the characters in the story were quirky and perfect for this kind of mystery. I also enjoyed Maggie’s personal growth and the natural-feeling team she created with Ethan.
Although I realize 2024 is now over and you may want to wait until next holiday season to read this book (although in my opinion you can read holiday-themed books whenever you want), I highly recommend The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year if you are looking for a fun, fast-paced, mysterious, and swoony story.