zondag 22 december 2024

Book Review - The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

Title:
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
Author: Ally Carter
Genre: Mystery/ Romance
Published: 2024
 
Description: The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.
 
Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt. She’s the new queen of the Cozy Mystery, he’s the big-time thriller guy. She hates his guts. He thinks her name is Marcie.
 
But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house part at the Englishestate of a reclusice fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.
 
That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone. She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?
As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth – and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.
 
Review: A Christmas mystery, it’s the perfect time to read that. It was compared to “Knives Out” which is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I was excited.
 
We meet Maggie, who is the author of cozy mystery novels. She is a huge fan of Eleanor Ashley, a mystery writer who inspired Maggie to become an author herself. She is invited to a Christmas gathering in a huge estate, together with Ethan Wyatt, a thriller author who she absolutely despises. When they arrive, they find out it was actually Eleanor Ashley who invited them, but they have no idea why. The next morning, three days before Christmas, Eleanor goes missing and Maggie and Ethan have to work together to solve the mystery.
 
The book started off so strong, I was eating it up and couldn’t put it down. I loved the banter between Maggie and Ethan. And I love stories about authors. I found the mystery itself interesting at first, but they seemed to deviate from this more and more. Focusing more on the tension and romance between Maggie and Ethan. Which is okay, I guess, but I wanted more mystery and the romance element to be present just a little less. And it got way too sugar sweet and cheesy for me. I do feel that this is a perfect Christmas read, with all the festive vibes and winter atmosphere. And I do see the “Knives Out” comparison, but the mystery in “The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year” is not even close to being as interesting as “Knives Out” is.
 
In the end, it was a fun read, but I wished it had more mystery and less romance.
 
Rating: 3/ 5

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