Release Date: October 13, 2026

This limited deluxe edition paperback will feature stenciled edges and cover effects – available on the first printing only, so pre-order now!

A billionaire’s grandson and the housekeeper’s daughter square off in this cat-and-mouse holiday romance-mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.

Ella Chambers didn’t kill Liam Montgomery.

If she had, she certainly wouldn’t have done it outside his family’s mansion during the Christmas party of the year. She definitely wouldn’t have loaded his body into the trunk of her car. And she absolutely would not have announced to the town that the boy who ruined her life ten years ago was “so dead to her.”

But now Liam is missing—nothing but a bloody spot on the drive and a host of unanswered questions—and Ella is the only person who knows he’s still alive.

So it’s up to her to prove it.

Liam Montgomery didn’t want to die.

But, it turns out, when you’re the sole heir to a billionaire, someone might want you dead. Luckily for Liam, being dead works for him.

Now he’s on the hunt for a killer. Unfortunately, Ella is on the hunt for him.

She’ll have to prove he’s still alive to clear her name, but that’s easier said than done in a quaint mountain town where everyone knows your story but no one knows the truth. Can the billionaire’s grandson and the housekeeper’s daughter join forces to catch a killer? Or is their past too steeped in secrets and lies?

As the storm of the century blows in, every step will bring these two childhood rivals closer to a killer—and each other.

Because, this Christmas, only one thing is certain: it’s beginning to look a lot like murder.

Tropes:

• Holiday Romance
• Childhood Enemies-to-Lovers
• Cat and Mouse
• Slow Burn
• Forced Proximity