Her Last Christmas

by Claire McGowan

She couldn’t wait for their first Christmas together. But it might be her last.

When Emma joins her new boyfriend Michael for a ‘Friendmas’ in the Alps, she’s quickly thrust into an exclusive world of privilege, partying, and politics. Emma can’t ski and is out of place among the close-knit group, but she’s determined to win them over.

Without the usual headache of extended family members, Brussels sprouts, and unwanted gifts, the group turn back the clock and unwind with wild abandon. As a storm gathers outside, the friends begin to retrace their past, prodding at memories and feelings that have long been buried.

When the house wakes on Christmas morning, they find one of their party dead. Thanks to the storm, no one can leave, and they can’t call the police either. As the snow piles up, the evidence of the night before begins to disappear, and with it goes the ability to distinguish friend from foe.

As the group turn on her, Emma must find a way out before the killer finds her.

From the million-copy bestseller Claire McGowan comes a white-knuckle thriller that asks how far people are prepared to go to keep their stories hidden.

Genres: Audiobook, Thriller, Mystery, Christmas, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller

Audiobook

First published November 10, 2025

About the author

Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After a degree in English and French from Oxford University she moved to London and worked in the charity sector. THE FALL is her first novel, which is followed by a series starring forensic psychologist Paula Maguire. She also writes as Eva Woods.

Reviews

[Nina (ninjasbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I listened to this, and I still remember the details which aren’t always the case. There was a lot of suspense, and although some of it was a bit cringe I still enjoyed it.

[Lavins · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

Ridiculous.
For a short book, this was pretty long and dragged. The ending was terrible.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this actually. I don’t really get the low ratings. It’s not mind blowing, no. But it’s far from bad, and the amount of time and effort it required of me I feel like made it worth listening too if it seems at all interesting. It’s a short, locked room Christmas mystery/thriller.

Ticked a lot of my favorite boxes: sinister Christmasy stuff, rich people doing rich people shit, rich people being shitty (and violent) to each other, luxurious settings, snowy/stormy/isolated setting. It was quick and easily digestible and not too hard to follow.

Honestly it would have been hard for the author to get me not to like it. lol.

But that’s me. If you’re looking for a quick holiday thriller this isn’t a bad place to start.

[Alisonbookreviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Kind of predictable thriller about a murder a ski chalet during a snow storm.
A whodunit with 5 remaining people stranded in the chalet on Christmas day.
Ema is the newest girlfriend to join the couples so she right away becomes the suspect. She also lost her necklace which was planted near the female victim.
The ending was meh.

[Karine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve listened to the Audible during a long flight.
So maybe I’ve been deprived of fresh air for too long or I got seriously dehydrated and that is why I really didn’t like this book at all (the two stars are for the narration).
I don’t know, but I doubt I would have liked it listening from my comfy couch either.
I would expect so much more from this author, I loved the Paula McGuire books, but this was so cookie cutter on all fronts I genuinely cannot find a redeeming quality to it. Oh maybe one: it’s short.

[Candace S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friends, if your uber hot and wealthy boyfriend/fiancé/new husband wants to take you to their remote country house/manor/private island/ski chalet for the holidays with their ultra wealthy family or friends, do NOT do it. How many holiday thrillers do we need to teach us that you WILL be sacrificed/murdered/framed by the bored and amoral 1%? It’s not worth it. You in danger, girl.

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audible audio
----

Not bad but not great either *shrugs* it helped keep depression at bay for a little while and got me out of my own head.

The ending was a bit meh and could have been fleshed out better.

Hayley Atwell did a good job of narrating. Her voice has a soothing quality and helped me stay invested enough to finish.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook

The characters were so stupid and the dialogue was ridiculous at times.

[Victoria-Jayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm glad it was her last christmas because this whole story was terrible 😂🥱

[Marnie (Enchanted Bibliophile) · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a short story this dragged on forever.
The character was bland and awful.
The suspense smeared on so thickly it had me rolling my eyes.
And the predictability of it all was just a let down.
Also did not enjoy the audio narration.

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One rich woman annoyed by other rich people. Yearning to be a politician’s wife is not exactly something you put on a résumé.

[Auudreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

ೃ⁀➷ 4⭐️

Pour être tout à fait honnête je me suis lancée dans cette écoute car c’est un livre offert avec l’abonnement Audible et que c’est la période de Noël donc j’en ai profité.

Au début j’avais un peu la haine car je n’aimais pas du tout les amis de Michael, le copain d’Emma et ça prenait pas mal de place. On ne finit pas par s’y faire et j’avais vraiment envie de 👊🏼 certaines personnes ohlala
Ensuite honnêtement je suis étonnée des si petites notes. C’était hyper addictif, j’avais toujours envie d’en savoir plus, j’avais des soupçons sur des gens puis en fait non, et puis en fait oui.

Par contre la révélation de la fin ? un peu arrivée comme un cheveu sur la soupe.

Michael par contre quel crétin punaise. Je l’ai détesté du début à la fin.
En fait tous les personnages sont détestables. Même Emma au final. Avec tout ce qu’elle voit elle est hyper naïve à toujours se dire si oui mais non c’est pardonnable. Ugh beurk.

Donc c’est pas une lecture ultra agréable en terme de sentiment mais j’étais franchement happée. C’est fluide et ça nous tient en haleine.
Je le recommande si vous avez l’abonnement Audible. C’est 5h d’écoute et c’est franchement sympa.

[C.J. Daley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grabbed this audible original for a little holiday listening. Narration by Hayley Atwell was certainly a solid selling point too.

Emma joins her boyfriend and his best friends on a Christmas-break ski trip. Truth be told, she was hoping the request to go away meant just her and Michael, but this is a full on Friendmas. Her boyfriend is a politician and all of his friends are in one way or another wealthy. A private chateau in the Alps sounds like a hell of a trip, too bad her boyfriend’s best friends are all snobs. Backhanded and outright hostile comments and insults are hurled even on the first day of the trip. But then the night a snowstorm blows in, virtually trapping them, one of the woman—who has a NOT-so-distant past with Michael—winds up dead in the hot tub outside, either drowned or strangled.

When Emma’s necklace is found outside with a few hairs of the deceased stuck in its clasp, the friends spare no time at all turning on the person they know the least. The author does a good job of handling how alienated you’d feel if this were to happen. There is a class difference (as well as some gross comments), there is a life filled with secrets and inside jokes she’s missed, and worse, she realizes she doesn’t actually know any of them enough to rule them out as killers—Michael sadly included. It also dips into how far money can take you in terms of covering up tragedies AND murders.

The characters are rich business owners, influencers and even a film director. Even though some of them came from nothing, they show a serious lack of understanding and Emma remarks upon the waste of the wealthy more than once. A cleaning staff, that also prepares the food and shops, is told not to speak to the people and Emma is even told to ignore them. They only drink champagne worth hundreds of dollars a bottle and make snide remarks when it’s gone. They show a clear disregard for anyone they consider lesser, and this does a fantastic job of introducing a group of people that you could easily see blaming a murder, even when it was one of their friends, on someone they view as other.

Emma’s trapped on the mountain and all she knows for certain is that there is a murderer among them. As she said yes to the trip more for her boyfriend’s sake than any idea of actual fun, she’s the least skilled skier, and the only chance of escape is down the snowed out mountain. Still she has to try. The ending kind of took me by surprise. Not just in the typical, thriller twist-ending sense, but also the choice the author made. I won’t say more and spoil it, but I think the additional twist at the end, the sort of “I can trust no one but myself” change is what saved it. I don’t mind the more open ending too, as I can imagine what I wanted to happen just fine.

https://fanfiaddict.com/review-her-la...

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very okay. The narrator is great. 3 stars for the second half redeeming itself, minus the reveal.

[Niamh McAllister · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was batshit fucking crazy.

[Jo Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

[Ebony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay for the most part.

I liked the audio production and the voice actor but the story itself was lacking.

The ending was silly, and I wasn’t surprised at any of the reveals. Mostly it was entertaining because of how melodramatic it was. Nicola was the funniest character ever and every time she’d take the piss out of the main character I laughed. Obviously you’re supposed to hate them and route for the main character, but I didn’t care about the wellbeing of any of them, and every time they went skiing it looked so comical in my head lol

Two stars because it’s a stupid plot. Though let it be said that I might read it again next year if I want a good laugh.

[Allyson Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the book was meh but the ending was really bad. Extremely hateable characters also.

[Maythinee Washington · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.9 stars. Can't give it a 3 😅. Mercifully quick thriller jaunt set during the holidays of some terrible rich people and a working class, upwardly mobile woman in her 30s who literally goes past her skis. If it had been longer, all of the faults would have irritated me even more than they did. As it stands, I still think this book could have benefitted from strong editor feedback to make the storytelling more robust (i.e. more HBO or even Hulu and less Lifetime movie of the week—no shade that has its place!). IMHO 1 of 2 things needed to have shifted: either Emma, the criminal law barrister needed to actually be as smart as a criminal law barrister OR she needed to have been a character with some other profession completely unfamiliar with criminology, because I spent nearly the entire time after the mvrder yelling at my girl to wise up, to get *at least* 10% more invested in self-preservation, and at least 100% more self-possessed and not a doormat. The amount of times she *still* clings to her boyfriend, even after [redacted] and [redacted] and [redacted] would be a test case in self-esteem for any therapist, life coach, or self-help guru worth their salt. What is even more ridiculous is that she keeps thinking her choices make her a "survivor" when by novel's end, they really make her an opportunist 🫠

[Joana Faria]

Rubbish.
But fun.
A cozy Christmas thriller that was perfect for my commute, workday, and shopping runs.

[Marie-Christine Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai bien aimé, mais la fin; un GROS boff 😂..
Les personnages sont particulièrement détestables mais attachant en même temps.
Bref, j’ai passé un bon moment d’écoute.

[Naomi Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a major who done it book. You truly cant trust anyone especially those who have so much to lose.

It drove me crazy in why she even went on a vacation with your bfs friends who you have never hung out with ! Then she goes and does that at the end ? makes no sense to me.

[Paula McArdle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting! Had me guessing all over the place!

[Nikos Drosinos · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️- Just finished this audiobook and my impression can be summarised in three words: it was… fine 🎧❄️. Not bad, not great, just mostly unremarkable.

The story was easy enough to follow and kept me mildly engaged, but nothing really stood out or lingered once it was over 📖😐. The twists didn’t quite land for me, and I never felt that edge-of-your-seat tension I was hoping for 😬➡️😶.

It worked as background listening and passed the time, but it didn’t surprise me or leave much of an impression 🎄🕰️. Overall, an okay festive thriller, but one I’ll probably forget pretty quickly.

[kate ✧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

thought this would be better but i just hated every single character the entire time

[Clara Morin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick Christmas thriller. The ending could have been better; it was very anticlimactic.

[Rina.P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Rezensionen hatten mich etwas verunsichert und ich hätte ihm fast keine Chance gegeben. Ich persönlich fand den Thriller nicht schlecht. Die Sprecherin war super. Spannend hm, vielleicht nicht wie man es bei einem Thriller erwartet. Allerdings muss ich zu meiner Person auch sagen, da ich so viel gemixt lese, bin ich wohl schneller zufrieden als regelmäßige ThrillerleserInnen. Die Länge fand ich auch gut. Gabe genug Füllstoffe zum Anfang. Es ist kein reissender Psychothriller, eher ruhig. So vorausschauend fand ich ihn jetzt auch nicht . Klar ermittelt man mit und kommt auf Lösungen. Das Ende war erst bisschen enttäuschend, aber hat sich dann doch noch positiv gewendet.
Von mir gibt es ein gut

[Rochi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75✨️

[All Things Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok audible book. It didn't have any amazing twists or shock factor, but it was a basic "who done it" story. I probably won't remember it in a few weeks, but it passed the time as I was getting some work done.

[April Saunders · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two stars are solely for the narrator, Hayley Atwell, who did a great job. Unfortunately, the story itself was drawn-out and dull, with a very ‘cookie cutter’ plot. The characters were pretentious and irritating, and the ending was predictable and underwhelming.