Do you like cozy mysteries that take place in small England towns? That take place in two time periods? So you like twists and turns that have you guessing that everyone and no one is the culprit? If so, this book might be right up your alley.

Annie Adams thinks she’s going to a Castle Knoll to meet about a revision to her great aunt’s will. But when her great aunt Frances turns up dead 60 years after a fortune teller predicts her murder, Annie is determined to find her killer with the help of the info Frances has been collecting for years.

This book has a lot of buzz around it. I’d say for 60% of the book I didn’t get why it’s considered one of the hottest books of the year, and then it kicked into gear. I know there’s not really a fine line between a regular mystery and a cozy mystery., but this one feels like it got right up close to it due to the nature of the crimes and intrigue that take place. The comparison made to Knives Out in the book blurb I read is actually pretty apt: there’s a lot of twists and turns that kept me guessing who did it, and stuff I wasn’t expecting. The pacing for me felt a bit slow in comparison to Knives Out however, and I was looking for something that moved a bit quicker. For that, I’m giving it a solid 3.5 stars out of 5. However I’m confident that cozy mystery fans will enjoy it.

Many thanks to Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book! How to Solve Your Own Murder is an intriguing murder mystery. Our lead, Annie, gets mysteriously summoned to the countryside by her great aunt, who - no spoilers- ends up murdered. Great Aunt Frances, as we come to learn, has spent a majority of her lifetime gathering evidence and trying to predict who might murder her, leaving many clues behind when it actually happens. What follows is the reader working through the mystery with Annie as she meets the town's characters and tries to work out both the history of what has happened and what's going on in present day. Overall, I found this tory to be really interesting, albeit a little bit confusing at times. I did appreciate the time hopping between present and Frances' diary, because that provided a fun perspective and allowed us to meet a character who unfortunately is deceased for a majority of the book. I also think this book really nicely sets up a sequel, which I'd be interested in reading.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a great read for people who prefer their mysteries not too bloody.

Annie Adams receives an odd summons in London: She's asked to visit a great-aunt she's never met. When she arrives, her Great Aunt Frances is dead. The murder isn't exactly a surprise. A fortune-teller told Frances in 1965 that she'd be murdered, and she spent the rest of her life trying to figure out who in her village would kill her and why.

Frances' will contains a twist: If Annie can solve the murder within a week, she inherits the entire (hefty) estate. The same provision applies to another relative, setting up a competition. If neither solves it, or the police solve it first, the estate will be sold off to a property developer.

Author Kristen Perrin alternates chapters between Annie in the present day and Frances in the past, creating strong dual heroines.

Like an Agatha Christie novel, the book is somewhat overstuffed with suspects. The difficulty of writing a mystery is pulling off the twist. Drop too many clues, and the reader will guess the culprit early. Drop too few, and the reader may say, "Where the heck did THAT come from?" Perrin's ending falls more toward the latter category, but it's not so far out of left field that it ruins the enjoyment.

This book is highly recommended for fans of the Thursday Murder Club series.

I received an early review copy from NetGalley.

A bit of a cozy mystery, “How to Solve Your Own Murder” by Kristen Perrin starts with a very interesting premise: if you believe that you will be murdered, and you live your whole life trying to prevent this, what happens when you actually are murdered?

Annie Adams is called out to visit her great-aunt Frances, whom she has never met, for a meeting where changes to Frances’ will are going to be discussed. Arriving at the English village where Frances lives, she stumbles into a murder scene before she even gets a chance to meet her.

It turns out that Frances had her fortune told when she was a teenager, a fortune that predicted her murder. When one of her best friends disappears, Frances is determined to solve her friend’s disappearance as well as her foretold murder. For the next 60 years, Frances gathers every story, every item of gossip, every piece of dirt in the village to try to discover who would murder her. Eventually this pays off ironically, as she makes her fortune come true. One last gasp from Frances: both Annie and her stepson Saxon have one week to solve her murder, whoever does it gets the whole inheritance. And if they fail, the money goes to charity and the great manor gets sold.

Well, this being a quaint English village, there’s no shortage of suspects and eccentric villagers, each with their own secrets and hatreds, all with various reasons to want Frances’ secrets to go to the grave with her. Annie has to determine which secrets are worth killing for, which are just worth leaving alone. But as she starts to uncover the trail Frances left, her own name might be the next one on the killer’s list.

A fun premise, but the execution could be better. Annie’s motivations, conclusions, and actions could be better explained, and the character of her mother is really underdeveloped, just a big puzzle. Not enough time is spent on the fact that Frances’ actions probably led to the fulfillment of her fortune! The characters can be one-dimensional, it seems everyone is evil and skulking around until it turns out not to be the case. For a first book of a new series, it’s a bit uneven but still worth a read. Looking forward to Annie’s next adventure.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from PENGUIN GROUP Dutton via NetGalley. Thank you!

I love mysteries that have larger-than-life characters like How to Solve Your Own Murder!

Frances Adams is paranoid. When she was a teenager, a fortune teller gave her a chilling prediction: that she would be murdered. For sixty years, she's kept detailed files on everyone in Castle Knoll and looked for signs that the prediction is coming true. One of her best friends also disappeared shortly after this prediction, fueling her paranoia.

But now, Frances has invited several of her potential heirs to her home to discuss her will. Unfortunately, before they can meet, someone kills Frances, finally fulfilling the prophecy. Annie is Frances' grand-niece, and has been invited to her home, even though she's never met her. Her mom, Laura, was one of the presumptive heirs until a few weeks ago, when Annie mailed several trunks from their basement to Frances' home. For some reason, this causes Frances to change her will, and Annie is there to find out why.

Annie and her uncle Saxon (and his wife) are pitted against each other by the will. Solve the murder of Frances, and you inherit the property. If neither Annie or Saxon solve it, or the police solve it first, the property goes to Oliver the property developer, and is most likely sold to make apartments or something equally as ghastly for the village. But really, there are two mysteries to solve, because Annie is pretty sure this murder is related to the disappearance of Annie's best friend Emily in the 1960s, and if someone is willing to kill Frances to keep the truth from coming out, she knows they won't hesitate to kill her as well.

This book was set in two time periods, with Frances' diary serving as a detailed description of what happened in the 1960s, and Annie narrating what is happening in the present day. Foreshadowing is a key to solving the murder(s), but I certainly didn't figure it out ahead of time! Annie laments that she only got to know her great-aunt through her diaries, and readers will feel the same way. You will wish you could sit down in one of her comfy chairs and talk about her life.

I look forward to reading the next book in this series! Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

If you were told you were going to be murdered, what signs to look for, things to avoid: would you do anything differently? Would you wait for death or spend the rest of your life avoiding everything you were told, spend years collecting paperwork and files on anyone or anything that could lead to that fortune coming true?

And one day in your old age, what was foretold comes true. You end up murdered, but did you do enough to help your family solve the mystery?

Annie Adams travels to Castle Knoll to meet her great-aunt Frances but Frances dies before they could meet. She had been murdered, just as predicted. Annie is going to be the one that solves it but doing so could put herself in danger, right in the path of a murderer.

I really enjoyed this read and it gave me "Thursday Murder Club" vibes for sure! I didn't guess the murder correctly but I still really enjoyed this read. Super excited to see the next book in the Castle Knoll series!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

*Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to PRH Audio for an ALC*

Get excited, because finally Knives Out is an apt comparison! Sometimes you just need a classic whodunnit, but How to Solve Your Own Murder turns that genre on its head. What happens when your victim was obsessed with her own murder? Or when the terms of her will create a competition to inherit? And even better, we get a dual perspective - that of Annie (present) and Frances (our victim, 1965). 2 murders in 2 timelines, and YES they both get solved! I loved the narration, especially the accents. It gave it Agatha Christie / Murder She Wrote vibes and was the perfect background for packing up my apartment. Annie was sweet and quirky while she stumbled into clues, whilst Frances is so fixated on her murder that she accidentally helped solve it. And even better, EVERYTHING is connected! And most of the characters are morally gray at a minimum which is just delightful.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the premise of this story even though it’s quite cliche. An elderly aunt is leaving her estate to her great niece she’s never met over her the girls mother, who had always been told she’d be the one to inherit. From there, pretty much everything else I assumed goes out the window! There’s touches of magic, psychic readings, and prophecy throughout the story. I would definitely recommend to anyone that likes mysteries with unlikely events happening!

I LOVED this book, and am so excited to see that Storygraph lists it as "#1 in the Castle Knoll series," because that hopefully means that there's more to come from Kristen Perrin and the delightful cast of characters she's created in this quaint little town. A well-crafted and fleet mystery, Perrin's debut is a promising beginning to what could be an excellent series, and I'm looking forward to more adventures with this crew. From the very first page, I was hooked, and Perrin's style lends itself incredibly well to the genre; she is descriptive, but everything is there for an eventual reason; nothing is superfluous or for the sake of simply upping the book's total word count. (Which, frankly, is a lesson that a lot of recent authors could stand to learn.)

This is the first entry in a new cozy mystery series set in an English village. When Annie learns that she will be the heir to her great aunt Frances’ estate, she travels from London to meet Frances. Arriving in the lawyer’s office, she meets other possible heirs. At the estate, they discover Frances’s body and Annie hears that Frances has been obsessed with thoughts of her own murder for over 50 years. As teenagers, Frances, Emily and Rose visit a fortune-teller who predicted the murder, but it is Emily who disappears. Are the 2 events related?

“You can play without a plan, but you’ll probably lose.”

What a fun and interesting concept for a book. I was hooked by the title and then definitely hooked within the first few chapters.

This book kept me captivated in all the right ways - interesting characters and twists and turns ending with a murdered I wasn’t expecting!

I definitely recommend this book if you want to have a Clue-type experience.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a perfect book for fans of cozy mysteries and games like Clue.

Frances is told her fortune - and when she learns that she will eventually be murdered, she spends the rest of her life trying to solve who does it. When she is found dead by her recently summoned grand-niece, Annie, everyone in town realizes they were wrong for doubting Frances’s concern. With strict instructions in the will, Annie must solve who murdered Frances before her window to keep her inheritance closes. Oh, and did I mention, Annie will also have to solve the long cold case of Frances’s missing friend Emily too?

This was such a fun book! I really loved the flashbacks to Frances’s childhood and how we got to see a glimpse of the young woman who orchestrated this whole game. I thought the premise of this book was so unique, and the way the mystery unfolded left me completely clueless to the killer. It was so fun to get to the reveal and realize I was completely wrong - which is a testament to the author’s ability to weave such a tricky tale.

Mystery isn't usually my jam, but the adorable cover drew me in. "How to Solve Your Own Murder" is such an entertaining romp. I love the classic murder mystery in a big mansion paired with a bunch of small-town gossip. Great setting and cast of characters. The story is fairly light and moves well. Interspersed diary chapters add fantastic tension and foreboding.

I'll be keeping an eye on this author!

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

A definite crowd pleaser and a wonderful debut. Very Agatha Christie-esque while still being its own book. A fast-paced murder mystery, whodunit. Will surely be enjoyed by many different readers. Will be a fun addition to our collection.

Annie Adams is summoned to meet with her great aunt Frances—truly a meeting, for they have never been acquainted—after learning Frances has revised her will to make her the sole beneficiary. Upon arrival, Annie is stunned to find her great aunt has just been murdered. Frances, however, had been preparing for that eventuality her entire life after having her fortune read as a teenager and being told she would be murdered. She’s obsessively lived her life along the guidelines of the fortune, attempting to circumnavigate fate. Frances, wily woman that she is, is bound and determined to have her murder solved, and has laid her will out in such a way that she will have justice or ruin the entire town around her should the case fail to be solved. Annie, young and in-between jobs at the moment but with a dream to write murder mysteries, seems a perfect person for Frances to have suddenly pinned her hopes.

There is a dual timeline in the form of a journal Frances kept starting in 1965 as well as the present day murder setting. I enjoyed the jaunt to the past, because it helped to flesh out the characters who were in the present and gave motivation and inclination so that each could have had reason to do harm. It also underlined how volatile Frances’s group was—typical teenagers, right?—and shows how the catalyst for murder had been sown decades earlier.

As for the murder itself, this book allows for lots of possible suspects and doesn’t immediately make the murderer known. Actually, I was vacillating back and forth, which is always fun for mysteries. I enjoy when I can piece clues together and puzzle along with the detective. The only downside is I felt that the book lost a bit of steam in the last maybe forty pages or so where it seemed to begin to be a bit convoluted in nature. It didn’t have the same oomph! and breathless urgency as the chapters leading up to it.

At any rate, it’s exciting to see that this looks to be one in a series—I am ever in the quest for new mystery series to which I would like to attach myself. I’d be happy to pick up the next instalment!

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Frances Adams, at the age of 16, has her fortune told - and she believes it. She spends the rest of her life treating everyone as a murder suspect and collecting huge folders of information about each and every person in her community. She has murder evidence boards in her library, and a secret room where some of the information is housed. Her great-niece is summoned to Castle Knoll by her aunt's solicitors where they will go to Gravesend Manor for the reading of the will, although Great-Aunt Frances is still very much alive. When Annie arrives, she discovers there are numerous people who have been summoned. By the time the group arrives at Gravesend, Frances is dead. At first her death is presumed to be by natural causes, then determined to be murder. At the reading of the will, the group members are given one week to solve the murder, or the estate will go to charity.

There are many, many characters, some are important, others are not. It is up to the Annie, and the reader, to sort through all this information. Some people don't want the murder solved. Frances made many enemies in her lifetime, and everyone has secrets to hide. The book is written in alternating chapters, present time and Frances' teen years. The pace of the book was a bit uneven; hopefully subsequent installments will even out.

This book really grips you with the subtle hints thrown in and flashbacks. The pacing is great and doesn’t feel rushed. The ending was the only odd part for me, but I think I was still feeling the solve high. I’m excited to see what comes next for Annie!

How to Solve Your Own Murder is an excellent inter-generational murder mystery that will root itself in your brain and plant itself firmly there. It is such an addictive and cleverly plotted read that builds on an gem of an idea to create a treasure trove of a story.

Recently, I have been craving good mysteries with cosy settings, characters that steal my heart instantly and twists that make me gasp out loud. This book met all of those wishes and so many more in a story that I will recommend to anyone who will listen. In short, this was a wonderful murder mystery, packed to the brim with twists and turns.

With the boom of films like Knives Out, the type of mysteries that dig into wealth and complex familial relationships have become hot property—doubled by the popularity of Saltburn. Perrin taps into that sense of peeking behind the curtain into the lives of the extremely wealthy and that particular sense of class that pervades every aspect of British culture.

As an American expat in the UK, she gets a bird’s eye view of our class system and how it dominates life. This book is great in unpicking that glamorous façade of the upper class to reveal a dark and bloodstained truth lying beneath. In particular, I really enjoyed the throughline of the violence of that money and how it was obtained. There’s a seediness to it all, which contrasts wonderfully with the finery. It all feels entered around appearances and they are often deceiving. Also, it is a form of manipulation— becoming more key as the story progresses. The financial aspects in particular are keenly felt throughout, as the main theme is that of inheritance. This is a double edged sword though, with secrets and lies also becoming part of a legacy that weighs heavily on the shoulders of many characters. At the same time, it is infused with that classic charm of Golden Age British mysteries—it feels like you could be reading a Christie or watching Midsomer Murders from the quietly claustrophobic, picturesque and oddly charming little village. All of this makes for a brilliant, smart and highly entertaining read.

Perrin’s writing was wickedly brilliant, insightful and utterly captivating. I adored the use of timeline weaving in this book as we flip between Annie and Frances—both of whom are encountering their own mysteries and developing dynamics between characters. Their voices are distinctive and yet you can see their similarities shine through. Perrin really digs into the central theme of fate. Frances’ tarot reading defines her entire life and has ramifications that cause ripples that grow into tidal waves. It deftly plays with that eternal question of if you could know your fate, would you choose to do so? At the same time, it also adds a meta gloss to the story, akin to the knowing nods to said classic mysteries referenced earlier in this review.

The reader is keenly aware of Frances’ fate, as is Annie who is reading these diaries in real time. It adds a tragic air of inevitability to proceedings, but you best believe both timelines have plenty of surprises in store. On this note, the twists are very well done and upend the story each time. You feel the walls closing in on you as Annie’s investigation becomes ever more perilous. Because of the unique situation from Frances and a certain gauntlet thrown down early on, Annie is fighting an uphill battle in a town that does not welcome outsiders into its confidences that easily.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is an ingenious, insightful and incisive read. If you’re looking for a good mystery that will keep you hooked until the early hours, look no further.

This was murder mystery with so many twists and turns I could barely keep up. The main character has to respond to the reading of the will of a great aunt she never even met. Then she finds out she may inherit her estate if she solves her murder that was foretold by a fortune teller sixty years earlier. But she has to solve the murder before any other heirs or the police and she only has five days to do it. Fun, fun, fun!


Thank you to NetGalley and Kristin Perrin for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

I was excited to see that Jimmy Fallon was promoting this book as part of his reading club. As a huge Agatha Christie fan, it's always exciting to find a historical cozy set in modern times. The mystery comes from the past, which gave the story a fun old-fashioned vibe. The main character is likable and I hope to see her again in a future book.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this