Member Reviews
Wow! I absolutely loved this book! Of the 36 books I’ve read in 2024, this is one of my favorites.
Annie Adams is summoned to the small English village of Castle Knoll to hear about the changes to her great aunt Frances’ will, but by the time she arrives, her great aunt has been murdered. Flashback to 1965, and Frances has just received an ominous fortune at the country fair declaring that her life will end in murder. Frances dedicates her life to solving her to-be murder before it happens. When Frances’ fortune becomes true, Annie is determined to pick up where Frances left off to solve her mysterious death.
I loved the dual POV, alternating between present-day Annie Adams and 1960’s Frances.
The plot is fast-paced, detailed, and intricate, so I didn’t have the mystery solved early on. There are many times you’ll think you know who to suspect and who to trust, but shortly after, you won’t be so sure.
The book has the perfect number of characters. You get to know them well enough without too many to keep track of.
I loved that the whole experience is a substantial growing point in Annie’s life and that she learns so much about her family and who she is at her core.
While reading, I kept thinking that if Bridgerton and The Inheritance Games had a baby, this would be it. 😆
A teenage girl gets a fortune about her future murder. After spending her life trying to solve her own murder, she is found dead by the great niece she never met. Was it murder? And if so, who murdered her?
The chapters that come from diary Frances wrote in her teens are fascinating. I’m instantly a huge fan of Frances and am enveloped by a certain magic to her story.
The present day bits I had to wrap my head around. The characters were complex, and often more unlikeable. Anne, Frances’ great niece, thinks on her feet, puts pieces together quickly (and effortlessly), and is very bold… a lot like Frances was.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Loved the story! The ending was missing a certain je ne sais quo, but gave me all the happy feels.
Thanks so much to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for the privilege of reading this fabulous book by Kristen Perrin
Really enjoyed a wonderful cozy mystery following in Agatha Christie’s footsteps .Characters that engaged my attention enjoyed from beginning to end.#netgalley #duttonbooks.
Interesting “classic” mystery. Especially loved the ‘60s timeline—atmosphere was spot on. My attention wandered a bit, but it was worth the effort to finish. Recommended!
Thanks to Dutton for this fun mystery! When Francis is young she visits a fortune teller who predicts she'll be murdered. She spends her life trying to prevent her murder only to be proven right sixty years later when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate. Will her great-niece solve the crime?
This was fun and the comparisons to Knives Out were spot on. I liked going back in time and seeing how the past influenced the present. This was a fun cozy mystery and I'm looking forward to reading more of the series!
I know I'm late, sorry, I wanted to say I see why this is getting popular on TikTok. It was great. Thank you very much for the ARC!
Love Midsomer Murders? Have I got a book for you....
A cozy village with everybody knowing everyone else's business sets the scene for mysteries that span decades. We start with a fortune teller who spookily foretells impending doom for teenage Frances. We then fast forward to Frances' great niece, Annie, who is brought to the aforementioned cozy village to get to know her great aunt and have a meeting regarding her will. Frances is obviously a character, she has been planning to solve her murder for 60 years. Unfortunately for Annie, her first sight of her great aunt is that of her dead body.
Our clever Frances has set up her will in a way that forces her relatives to solve her murder. Whoever solves it first stands to inherit everything, which is quite a lot. If they can’t solve her murder within a week, or if the police solve it before one of them, everything will be sold off to a local boy's property development firm.
I really enjoyed how the novel shifted from the perspective of Annie, a want-to-be mystery writer, and Frances' own diary entries from her teenage years that recount the time leading up to the disappearance of Emily, one of Frances’ best friends. Ms. Perrin really does a great job of rounding out Frances' character and making her someone you care about. While this book is set in the present day, this book really reminds me of Agatha Christie (especially Miss Marple) a small village setting, plenty of motives, family drama, and of course everyone is keeping secrets. I really enjoyed this book it kept me guessing. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and kinda hope to see them again. When I first learned this was to be a series I was uncertain, but I look forward to visiting Castle Knoll again.
Thanks to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for giving me a digital ARC of this fabulous mystery by Kristen Perrin - 5 stars!
In 1965, Frances is at a county fair with her two best friends, Emily and Rose, when a fortune teller tells her that she will be murdered. From then on, she's obsessed with preventing her murder as well as suspicious of those around her. In present day, Frances' great niece, Annie, is summoned by Frances' lawyer to Castle Knolls where Frances has a grand estate to discuss her inheritance. Annie is the one to find Frances dead, the long-ago prophecy come true - she has been murdered. And the changes in the will say that the one who solves Frances' murder is the one to inherit everything.
Told in dual timelines from the 1960s to present, we learn Frances' story, Emily's disappearance, how Frances came to live at Castle Knolls. Annie, an aspiring mystery writer, is determined to solve the mystery and figure out how killed her great aunt. There's a big cast of interesting characters, lots of clues, and you're a better person than I if you are able to figure out who did it! But it was such a fun ride - I was totally invested in both timelines - perfectly written and executed! Bravo!
At no point in this book did I know what was going on. I was trying so hard to figure out the mystery but could not do it. When the reveal happened and the details were explained it was easy to see the trail left throughout the story. I enjoyed that I wasn't able to figure it out. I loved that this book was dual timeline. I kept wanting it to go back to Frances' diary. Annie was a fantastic narrator to follow. She followed the clues and pieced them together in a really interesting way. I am really looking forward to the next book and it seems like it was set up nicely at the end of this one. I really liked this book
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin #twentyfifthbookof2024 #arc
CW: death, murder
Frances is sure she will be murdered. More than sixty years later, she is proven right, and it’s up to her great niece Annie to solve the mystery.
The investigation into Frances’ death now reveals the disappearance of one of her close friends sixty years ago, and in order to earn her inheritance, Annie has to solve both mysteries.
I wouldn’t exactly call this a cozy mystery, but it’s not super high stakes. I learned it’s the first book in a planned series (I somehow keep reading series-launching books!) and I can see how the people about town could sustain a few more mysteries. I won’t continue it but it will be right up some readers’ alley.
I enjoyed the dual timelines and liked Frances as a main character. I thought Annie wasn’t very developed, but I liked her mystery-solving. Some of the townsfolk needed a little more fleshing out as well. A lot of people will enjoy the small town setting, and the cover is charming.
Thank you to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for the advance copy. (Available now, pub date was 3/26/24)
#castleknollfiles #howtosolveyourownmurder
I’d rate this 3.75 stars! It was cozy but not in a cheesy way. I liked the pacing. I didn’t really connect to any of the characters, but I like the plot and it was sprinkled with enough clues to Keep you interested
I had the best time reading this! It was just cozy but not cutesy, lovely, and felt like a comfy old episode of Midsomer Murders. I will def continue in this series to see what other dirt Frances dug up before she got hers!
Thank you for this ARC.
This was a fun read, very Agatha Christie-esque. The story was interesting and I thought pacing was great - there were enough clues or bits of action sprinkled in to keep me drawn in without giving too much away. Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher for the eArc in exchange for my honest review!
Cozy mystery. A fantastic who-done-it that had me questioning everything until the very end. See Frances got a fortune read when she was young that foretold her eventual murder. Fast forward to said murder and her great niece Annie has a ticking clock to solve it or the entire estate is lost to the dreaded golf course developers. We go back and forth between Frances, Emily and Rose’s time as teenagers and forward to Annie rifling through the present - the shady attorney, slimy real estate developer, handsome detective, weary best friend and conniving great nephew.
Back in 1965 teenage Frances attended a country fair and received an ominous fortune which implied she would be murdered one day. When one of her best friends goes missing weeks later, Frances’ obsession is born. She devotes her life in large part to attempting to prevent meeting this fate, noting each time a possible hint to the future crime takes place. Fast forward sixty years and Frances is indeed found murdered. Will her great niece Annie be able to solve the crime? This is a fun approach to a standard locked room mystery, with Annie puzzling out clues in part with Frances’ teenage diary, Frances’ own “murder board,” some help and quite a bit of hindrance from other parties hoping to profit (or prevent) from the crime remaining unsolved. The writing is very reminiscent of Agatha Christie, with many intriguing characters and red herrings. There's also a well done arc of Annie's interest (none, except for a vague curiosity) towards Frances shifting gradually to a wistfulness of a missed opportunity for an actual connection.
An ominous fortune, a potential inheritance, and a race to solve a murder. What could be more exciting!
I really enjoyed this book. The transitions between Annie’s present and Frances’ past through her diaries were seamless, and I really thought both character were well-developed. There were a lot of twists and turns, and it was a fast-paced read.
The book didn’t have as much humor like the stories it was compared to (Thursday Murder Club and Knives Out), but it was a great read and I couldn’t put it down.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #PenguinGroupDutton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4 Stars
This was a great murder mystery! The FMC Annie needs to solve the murder of her eccentric very wealthy great aunt before someone else does. This story is a dual timeline as she reads her great aunts diary to try and figure out any clues. I love these kind of stories. Probably because I can never figure out who did it or any of the twists! If mysteries are your vibes for sure check this one out.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Totally enjoyed How to Solve Your Own Murder written by Kristen Perrin.. The first installment of The Castle Knoll series is told from two perspectives in two different periods of time. I enjoyed how the stories were interwoven and gave insight to the current day mystery. Although categorized as adult fiction i am confident my high school students will love this novel. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced eGalley!
This is an entertaining read overall! I didn’t absolutely love or connect with the characters, but there were enough hooks and twist to keep me engaged throughout the book. I really enjoyed the dual timeline/POV and getting to see how specific relationships got to the point at which they are in the present (probably my favorite thing about this book). It was fun to continuously tie in how each character is related to the other, taking clues from the past and applying them to the present.
I will definitely be reading the next book in the series when it’s available. Thank you NetGalley and and Dutton books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
“And that’s the thing with lies: They’re much easier to believe when it’s an idea you like.”
Two murders. Two timelines. And one paranoid woman believing a decades old prediction that she would be murdered. What a crazy concept!
I enjoyed this one. The past timeline is told via Frances’s old journal entries and that was my favorite part. There is devious behavior, a love triangle, a crazy murderous prediction told via a riddle, and jealousy abounding.
The current timeline is not quite as fast paced or interesting in my opinion, but I did enjoy Annie’s character and her desire to get to the bottom of the death of her great Aunt Frances. There are a lot of characters to keep track of which did detract from the mystery a bit for me as I struggled at times to remember who was connected to whom and why. Overall a solid murder mystery.
Thank you yo Netgalley, Dutton Books, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.