For fans of Agatha Christie and Joanne Fluke, with a definite Knives Out feel...

This story gave me all of the cozy mystery feels, complete with a full cast of suss characters, a down-to-earth FMC you can't help but root for, a smidge of romantic tension, and enough drama to keep readers guessing throughout this contemporary whodunnit. I'm usually not a huge fan of flashbacks, but author Kristen Perrin weaves them throughout the story in a way that actually adds to the plot instead of distracting, disjointing, or getting in the way of the story. While red herrings can be found, I appreciated that readers aren't wholeheartedly led down the wrong path just to have the carpet pulled out from underneath, however I will say part of the conclusion felt a bit out-of-left-field for me. I also needed more between the FMC, Annie, and Detective Crane (#iykyk). But while the mystery is solved, there's an opening for this to become a series, so I'm hoping we get more from these characters in the next book, which I am totally looking forward to!

**Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

This was a quick read with a unique storyline that I really enjoyed! The characters were real and I really enjoyed it!

4/5 stars

I really enjoyed this mystery book!

The setting was entertaining, fast paced, fun and left me guessing the killer(s) until the very end. I loved Annie’s character and her relationship with her Mom and best friend too. The best part was that she is a mystery reader and writer so that played into her thoughts when trying to solve the crime.

This story alternates between present day/solving the murder and Frances diary entries. I enjoyed the diary entries a bit more because there were so many characters in the present day that I sometimes got confused. It doesn’t help that Annie tells the present day story and it reads a bit like a coming of age story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and will definitely read the next book by this author and hopefully in the mystery series.

With Miss Marple and Agatha Christie like vibes this book really packed a punch. This cozy whodunit mystery had me at the edge of my seat the entire time wondering who killed Aunt Frances. I guessed until the entire end. I loved the characters, especially our protagonist Annie who is smart and cunning, but super sweet and has a sort of naivete to her.

Who is ready to play debut novel bingo? Because this mystery pitched itself as for fans of Knives out and Thursday Murder Club. I'll say I found it more like the latter than the former. (I was disappointed by Thursday Murder Club.) I do think I liked it better than I liked Thursday Murder club, which I thought played fast and loose with the author/reader mystery novel contract. How to Solve Your Own Murder, by contrast, was simply uneven.

How to Solve Your Own Murder may have also suffered from setting my expectations too high for its own good. It opens very strongly, with a 17 year old Frances getting her fortune told at a fair. Rather than the usual pablum, she gets a warning, "Your future contains dry bones..." Frances spends the rest of her life trying to avoid being murdered, until finally her fortune catches up with her. Her grandneice Annie has to solve the case before she's next.

Its a great conceit, and the mystery itself is scrupulously fair--attentive readers will have all they need to figure out whodunnit and go toe to toe with the real detectives. However, this book suffers from some sloppiness that prevents it from being an unqualified recommendation. There's a part of this book that wants to be a Secret Staircase murder mystery (this is my favorite part), a part that wants to be a cozy mystery, and a part that wants to go more "gritty." These parts cause some careening back and forth and makes the novel feel less polished.

There is also some convenient holding of the idiot ball. One of the conceits of the novel is that Annie has found Frances's old diary, and she is reading it. As she reads it, the parts she's reading are interspersed in the book. Unfortunately, the narrative has to resort to some obvious contortions to ensure that Annie doesn't get too far ahead of herself in solving the mystery. The final bump for me is that the book involves two different [spoiler redacted] subplots, which in a very small town seems to me a bit much.

Over all this is a sloppy but promising debut mystery that I wish had gotten a little more polish.

After receiving a mysterious prediction from a fortune teller, a woman spends her whole life convinced she’ll be murdered. When she dies years later, her long lost great niece is summoned to her estate to find out what really happened. I was super into the first half, then it really fell off for me. Way too many characters and the ending was a confusing mess. Solid cozy mystery though, if that’s your thing.

Loved this cozy mystery. I really liked the characters and the back and forth if the diary pages with the present time.

Well written - held my attention - making it a fast read. Suspenseful murder who-dun-it without all the gore and explicit descriptions included in most mysteries.

Annie Adams is floundering. After losing her job, she’s trying her hand at becoming the author she’s always wanted to be. When she receives a invitation from her estranged great-aunt Frances, she’s curosity enough to head to Frances estate to see what her aunt wants. Before she can talk to her aunt though, Frances’ long held belief that she’d be murder comes true, leaving Annie and a few others the task of solving her murder. Given a week to solve the murder, Annie dives into the life of her Great Aunt and the lives of the townsfolk. As she uncovers more secrets, Annie soon become entangled in a race to not only win her inheritance but also to save her own life.

With plenty of clever riddles and twists, this was a fun murder mystery. I was immediately intrigued by the plot and the added flashbacks/Frances’ journal entries tied the entire book together nicely. I’m a sucker for a small village setting and old secrets so this was definitely something up my alley.

With a ‘Clue’ vibe and plenty of character development, this was a fun cozy mystery. I didn’t find it to be quite as ‘thrilling’ or funny as Knives Out/Thursday Murder Club which it’s being compared to but it’s still an interesting read. I did however find it to be similar to another recent cozy I read recently, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder; but I found the execution of How to Solve Your Own Murder to be better. The pacing was quicker with more appealing flashbacks, and while they both had plenty of cozy aspects, this one just held my attention better. I also felt much more inclined to root for Annie. Overall, a nice cozy mystery for armchair sleuths and Agatha Christie fans!

How to Solve Your Own Murder comes out March 26, 2024! Huge thank you to Dutton for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books

Frances is told by a fortune teller that she is going to be murdered. She obsesses over it for 60 years until she is indeed murdered. Her neice, Annie, needs to solve the murder to inherit Frances's fortune.

I was really intrigued by this synopsis. But unfortunately, I just couldn't get myself to invest in the characters. There were some cute puzzles that reminded me of an escape room, but generally, the mystery was solved too easily. Too slow of a burn for me with not enough character development.

Well, the most dangerous place to settle appears to be, from cozies, Britbox and Acorn, a small picturesque village in the UK. Filled with quirky individuals many who have lived there all their lives and know one another's histories inside and out. Enter a person with ties to someone, and the plots tend to unravel. Here is the latest example of such a trope, and while great fun, I feel like I've been to Castle Knolls (and its twins) many times before.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Ok, if all amateur detective novels were set up like this one, I’d love them all. This fun mystery was delightful and creative. The characters were charming and unique. The plot was perfect and one I hadn’t really come across before.

The writing was atmospheric and perfect for a cozy mystery. Based on the description, I was expecting some humor, but there wasn’t much of that. However, I didn’t mind because the characterizations were consistent and made sense with who the author created. While the cast of characters was on the larger side, it made for a compelling mystery. I enjoyed that there were many people who could’ve done it. I did figure it out early on, but I enjoyed following the mayhem to see the characters figure it out.

This one had a little bit of everything: large cast of characters, small-town gossip, inheritance issues, murder, teenage drama, race to the finish and it all worked quite well. Check it out if any of these things interest you.

Frances Adams spent nearly sixty years collecting the secrets of everyone around her, trying to pre-solve her own murder. As a teenager a fortune teller had foretold that she would be betrayed and murdered.

Annie Adams is summoned by her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances's lawyer for a meeting. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead.
Part of Frances's will involves having her heirs complete against the local cops and each other to solve her murder. Annie is willing, but Frances has discovered a mulitude of secrets and motives for her own murder.

Why I started this book: Eye catching title on Netgalley that I requested on impulse.

Why I finished it: This book grabbed me within a couple of chapters and I was eager to solve the mystery too. Great characters and I'm really intrigued that this is being marked on Goodreads as part of a series. Where does Annie go from here?

This was fun cozy mystery, I was intrigued by the premise and title and liked the writing style and characters of Annie and Frances. Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

“My favorite chess saying is very simple: You can play without a plan, but you’ll probably lose.”

Kristin Perrin’s adult debut How to Solve Your Own Murder is a mysterious tale for fans of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, the movie Knives Out, and Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan series.

Synopsis:
Told partially in old diary entries from the murder victim’s teenage years and the present-day perspective of her great-niece tasked with solving her murder, Perrin manages to put her own spin on the classic who-dunnit story; after all, the victim, an extremely wealthy—and paranoid—octogenarian, was warned of her death decades ago in a prophecy told to her when she was a teenager. Decades after that cursed summer, Frances has still desperately been trying to solve her murder before it happens.

Unfortunately Frances fails, which brings our narrator, Annie, into the fray. As Frances’ great-niece, Annie has been tasked by her late aunt to solve her murder in the week following her death. The catch? She has to solve it before the local detective AND Frances’ step-nephew, Saxon, who deems himself the rightful heir to Frances’ fortune, given that his late uncle was the reason she had any money.

Armed with only her failed career as a mystery author and her aunt’s old diaries, Annie has to race against Saxon and the clock to solve Frances’ murder. The stakes are high, and Annie is out of her element, seeing as she’s never been to Castle Knoll—or met Great-Aunt Frances—befofe. But secrets can’t stay hidden long, especially in a small town, and Annie is determined to uncover what truly happened that summer when everything changed. After all, the prophecy was merely a tipping point in a summer of misfortune for Castle Knoll.

Thoughts:
While I enjoyed Perrin’s debut adult mystery greatly, I did find the story lagging at times, and certain elements were hard to follow with such a large cast of secondary characters. That being said, I did love the quirky English setting of Castle Knoll; I could clearly picture the quaint village and all its oddities, right down to the seventy-year-old pot dealer. I also really liked that both narrators were strong female leads, independent and fiery in their own ways as they each attempted to solve a crime that no one believed in.

Perrin does a great job setting herself up for a series set in Castle Knoll, which I can picture following a similar format to the Finlay Donovan books (another great series featuring a badass mystery-writer-turned-detective). I will say that I found the final twist quite shocking, although more from lack of set up than genuine suspense. I look forward to the Castle Knoll Files #2, and selfishly I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a romance between Annie and Detective Crane!

4.5

I’m surprised by all the four star reviews, or rather the lack of five star ones. Or, is it just the romcom readers that tend to rate everything so highly? Regardless, I loved this book. I more hated how everything is compared to “Knives Out” or “Thursday Murder Club” and don’t see the latter much at all.
It’s not a perfect book, but the excitement, the complexity of the game and mystery, and, though not at first, the story of Frances circa 1965, captivated my attention.

Like “Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone”, as I was reading, I couldn’t imagine how this could possibly be made into a series. I was still surprised then, to see that this is the case, though the opportunity for more stories is initiated at the end of the book. Also, one of the things that you expect to happen at the end doesn’t, which implies a drawn-out inter-character development.

I did like Annie. Though not at first with her obsession,I also liked the Francis we got to know, and I did like Crane…well, until I read the part about his beard at the end of the book, which deducted points from his score.

There is a lot of set up to this book, so the solving of the mystery moves somewhat quickly when it really gets going. There are some surprising leaps that the narrator pulls together somewhat unimaginably like some other mystery sleuthes, which is a bit annoying. I guess that makes sense given that sharing theories could be disastrous to both Annie and the community as a whole!

I have been looking for a good mystery, and having reread too many to get that lately (it’s a good thing I forget a lot of what I’ve read back when), I am so happy to have a new book to share, not to mention the first of multiple books. I am glad that Perrin eventually moved in this direction rather than the YA version or, especially, middle-grade comedies about vampires. The Annie from Chelsea was definitely the right daughter!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for giving me a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for providing an unbiased review.

How to Solve Your Own Murder
By: Kristen Perrin

“For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it’s up to her great-niece to catch the killer.”

LESS THAN ONE WEEK UNTIL PUB DAY!🤩

I found it very easy to escape into this murder/mystery story. I really loved the clue-like concept and the dual timeline element of this story. Frances’s journal entries were actually some of my favorite chapters and I kept trying to identify the clues within. I changed my mind about who the killer was so many times, and could not put this book down until it was revealed.

I thought Perrin’s writing was eloquent and detailed with the perfect amount of quirk and banter to update this timeless genre. Each setting and scene depicted is vivid and the sense of time, place and mood was always strong (I could smell the fair described in the book). Overall, Perrin’s update on the classic murder mystery was witty, fresh, and kept me guessing until the very end.

Thank you to @netgalley and @kristenperrinwrites for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. I cannot wait to see what happens next in Castle Knoll!

PS: The fashion alone would be enough to turn this into a screenplay!

#bookreview #arc #advancedreaderscopy #bookstagram #murdermystery #whodunnit #howtosolveyourownmurder #netgalley #duttonbooks #bookishmama

Annie is called to the country as heir to her great aunt’s estate - whom she’s never met. Before the will can be explained, great aunt Frances is found murdered. Before Annie can claim her inheritance, she must solve Frances’s murder within a week and before the police or Frances’s nephew find the killer.

This novel has several interesting takes including a 60 year old fortune and missing girl, Frances’s diary and the intertwined relationships of a small village.

There were too many characters to keep track of - three generations worth! The beginning had quite a few repetitive bits. Frances didn’t solve her own murder or help to solve it (outside of leaving behind a diary) so the title, while catchy, is inaccurate.

"For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club , an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer."
What a fun mystery in the Gravestone Estate!! The story alternates between present and past. In 1965, Francis Adams as a teenager sought out a fortune teller at a county fair. What she finds out will haunt her for 60 years. The bone chilling prediction: "One day Frances will be murdered." She spent a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn't happened. She compiled dirt on every person who crossed her path.

Annie, her great niece, travels to the estate for a meeting. When she looks through the notes she has compiled, as well as a diary and photos, she finds out every village person has a motive for her great aunt's murder. The reading of the will becomes a game play with riddles and challenges, which I thought was a clever take. There were a lot of suspects since she spent a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hadn't happened yet. I thought this was a fun and entertaining book that the people she knew and lived around were all capable of being the culprit.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for this delightful ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had a delightful time cozying up with this murder mystery and unraveling an age old drama between three best friends from a quaint countryside village of Castle Knoll in 1965. The story begins with an unsettling and grim prediction of the death of Frances Adams who later on obsesses over the misfortune and spends an entire lifetime trying to solve her own murder. Eventually it comes to pass and in an odd twist of fate her grand niece, Annabelle Adams, is summoned by a mysterious inheritance and then immediately tasked in solving the riddle. Will Annie succeed in finding the murderer or would dredging up the past only lead her to the same ill-fate as Frances?

I enjoyed the steady pacing of this mystery-drama as it was told in duel timelines. The diary from the reclusive Frances drew me in with each successive entry and I relished in the village rumors and speculations surrounding the disappearance of one her friends. It was conceivable that anyone who knew Frances or even Emily for that matter could have easily been the culprit. The suspect list was extensive and I had my inklings but still did not manage to arrive at the correct conclusion. It felt like a murderous season of Dawson’s Creek with the secrets, lies, and betrayal found among a tight-knit group of friends and then a squeaky clean wrap up in its finale. The set in Gravesdown Hall also gave me instant Clue vibes as to who, what, where, and when. It was absolutely delightful to solve-along and overall a fun read.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me an advance reader copy and to Kristin Perrin for an engaging mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kristen Perrin for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

I was so excited to receive this ARC, and it did not disappoint! I love a mystery novel where all the clues are there in retrospect but the ending still surprises me, and this was exactly that. I cannot wait to see what happens next in Castle Knoll!