This was a really unique mystery, with lots of twists and turns! I would definitely recommend to those who think it sounds interesting!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

How to solve your own murder is a fun whodunit in the vein of clue, knives out, or Anthony Horowitz’s novels. Annie is called to her great-aunts country estate in a small town in the English country side. When she arrives, she finds that her great aunt has been murdered and makes it a mission to find her aunts killer-her inheritance depends on this. Jumping back to 1965, Frances kept a journal in which a fortune teller promised her she will be murdered and Frances spends the rest of how life trying to find out who will kill her. This leads her to make many enemies in the town as her quest uncovers many secrets from her townsfolk. With only the journal to guide her and clues left by her aunt, Annie becomes an amateur sleuth to uncover the truth.

This is a fun, fast, whodunit acutely aware of the conventions of the genre it is paying homage. The characters are aware they are in a mystery and know what it is expected of them to solve it. A funny, fresh entry into the genre and well-worth the read for anyone who loves a fun mystery!

Thanks to the publisher for providing the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received the ARC for this book from NetGalley.

Wow! This book had so many twists and turns - it had me on the edge of my seat. My partner, John, was trying to figure out who the killer was while I was reading - we were fully invested. Every time I thought I was close, something else was revealed that had me second guesing what I thought. This book was so much fun, so unique and a wild ride!

CAWPILE Breakdown:

Characters: 8 - The characters were written well. They were strong; they all had their own voice. There were a lot of characters and at times my brain did get some mixed up with each other, but it didn't last very long.

Atmosphere/Setting: 9.5 - I absolutely loved the atmosphere and setting in this book. The big old house/ "castle" was the perfect setting for a book like this. It was stationary - and gave us a "home base" but also provided ample room for our main character (and therefore the story) to roam and explore and wander. And the atmosphere - using a small town where everyone knew everyone and they all begruded (at the very least) the old paranoid lady was brillant because it made everyone a suspect at one point or another. You never knew who you could trust.

Writing Style: 9 - I was completely entranced in Perrin's writing style. It was engaging and engrossing. I kept turning the page to see what next would be revealed about the town. It was well balanced and addicting writing that I just had to keep reading.

Plot: 10 - Perrin is the Queen of plot twists! Just when I thought surely there couldn't be more, she brings out another twist. Without giving away spoilers, I thought maybe I knew part of it, but still always second guessed myself. "Nah. It couldn't be."

Intrigue: 9 - I was always intrigued, whether in our present day or past storylines. I'm still intrigued - even after I've finished the book. It felt like I was reading a spin on the classic board game of Clue. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series!

Logic/Relationships: 7.5 - Logic was there, 100%. Everything made sense even when they were surprises - maybe "Duh! I should have seen that" moments, that I didn't see. Relationships felt a bit weaker. Partly because of the characers themselves. They felt a bit shakey and lacking at times.

Enjoyment: 10 - I enjoyed everything about this book. From the title to the end. I told my partner about it and he tried to solve it. We were both off in the end. But what a fun book! I kind of want to reread it (already) to see all the clues that I'm sure I missed along the way.

CAWPILE total: 63/7 = 9 = 5/5 stars!

I was not sure what to expect from this book, but I was intrigued by the concept and the title. This turned out to be really well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Frances was told by a fortune teller in 1965 that she would be murdered and it became her obsession to solve her own murder before it happened. When her great niece, Annie, is told that she will be included in Frances’ will, she goes to meet Frances for the first time. When Annie arrives, Frances’ fortune has finally been fulfilled and Frances has been murdered.

This book did a great job of giving us Frances’ voice from the past through her journals, while also keeping us in the present and Annie worked to solve Frances’ murder. It had great cozy vibes, but didn’t sacrifice a good mystery to get those vibes.

I absolutely loved the second mystery of Frances’ friend who went missing in 1966 and how it tied into the present day mystery. At no point did I figure out the present day killer or what had happened to Emily. I was genuinely shocked by the ending of this book, which is exactly what I want in a mystery.

I did, at times, feel that Frances and Annie sounded very similar, and I wanted them to have more distinct voices. Other than that, this was great and I am so glad that this looks like it will be turning into a series because I can’t wait to read the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. I leave this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

It all began in 1965 when Frances Adams and her two best friends visit a country fair and Frances gets an unsettling prediction of her murder from a fortune teller. Sixty years later, Frances is found dead, murdered. When her heirs are summoned to meet her at her estate, they find her dead in the library. In Frances' will, her great niece, who never even met Frances, and her late husband's nephew are pitted against each other to find her murderer and inherit everything. If they fail, the estate will be sold and subdivided.

The niece, Annie Adams, is an aspiring murder mystery author, so she treats the case as a mystery in a book or on TV, finding clues all over the house. The nephew, Sexton, has spent most of his life living in the house and knew Frances most of his life. But is he guilty of her murder? Others who were around in the 60s and have followed Frances' quest to find her murderer and possibly foil it, are also part of that long-ago story.

There are a LOT of characters, both from the old story recounted in Frances' diary and their descendants in modern day and I had a problem keeping them all straight, but in the end the solution of not one but TWO murders was very satisfying.

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin was a refreshingly different murder mystery. The woman who had died had been anticipating her own murder for fifty years and so had compiled information on nearly everyone in town, once of whom was surely the murderer. Plenty of secrets. Not the person even she though it would be. Frances Adams and her friend, teenagers, were at a festival when Frannie had her fortune told. It was here she first learned of her own murder. Annie Adams was her great niece and had must been informed that she must attend a meeting with her great aunt. As she and the woman’s lawyer arrived, they discovered her body, dead where it had fallen. Thus began an interesting week for Annie. She uncovered, not only her great-aunt’s history, but that of her close friends from back in the day, as well as of her mother and herself. It was stark to read Frannie’s journal and to meet these people as elderly. She also met Frannie’s step-nephew, Saxon Gravesdown, who had featured in Frannie’s teenage journals as a ten-year-old orphan being raised by his uncle, Frannie’s eventual husband.

Annie was a struggling mystery author. The fortune had mentioned the “right daughter.” Was she it? Was that why she was now Frannie’s heir, sort of. Frannie had set up a contest between she and Saxon to figure out who had killed her. The winner take all. Annie wanted to figure it out, partly because it was her nature, but partly to obtain the house her mother lived in and seemed happy in, a part of the estate. It was an interesting and readable story in which odd things happened, including a body in a trunk. The local policeman was a help, again descended from an old-time friend of Frannie’s, but he was not part of the contest. It was a terrific book clever and different. Thanks Kristen Perrin for having such an odd view of a situation.

I was invited to read How To Solve Your Own Murder by Penguin Group Dutton. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #PenguinGroupDutton #KristenPerrin #HoeToSolveYourOwnMurder

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a delightful mystery. Set in a small English village, with scenes set in the present and the 1960s, Kristen Perrin weaves the two pieces together into one satisfying puzzle.

4.5/5 stars

Annie is an aspiring London mystery writer. When her Great Aunt Frances summons her to the village of Castle Knoll to meet her, Annie is confused, since she’s never met Frances. Frances lives her life based on a 1960s fortune teller’s prediction that she will be murdered, and she sees threats everywhere. When Annie arrives, though, Frances is already dead and yes, it looks like murder. Can Annie solve the crime, while also putting together the missing pieces about Frances’s past?

This book neatly puts together two timelines: present day events are in Annie’s point of view, and 1960s flashbacks are in Frances’s. This technique works well, and makes Frances a three dimensional character, not just a murder victim. Annie is a likable protagonist, and it’s easy to see why she’s embroiled in the case. I had a blast with details that are a throwback to classic mysteries, like the dramatic reading of the will and the small English village where everyone knows everyone else.

I haven’t read as many mysteries in the last few years, and I’m glad I picked this one up. I find something satisfying about puzzling through the story’s clues and trying to figure out who done it before the amateur detective on the page. In this case, the author plays fair with the clues without making the culprit obvious.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is an enjoyable mystery in a classic English village setting. Kristen Perrin does a wonderful job moving between the past and the present, and both pieces of the story fit together to solve the case. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie stories, you’ll like this modern take.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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!