How to Solve Your Own Murder starts off with Frances Adams receiving her fortune as a teenager seeing a fortune teller at a country fair - "Your future contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins right when you hold the queen in the palm of one hand. Beware the bird, for it will betray you. And from that, there's no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point toward your murder." Then, the POV switches to her great niece, Annie, in present day. By this point, Frances is wealthy and eccentric - Annie's never met her although her mother, Laura is set to inherit everything. Then, a letter comes from Frances' lawyer that requests Annie to be at a meeting. When she arrives, Frances is already dead. At the will reading, Annie learns that Frances has determined that whoever solves her murder first will win her inheritance. As the only person who has never met Frances, Annie aims to get into her head by reading her diary from the time period when she was first told her fortune.

There are so many moving pieces in this book that it's hard to keep up with everyone's relationship to Frances and the murderer is even harder to suss out. Which made the story something I wanted to continue reading because, just when you had convinced yourself someone was the killer, some information would pop up to clear them. I loved that the story went from the POV of Frances' diary and the real-time of Annie trying to solve what happened. It made it so that we were working to solve the murder along with Annie.

“Your future contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins right when you hold the Queen in the palm of your hand. Beware the bird, for it will betray you. And, from that, there is no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point toward your murder.”

I don't normally read "Cozy Mysteries" opting to pick up psychological thrillers or horror instead but I found the premise intriguing. This book did not disappoint and have now taken me on a ride down cozy English mysteries. I've found a genre I love (thank you Kristen Perrin!). I throughly enjoyed the cast of characters present day and past especially young Frances. I also loved the small town feel with secrets that gave enough interest to the story. I also enjoyed the dual timeline of past and present, though found myself drawn to the past more. I was that eager to solve the murder!

If there is one flaw to this book it was that at times I forgot it took place in the UK and assumed it took placed in the States. But perhaps we can just say that unfortunately, murder is universal. Overall, it was entertaining and all the stars for getting me to read cozy mysteries.

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for an advance copy of this book!

I loved the Agatha Christie vibes of this book! I don't read a lot of cozy mysteries but this one hit the spot. The past diary entries vs the present storyline meshed really well. I really enjoyed the characters and felt like it was interesting enough to keep me involved and guessing.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I really loved this book! It was a cozy mystery but so much more and I loved getting to the know characters both in the present and the past. From the way it ended, it looks like it's set up to be a series and I really hope we have more of Annie solving murders/mysteries with the help of her late great Aunt Frances! And perhaps a little more romance too...

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read this title early!

This was really fun! I like mysteries but I tend to lean towards the thriller end of the spectrum rather than the cozy end, but I definitely enjoyed reading this. I liked Annie as a narrator and I found the murder itself to be pretty unique--it reminded me almost of the Inheritance Games series, but if it was a cozy adult mystery instead of a young adult thriller.

I honestly don't feel like I have a ton to say about this one, but that's not a bad thing. It's a perfectly enjoyable mystery that more aggressive mystery readers might be able to solve before the big reveal, but that is not me so I was just along for the ride. I enjoyed the diary entries, as well as the character nuances that were slowly unveiled over the course of Annie's investigation.

Giving this one a healthy 3.5 that I'll round up to a 4!

Perrin did a good job of keeping me guessing, though I do feel like the third act was a little messier. I liked Annie and enjoyed seeing her unravel secrets from both the past and present. Frances’ diary was a cool way to slowly learn more about the past and Emily’s disappearance. A whiff of romance without being unbelievable (because solving murders comes first!).

I loved this one! I expected this to be a simple cozy mystery, which I love. But this one actually leaned into some excitement and it really played out well. I really enjoyed getting to know Great Aunt Frances through her diaries from her teenage years. I found myself wondering how believable she was. I was rooting for Annie, our very own murder mystery author/detective, right from the start. The only thing I didn’t love was her damsel in distress moments. I’m all for the romance though. It ended with a hint of more mystery in Annie’s family, and I’m here for all of it. 4.5 ⭐️.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder in exchange for an honest review.

How to Solve Your Own Murder has an interesting concept, but the writing is incredibly slow. I had to DNF this novel at 33% because I cannot get into the story at all. Our main character, Annie, has no personality, and everything about her feels boring and uninteresting. Each conversation that is had between the characters feels forced and fake, making every scene drag on.

The most interesting part of the story are the throw back parts about great aunt Frances, but even these plot points feel a bit more YA than adult mystery. When the story switches back over to modern day, I'm bored again.

Nothing has happened, the characters are uninteresting and flat, and I just do not think this story will be for me.

The blurb for this book sounded very appealing to me, and it was classified in the thriller/mysteries category. I soon discovered that this is more of a cozy and I am not too much into those. I loved the descriptions of the house, as well as the game that the recently deceased millionaire matriarch conveys to solve her own murder. It may also require her potential heirs figuring out the disappearance of her old frenemy. It is well written, and the plot gives enough clues to be able to follow along. The author also obeys the guidelines of the classics, and the characters are self-aware enough to discuss their investigation with regards to these books. That said, I didn’t connect much to the characters, including Annie, the lead. The conversations had too many details that I tend to find distracting, and the whole situation requires a huge suspension of disbelief. I can imagine how much work went into this novel, but I was not the right reader for it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#PENGUIN GROUP Dutton.

I loveeeee the Agatha Christie vibes of this story. This book caught my attention immediately and I loved the past and present being put together so flawlessly. It was very well written and I did not want to put the book down. I needed to know who the murderers were. I did figure it out ahead of time but that is not out of the ordinary for me nor did it ruin the book. I absolutely loved this and will be recommending it to all of my friends!

I gave this book 5 stars. I really enjoyed the writing style. Short chapters, and some chapters were written in a diary entry style, which gave insight to the past as you followed the story in the present. I really enjoyed the main characters. There was just enough details to make it work without being overwhelmingly focused on character development alone. I enjoyed the twist at the end. I never guessed it the entire time I was reading the story. I lived the concept and the layout of the mystery. I will recommend this to my audience.

How to solve your own Murder by Kristen Perrin
When Frances Adam’s has her fortune told in 1965, the course of her life changes. And Frances changes the course of her great niece, Annie’s life when she summons her to her mansion. After not being a part of her aunt’s life for 24 years, she becomes involved in a murder investigation, one that she must solve in order to inherit her aunt’s estate. Annie learns about Frances’ childhood and the people that were important to her, the fortune that changed everything and the disappearance of a best friend and rival.
I thought that this was an interesting premise : a murder mystery with unique characters and the twist of unraveling, a lifetime of clues. All of the different characters add to this mystery in a delightful way, and I would recommend it to any reader, mystery lover or not.
#netgalley

I really liked this book, although I did have some feasibility issues. The dual timeline is interesting, and I enjoyed the cast of characters (though sometimes hard to keep track of them in past and present). Just enough twists to keep things fun and enough character secrets to withhold the solution. I felt like Annie's ambition to become a mystery writer was a compelling attribute, although felt like the author didn't use it to its full potential. Overall, a good read!

This book made me feel like I'd lost my mind.

So, the main character Annie is a mystery writer. Or...she wants to be. Unclear if she's actually finished anything. But it's her passion, so when she's confronted with a REAL mystery, this is her time to shine, right? This is a woman who wants to make a career out of writing about crimes getting solved. You assume she must have read extensively in the genre, knows all the ingredients to a good mystery, how to treat clues and all that. I mean you assume that, as a human person alive in contemporary times, she's at the very least come across some media about crime and has a basic understanding of how crime-solving works.

Then there's a murder of a woman who, famously, believed her whole life that she would be murdered. It's a little messy getting the cops to the scene, but they look it over and I guess say it was natural causes (???). Later, Annie's at the scene. She's poking around what should still be an active crime scene, but I guess the cops had too much cozy village stuff to do so they just bailed and left it as-is. And she finds what she thinks is the murder weapon. Oh dang! Well, time to back away and call back the incompetent cops who missed this obvious thing, right? Especially since the thing could cause further injury if handled. Right?

Right?

No. Annie grabs the potential murder weapon - yeah, picks it up with her bare hands - get it into a car, and takes it to the police station. Oh, of course it injures her as well. And the cop seems to be untroubled by the way this woman removed a weapon from a crime scene and then transported it elsewhere, contaminating any evidence that might have still be available under all her added fingerprints.

I - what? I'm just, I'm so sorry. This is like writing a main character who desperately wants to be an astronaut, who then finally gets to NASA, looks around, and asks the first person she sees, "So how do we get to the moon? Do we take a car?" And then agents, editors, friends, and everyone else who read the book gets to that part, sees no problem with it in any capacity, the book gets printed and lands in my hands, and I think I've gone absolutely stark raving mad because there are also hundreds of reviews where NOBODY ELSE mentions this insane, glaring, obvious, ridiculous, dismaying moment that completely removes any credibility from the main character and also demonstrates an astonishing lack of care not just for the genre but for, like, the intelligence of the reader...I just...what? Anyway, then the main character finishes the book by going to the moon because she's just sooo smart actually, and everyone else at NASA ferries her around and holds her hand on the way.

This book is apparently the start of a series, which feels like a threat, but at least explains why most of the bloated cast of characters barely gets any characterization. It also explains the glanced over suggestion of a future love triangle where one of them is a jerk and the other is a cop, gag me with a spoon. I have to also point out the very strange writing style here in which the present day narrator has the voice of a teenager (seriously, how old is she supposed to be? she acts like a 17 year old but apparently graduated from Central St. Martins which is an incredibly prestigious school to go to for a person who didn't commit to a career in fashion and also acts pretty dumb) while the flashback scenes (allegedly journals, but written narratively with full dialogue which I'd complain about were the rest of this book not so much worse) that are actually from the perspective of a 17 year old seem much more maturely written.

I'm so glad this book is over.

My thanks to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC.

this was an interesting mystery, but it was a slow burn for me. The overall vibe was disappointing. There were a few decent plot twists, but I did expect more.

Such a fun read! The first in a series, How to Solve Your Own Murder, takes place in a small English village called Castle Knoll. Annie Adams has received a summons from her Great Aunt Frances to visit the village, but upon arrival, ends up involved in a murder to gain her inheritance. We hear from Frances about a long ago disappearance of her friend when she was a teenager, via her journal and the fortune that has enveloped her life. The author did a great job of setting up this series with the characters and charm of Castle Knoll. The mystery had lots of twists and turns that I did not see coming. I'm very much looking forward to the next in the series!

I so enjoyed this book and I’ve heard that it’s the start of a series. I so hope this true. If it is I’ll definitely read the next one.
This was a cleverly written story. Two time lines 1965 and present day. An estate in England and lots of unreliable characters.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for a honest review.
4⭐️

"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.

It's 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances's night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn't happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances's lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt's fate instead of her fortune."

Just putting it out there, but perhaps in trying to prevent her murder she caused it to happen...

I found this book almost impossible to put down. I was so invested in both mysteries that I didn’t want to stop reading. Frances and Annie are quite the sleuthing team - even if Frances is dead! This appears to be the first in a series. I’ll eagerly await the next installment.

Thank you to Dutton Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

There is nothing I love more than a serial mystery that opens with a young, female protagonist (a la Flavia de Luce). Kristen Perrin's first installment in the Castle Knoll Files series does one better by introducing us to a mystery beginning with a young girl but carrying us through to Frances' eventual demise, 60 years after a fortune teller told her she'd be murdered.

Frances' entire life has been wrapped up in trying to solve mystery of her eventual murder, only for her great-niece Annie to have to take up the mantel once France meets her maker.

Perrin's characters a gorgeously fleshed out, as loveable as they are quirky. This was a delightful, clever mystery full of twists and turns. I only reluctantly put it down when life forced me to and eagerly took it back up as soon as I could. One of the most fun mysteries I've read in some time.