In How to Solve Your Own Murder, the reader is skillfully navigated between two time periods and characters. Following Annie Adams, aspiring mystery writer, as she is tasked with finding her great-aunt's killer and her great-aunt Frances Adams, through Frances's diary, allows readers to make their own predictions about who is guilty. Other characters in the book are given interesting stories and we learn just enough to keep us invested in seeing what will happen next. I look forward to reading more books in this series.

3/5

The comparison to Knives Out had me thinking this would be a fast paced read. It was much slower than I prefer for a mystery/thriller book. It is a cozy mystery and enjoyable but not a favorite of mine.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Based on a fortune teller reading at 16, Frances Adams is convinced she is going to be murdered. She spends the rest of her life cataloging her life in an attempt to thwart her murderer to no avail. It is up to her great niece, Annie, to solve her murder.

“How to Solve Your Own Murder” by Kristin Perrin is a fun, easy to read, cozy mystery. The story is written with dual timeline that moves along at a quick pace. It is character packed, with lots of suspects with generational relationships and marriages that were sometimes hard to track, but provided a lot of twists and turns that kept me guessing. This is a perfect breather book in between heavier books, which I desperately needed. I have decided that cozy mysteries will need to become a larger part of my reading.

4.5! I really enjoyed this one. It’s a classic styled mystery (think Agatha Christie) and overall felt like a well rounded story. I often think mysteries have uneven pacing, but I feel like this book unraveled in time to give me the answers I needed without leaving me confused or annoyed at the plot. Definitely recommend this one as a nice, fun read 😊

this was insanely good- felt akin to old agatha christie mysteries, set in the english countryside with a cast of characters who i learned to love (and hate)! the murder kept me hooked throughout and i’m SO glad to see that this might be the first in a series, because the little sparkle of tension between annie and detective crane has me so excited to hopefully see more of them both!

This was such a fun read. I loved all the characters and how morally gray most of them were. The plot/mystery was very well devised and came together perfectly at the end. The back and forth between present day and the past worked really well, in both technical and thematic ways. I was engaged the whole time, and I really hope there will be more books about Annie.

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙏𝙤 𝙎𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙊𝙬𝙣 𝙈𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 is a dual-timeline cozy mystery. It is similar to the movie Knives Out! The chapters jump back and forth between Frances circa 1965-1966, and her great-niece Annie in present day.

In 1965, Frances' fortune was read at a fair that predicted her murder. She becomes fixated on this fortune, especially after one her best friends goes missing that year. Frances spends her whole life trying to solve her own future-murder by keeping files, clue-boards and her green journal.

In present day, Annie is summoned to Frances' sprawling Castle Knoll estate to go over her great-aunt's will, but when everyone arrives for the reading, she has been murdered. It is up to Annie to solve this mystery in order to inherit the estate.

I enjoyed this book! It wasn't overly creepy or violent. It was entertaining and I was kept guessing through the whole story. At times it was hard to keep track of every person and who was related to whom, especially because several people are in both the past (1965) and present.

The premise of the story was better than the execution, I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I would still recommend this one, though!

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘋𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘯 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

dnf @ 20%

unfortunately, this was a no-go for me. I was so uninterested in the characters that the extremely slow pace was soooo painful for me. it also took the entire 20% for anything to happen. it was so repetitive and boring and I just couldn't anymore.

Despite the topic, this was such a fun and engaging cozy murder mystery! I loved learning about Frances throughout the years and how she began to piece together the disapperance of her friend / enemy Emily while also trying to solve her own murder before it happened. I didn't realize the two were connected but I did appreciate how they impacted each. I never saw the ending coming, which can sometimes happen with more cozy books like this. Annie was also a great character that I would love to read more about in the future. I hope this is the beginning of a series where she uses the knowledge her great aunt Frances had on the community of Castle Knoll to solve other mysteries. There is so much left unsaid that it is making me want more!

How to Solve Your Own Murder was a very well written mystery. I enjoyed the plot and the colorful cast of characters. I didn't find the ending very satisfying, though. I still had a lot of questions about the mystery...some loose ends were never tied. But overall I liked the story. It would make a fun series for BritBox.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5⭐

This is the story about Annie who has been summoned her great aunt Frances for an important meeting along with few other people. But when they arrive, Frances is found dead.

60 yrs ago, Frances has been told a prophecy or something similar to it that she will be murdered. And ever since that she has been investigating towards this prophecy... Plus, one of her best friend, Emily, goes missing 60 yrs back and Frances is still searching for the truth behind her disappearance.

Frances's will tells that whoever can solve her murder in a week will inherit her property. Annie is actively investigating her great aunt's death.

This book was so entertaining to read. Set in a small town, I liked its ambiance. The story is told in dual timeline, one from Frances POV when she was 17 and the present timeline from the POV of Annie.

I was thoroughly invested in the story and the plot twist took me by surprise. Overall, a good mystery thriller. I'd definitely recommend this book.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Dutton for allowing me to read this early!
This was a very cute and cozy mystery read! While I did enjoy it and thought it was well written and fun, I was ultimately disappointed in the overall vibes of the story. It is pitched to those who “love knives out” which has a very particular kitschy vibe, something that this book doesn’t have. It would be much better to pitch this book in the cozy mystery catalog better as it fits the book more. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more knowing that as I am a fan of cozy mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Kristen Perrin for an ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder! I did not want this book to end and I see #1 next to the title and need the 2nd as soon as possible lol! I am loving this theme of letters left from the past for the future and a heiress/fortune. If you like Knives Out/Thursday Murder Club/The Heiress, this is right up your book alley! It was very difficult to put down after starting this - gripping, compelling, what happened to Frances Adams! It’s 1965 and Frances gets her fortune read and it completely takes hold of her life. Seems pretty crazy right? Fast forward to the future and Annie Adams has been summoned to finally meet her Great Aunt Frances for a meeting and she comes to find out that Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to find out what happened to Frances and what happened with that fortune and if it really came true. Frances has been digging up secrets on everyone in Castle Knoll so this will take some work from Annie that she doesn’t receive the same fate as it seems as Frances has a lot of suspects for her murder.

Long story short: Loved it.

Long story long:
- I really enjoyed the plot. I read only Annie's POV (am planning to go back and read the diary entries) and I enjoyed being as puzzled and confused as she was
- I found the tone shift from Annie to Frances quite jarring, hence why I've read it in two parts
- I didn't realise Annie's age until about halfway into the book. She read as more a university aged student to me and when the Detective started flirting with her I had a lil record scratch moment. More time with Annie at the start would have been nice but the focus was on the mystery and I respect that
- It was a fun read. No high tension or stakes, pure enjoyment.

While this isn’t the type of book I usually gravitate to, I was pulled in by the clever title and the intriguing premise.

At age 16, a fortune teller predicts Frances’s death. For the next 60 years, Frances lives her life in fear of this prophecy. Days after changing her will to include her estranged great niece, Annie Adams, the prophecy is fulfilled and Frances is murdered. Wealthy Frances has left her entire estate to the one who can uncover her murder, so Annie sets out navigating the quirky small town and town folk, and uncovering secrets from the past, in an attempt to solve the crime.

The book moves back and forth between Annie, in the present day, and Frances as a teenager.

While the book was lighthearted and cute, and a fast read, most of the characters fell flat for me. I wasn’t overly invested in finding out the murderer’s identity. Still, I would recommend for anyone looking for an easy mystery read or something light!

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is a captivating and unique thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. While the pacing is a bit slow in parts, the intricate plot twists and unexpected revelations make up for it. Perrin's skillful storytelling and clever plot devices earn this book a solid four-star rating. I’m looking forward to more books in the Castle Knoll Files series.

A classic whodunit that had me conspiring and theorizing throughout. If I’m being honest, I’m such a mood reader and wasn’t sure I was in the mood for this book, but I actually couldn’t help but really enjoy it! It pulled me in right away and kept me engaged. I loved the development of this book and how it was written using diary entries to get a feel for the past and then bringing us back to the present. Add this to your list if you need a cozy mystery!

A genuinely delightful read, and that honestly seems like a perfect descriptor for this book. The tone and writing is light and conversational, like catching up with a friend over coffee, only in this instance she’s telling me about her recent whirlwind experience getting drawn into an Agatha Christie style English country house murder. I sometimes get miffed with dual narratives in novels where we’re following one story in the present and another in the past, but it was done so well here and I enjoyed both of them so much that I was never eager to ‘get back’ to the more interesting one. They each wove into the other compellingly, and made the whole book sing.

This is clearly intended to be a series and I would like to see these characters again, particularly the gruff but dreamy local detective, so I will certainly be back for the next book. I think my only real quibble would be that we meet several interesting characters who do not get real roles in the story, and I expect they’ll be back for the next go, but specifically in this book I kind of wondered why they just wandered through the story and left.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton in exchange for an honest review. This clever whodunnit switches between Annie’s perspective and Great Aunt Frances journal entries in the search to uncover a murder but with twists along the way. I love the unique perspective this novel gives by allowing us into the mind of the murdered while also searching for the truth in the present day. I did struggle with the pace and the sheer amount of characters. It felt like a lot to get my mind around at times. While I enjoyed the differing perspectives, it was difficult to get hooked again once the frame of reference switched. If you enjoy cozy mystery’s and knives out, you should definitely give this book a go!

The plot was fun, but the writing was of varied quality for me. Our protagonist and her interactions with the townspeople are far less interesting than the excerpts from the '60s told via diary.