I loved this book. It's a cozy murder mystery that has a great premise. I loved the characters and would definitely recommend.

A wonderfully smart and witty mystery, this terrific who-done-it pulled me right in and kept me turning the pages.

I look forward to reading more by the author in the future.


Recommended!



Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for the DRC

Fantastic, fast-paced. Couldn't put it down and will be adding this one to my collection. Liked the main character, the development of the storyline, and fell in love with the deceased through her journal entries.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own, though, and I was asked only for honest opinions, no matter the rating. In this matter, they didn't need to worry. It was a five all the way through for me. Looking forward to more by this author.

If you love classic murder mysteries, this book is for you! A great ride and likeable characters made this book a pleasure to read.

Three teenage friends, Frances, Emily and Rose are always together in the summer of 1966 when Frances receives a cryptic fortune predicting her own death. When Emily goes missing, Frances spends the next 60 years obsessing about that fortune until the fortune comes true and she is murdered in her own home. Great-niece Annie is summoned to the estate by her Great Aunt's solicitor for the reading of the will. And here's where her Aunt Frances makes her final wishes known. In order to inherit the estate, the assembled relatives will need to solve her murder in one week or the property will go to a land sales company who want to build a golf course and tracts of housing on the land. Annie is determined to solve the case but her cousin Saxon seems to have inside information and may beat Annie to the solution.
Told in alternating chapters between Annie's investigation and entries from teenage Aunt Frances diary, readers gain insight into each of the possible suspects. When it appears that Annie is getting close to solving the murder, she also becomes a target of the killer.
Fast paced and the diary entries were a brilliant addition to the novel. This will keep reader's guessing until the very end when all of the little seemingly insignificant clues come together to point out the killer.
First rate!

In 1965, Frances Adams receives a fortune at the town fair, foretelling her own murder. From there, she becomes obsessed with solving her own murder before it happens, gathering files and suspecting everyone around her. In the present day, Annie Adams is called to meet her Great Aunt and join others for a reading of her new will, but in a twist of fate, Frances is murdered before the meeting can happen. Now Annie is tasked with solving the murder before her aunt's nephew Saxon or she will lose out on inheriting the substantial estate.
This book definitely has strong Agatha Christie and Knives Out vibes but wasn't quite as clever. I expected more twists and turns, but perhaps that was a flaw in my reading to over complicate things. That said, I enjoyed the cozy mystery setting of the rural village where everyone knows everything about each other, and nothing is truly secret. The book starts off really strong and pulled me in quickly, and I enjoyed the back and forth between Annie as she investigates the murder, and the diary entries written by Frances in 1966 detailing her life after one of her best friends suddenly goes missing. The plotting was sufficiently clever and well-paced, but I was frustrated with the lack of character development and lack of foreshadowing, which is why I rated this a solid 4 stars.
Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with my very first ARC. This book was one I was excited for in 2024 and it did not disappoint.

Annie finds herself thrust into a clue like game to solve her great aunt’s murder and secure the inheritance. Her character is likable and I found myself cheering for her the whole way through. This story does a great job of throwing so many clues and pieces of evidence at you that it can be hard to keep straight, making it impossible to guess the killer. All of my assumptions were wrong. The way the story came together was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend this for a fun read.

fun, original, cozy-adjacent mystery, one flaw being at times the characters lapsed into being characters and not people. thans for the arc.

This one was a delight to read! A crazy great aunt, obsessed with a fortune told to her when she was just a teenager, stating that she would be murdered. From that day, she’s been collecting information on everyone she meets, trying to solve her murder.

Annie has never met her great aunt Frances, only heard stories about her. For as long as she can remember, her mother has been listed as Frances’ heir. So it comes as a shock when a summons is sent to Annie, instead. From the looks of things, the inheritance has been shifted from her mother to Annie.

When Annie travels to Castle Knoll, instead of finally getting to meet her great aunt, she stumbles upon her body instead. Now, Annie finds herself compelled to pick up where her aunt left off in finding out who would have wished to harm her.

People definitely aren’t all they seem upon first meeting - Frances has managed to offend everyone in the town at some point. In a strange place, not knowing who to trust, Annie does her best to find the truth. With the help of Frances’ old journals, and the files she’s gathered over the years.

I loved being introduced to the town of Castle Knoll. It’s a place that holds many secrets, but also many good people. I felt myself being drawn to it just as much as Annie, and I’m hoping from the little glimpse we were given that this is just the first of many mysteries to come!

I cannot stop thinking about this book! A double murder mystery is exactly what I was looking for to start this year off right. So many plot twists and turns that had me unable to put this book down. Who can you trust when you know no one? This book is full of characters that I loved and hated at the same time. The classic Clue story was reimagined and brought to life in this reimagined mystery spanning multiple generations.

Such a fabulous murder mystery! The author has done such a great job of breathing life into each and every character where you feel like you really understand all their motivations good and bad. Although I had suspicions on the “who” in this whodunit I never was 100% certain and I never would have guessed the full “why”. This is an author I see myself coming back to time and time again with future works!

This was a fun read! A multi-generational text, How To Solve Your Own Murder follows Annie Adams (fantastic name!) as she attempts to solve, not just her Great Aunt Frances’s recent murder, but also that of Frances’s childhood friend who disappeared in the 1960’s. Told from Annie’s POV in the present, with interspersed sections from Frances’s journal during the year of 1965, we get a deftly entwined tale.

I will say that I solved both murders fairly early on, which typically annoys me. But, because Perrin has also created this beautiful bridge between Annie and her Great Aunt Frances, I was invested in their story and wanted to see how things came to the end they did, even despite knowing who that end entailed. Perrin does a marvelous job of adding a dash of deeper tones into the text, such as friendship, grief, and family, while still keeping this upbeat. Well, as upbeat as a murder mystery can be ….

I do wish we had gotten more journal entries, because I think Perrin could have really convoluted the plot by delving deeper into Frances’s paranoia while she was younger. Between the fortune and the woods and the Gravestone estate, there was so much potential for a gothic setting, which would have contrasted nicely with the present-day take on Gravestone Hall.

Cozy, engaging, and fast-paced, I sped through this text and smiled at the end. Sniffled a little, too. And while the mystery is compelling, it’s Frances and Annie, and their connection to one another, that made this a thoroughly enjoyable read for me!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Dutton, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I loved the strong writing in How To Solve Your Own Murder in this murder mystery. The character development was great, too. This is the type of book that has something for everyone. This had a clue-like vibe to it. I would describe this as a cozy murder mystery.

In 1965, Frances went to a fair where she went to the fortune teller booth, who told her she'd be murdered. Frances talked about this throughout the years and no one believed her when she would profess that it would happen. They finally realized she was correct when she was found murdered.
The book cuts to the present when Frances's great-niece, Annie arrives in London for the will reading. Whoever solves the murder inherits Frances's estate and fortune.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me a copy to review! A good book, but it’s not my thing! I felt like it was slow getting into and nothing really pulled me in, it took me longer than usual to get into this one. However I am a more true crime mystery person. This is great for Sherlock, Nancy Drew, Knives Out, cozy mystery lovers. A comfy slow read that was great for passing time. Overall I’m still glad I read it and will recommend!!

When Frances was a teen in the 60’s a fortune teller told her that her life would end by murder…fast forward 60 years and Frances’ great niece Annie discovers her body…that was murdered! Annie is determined to solve the mystery but someone out there doesn’t want her to find out what really happened! So good! Thanks to @kristenperrinwrites and @netgalley for giving me a copy to review. Add this one to your TBR, it will be released on 3/26!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. This has the bones to be an amazing novel but there were points where I felt it lacking.

I LOVED this book! Sometimes it takes a while for me to get invested in a new book with new characters, but this one instantly hooked me. I read it in only two days! The entire premise of the book is so interesting. I was equally as invested in Annie’s present as I was in Frances’ past. The way the story of the past was told through snippets of the diary entries was brilliant. I felt like I could follow along with Annie’s investigation but I didn’t know who the killer was until it was revealed. The story kept me suspicious and guessing the whole way through. Like Annie, I too fell in love with Frances through her diary entries. It was such a touching family story. I can’t wait to read more by this author!

7/10. I was really excited about the premise of this book—how does a woman spend 60+ years investigating her murder that has yet to happen?? The book was a slow burn for me, I really had to keep pushing myself to read it, but finally about half way through it picked up. From there I flew through it. I was surprised by who the killer was revealed to be!

I enjoyed the flashbacks shown through the journal, I think that was the highlight of the book for me. However I was getting confused by the timeline for some reason. I was having a hard time figuring out the ages of characters (Saxon specifically) and how they were all connected. At one point thought there were two Saxons? Honestly, it's probably my own fault as I had started reading it in November and then didn't pick it back up again.

Thank you to PENGUIN group and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

An atmospheric thriller about a woman attempting to avoid her future, told to her by a fortune teller as a young woman.

Solid mystery, and I enjoyed the intersection of past and present.

For fans of Claire Douglas and Shari Lapena.

What a fun and unique cozy mystery! I had a great time with this one & I've never read anything quite like it before. I enjoyed the way the dual-timeline was done and I liked the cast of characters. I was really actively trying to solve this one, which made me realize I don't always do that with cozy mysteries. I highly recommend this one, especially if you love a murder in an English village as much as I do! I am hoping for more books with these characters, but also found the ending satisfying if there aren't any more. Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for the chance to read this one early!

P.S.- I am very stingy with 5-star ratings-they are saved for all-time favorites, so a 4-star for me means I really liked it & would read again.