How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is a dual-timeline book following Frances Adams, who has been preoccupied with a fortune predicting her death for decades until it finally happened, and her great niece Annie who has been tasked to solve the mystery of her death to inherit her estate. There’s a whole cast of characters involved in this task, all with their own secrets and motivations for doing so.

I LOVED this book! It was such a fun read! The characters were interesting and complex and the storyline kept me guessing. I did not figure out the ending ahead of time. I would recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries, especially if you are looking for a mystery that isn’t super graphic/gory.

Thank you to NetGalley (@netgalley), the publisher (@duttonbooks) and the author (@kristenperrinwrites) for granting me a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. This book is expected to come out in March 2024.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love a good cozy mystery, and was excited for Kristen Perrin's How to Solve Your Own Murder - in some ways it reminded me a little of "Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone" by Benjamin Stevenson, in that we have a main character mystery writer who is at the center of a suspicious death that must be solved quickly and where everyone you meet may have a motive going back decades.

Generally, I liked the plotline of the book - a woman haunted by a fortune teller's words creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that must be solved by her family nearly 60 years later. I also really enjoyed Perrin's descriptions and vivid usage of simile and metaphor which caught me from the first page of the girls arms "wrapped together like a daisy chain."

Given that it's a cozy mystery in a small town, I feel like readers are meant to dislike many of the characters - Oliver, Saxon, and Elva are easy to root against in the present, and the young versions of Walt, Emily, John, and Rutherford are easy to suspect, and appear unlikeable in the past.

That all being said, I kept feeling like I was missing parts of the mystery, and while the answer to the whodunit worked, I feel like there were holes. For instance, when John thought Emily was trying to take Laura back from Peter and Tansy, Emily actually went back to get her typewriter. But why would that matter? Peter had just paid her off because Emily DID try to take Laura back - so did that occur? Where? And if Peter had just given her thousands of dollars, who cares about the typewriter? Emily has the means to do whatever she wants at that point.

And what was the whole deal with the group secretly going onto the Rutherford estate? And it seeming like a game to bring Frances to Rutherford? Saxon mentions how much Rutherford loved games, and there are so many references that make him seem like a puppet master - and Emily has so much knowledge of what Rutherford and Frances talk about - but then that meant absolutely nothing, he's a nice guy, and he won Frances over and they had a happy marriage? From the way they're described in the 60s I expected Saxon to be a sociopath and Rutherford to be manipulating and abusive - not for all of this to fall to Emily being jealous of Frances. Saxon and Rutherford were just red herrings, but knowing any part of their life after the disappearance of Emily would have made this seem more joined. Being 17 and being 77 are the only points we see Frances, and it's difficult to see the wide view of her at such distant stages and to not understand the middle. Did her murder room start after Rutherford passed? How does the obsession truly start when it looks like she is happily married and traveling to Afghanistan? When she mentions at 18 how much she doesn't care about the fortune? When she's young and determined to show Emily she does not care about her and chooses family instead? I just couldn't rectify that in my head.

Or, Annie questions Oliver about the threatening notes and if he destroyed her room - and he denies the destruction - but WHO did that? Annie seems a bit sheltered, but also really cavalier about her own personal safety and her lack of care about her belongings - but her willingness to keep sleeping in a house where someone continuously destroyed rooms seemed off. She also seems to immediately decide to move to the town and show all the great things her Great Aunt did - but again, we only see Frances as a teenager and as an elderly woman - what did she do besides call the police and make flower arrangements?

Also, the fact that after the whodunit is resolved and Annie is like "Two weeks later X is in prison and X is etc." -- in what world does the justice system move so swiftly?

Overall, I think the story worked, and Perrin has great description and detail in her writing. I think I just couldn't get past the smaller things in order to truly appreciate the big picture.

I think I am in the minority here but I struggled to finish this book. I enjoyed the story from Frances’s past way more than the modern day mystery. Annabelle was very annoying and difficult to read. The writing for the modern tale was much clunkier. It just did not flow. Almost like two different people wrote them. The ending was not very good either. I am going with 1.5 stars rounded up because I enjoyed reading some of the story about Emily, Rose, and Frances.

Well, this was a disappointment considering it was a good premise for a story. I almost DNFed it but decided to just skip to the ending. Unfortunately not for me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC for my honest opinions.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

I wa so excited when I receive this book. I love who-dunnits. This book has a Knives Out vibe which I love.
If you knew you were going to be murdered and had the chance to solve it, would you.

This is a cute mystery mystery will keep you guessing. I suggest you get yourself cozy and be prepared to not put down.

"Well, if TV has taught us anything, it's that the murder rate in small villages is disproportionately high."

I stayed up late finishing this last night. This book was SO GOOD, definitely better than I was expecting after reading a lot of average mysteries this summer.

I really liked:

1) Annie, the main character. She was clever, bold and realistic. She has friends and makes jokes with others (as opposed to a weird clumsy loner). She didn't make dumb decisions (except at the end and that's more because she's desperate) and is aware that others in town are trying to trick her.

2) The use of Frances's teenage diary. I really don't like books in which old diary entries (that usually hold a clue to the present) are drawn out for no reason except to sustain tension to get to the ending for the Big Reveal. For a lot of this book, the diary chapters alternate with Annie's, and then there's a break before reading more because Detective Crane ends up taking it as evidence.

3) The cast of characters felt rich and this town felt real to me. There were so many suspects floating around and because there are essentially two mysteries - what happened to Emily Sparrow in 1965 / who murdered Great Aunt Frances - there are possibly two sets of suspects.

4) The ending. It felt satisfying to me, and I'm only hoping we see Annie in more books. There are some lines at the end of the story where I feel like MAYBE Perrin will write more about Castle Knoll... crossing my fingers!

Many thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review. I loved it!

5 ⭐️ I really enjoyed this book. It was a cozy murder mystery that kept on giving. I didn’t really feel like John was that convincing as the murderer of Frances but I enjoyed the story regardless. I know the book would’ve been really long, but I wish we had more character development of the suspects, or even like a little key or something written by Annie to keep us up to speed. I liked the discussions with Jenny especially when they were going through the suspects. Lastly, I loved the imagery and the journal entries. Thank you to NetGalley and Kristin Perrin & team for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fans of "Knives Out" and "The Thursday Murder Club" will enjoy this fun and cozy mystery about a woman who spent her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder, only to be proven right 60 years later. In 1965, when 17-year-old Frances Adams went to a country fair with her two best friends, a fortune teller told her that one day she would be murdered. Frances spent a lifetime trying to prevent a crime that hadn’t happened yet and compiling dirt on every person she met, just in case they might be her future killer. For nearly 60 years, no one took Frances seriously until she was found murdered in her sprawling country estate in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll. In the present day, Frances’s great-niece Annie Adams is summoned to a meeting at Frances’s estate. When Annie arrives from London, she discovers that Great Aunt Frances’s fortune has come true. Frances’s will stipulates that the person who solves her murder will inherit her estate. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s habit of digging up secrets and lies, every villager might have a motive for her murder.

This book was an enjoyable and quick read with such a unique and creative plot. The story is told from Annie’s perspective in the present day, as well as from Frances’s diary entries from the 1960s. I loved getting insight into Frances’s life after her fortune was told. I also really enjoyed the endearing and eccentric villagers, and I think I suspected each of them as Frances’s killer at one point or another. Overall, a clever and entertaining novel that I recommend to mystery lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good past and present read! This one did not disappoint! It took a turn I didn't expect but I love a good mystery and being thrown off what I thought was going to happen only makes me love the book even more!

This is a very particular book in that -- while it looks something like a cozy from the description and even cover -- very much falls into a different tradition. The publisher compared it to Knives Out, and while I can see what they mean -- it seems much more like what used to be a traditional Agatha Christie style puzzler. The author has a fantastic sense of pacing, and makes some really clever and inventive choices regarding the telegraphing of clues. Patrons who love this sort of thing will find this book to be absolute catnip. Mid-sized and even some small libraries should consider adding it to your collection.

But I would also ward off a particular kind of cozy reader from trying it. This is emphatically not a book that is trying to build up a colorful cast of characters for future volumes in the series. If patrons are looking for a comforting and kooky village story, this is not their book.

My biggest complaint is that the main character, Annie Adams, is just too flat, even allotting for the relative blankness of detectives in stories of this type. This is a book that's largely carried by the strength of the (excellent) plotting, its steady drip, drip of clues and the characterization of the interesting victim, whose diaries populate a number of the chapters. The detective seems like a bit of an afterthought, which is a shame.

Still, very readable and a homerun for the right sort of reader.

5 stars for the right reader, 3 stars for a reader not on the book's particular wavelength, averaging out to four stars.

I liked this cozy mystery! She did a great job of explaining everything while also leaving the reader to figure out stuff on their own. Will definitely be recommending

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder.

If you knew that you’d be murdered one day, how far would you go to solve it before it happened? This question is the main focal point throughout the book as Frances’ great-niece picks up where she left off on solving her murder.

Overall, this book was an enjoyable read. The book switches from Annie’s POV to Frances’ POV in the form of her diary that details events from the past. The book being set up this way allows the reader to try and solve the murder as Annie is piecing everything together. While reading the book, I definitely got the same feelings I got while watching “Knives Out” for the first time. Similarly to the movie, as each piece of evidence was introduced, we begin to suspect anyone and everyone to be the murderer. At points, I felt like Frances with her murder boards.

My major critique of this book is the pacing. I found that the meat of the story and where it really got interesting was towards the 40-45% mark. I feel as if some of the initial buildup could have been axed and more focus could have been given to the investigation as a whole. While the big reveal made sense after it was explained, while it was happening, I was slightly confused and trying to figure out again how they tied into the story. After finishing the book, I did like the reveal, but reading through it, it definitely took some time to figure out. I definitely had another person pegged as the murderer, so it was really interesting to see everything come together at the end.

This book was a fun read despite it taking me some time to really get into it. I’m excited to see what the author has in store next!

I am beyond impressed. This novel goes back and forth from the past to the present as our main character Annie is introduced to a fortune she is set to possibly inherit from a great aunt she never even met. The novel is told from the great aunts perspective in the 60s and Annie’s perspective in the present. I absolutely love murder mysteries that concern a decades old unsolved murder/disappearance and reading the past perspective from Aunt France’s diary makes it seem so much more personal and intriguing. I loved the atmosphere of the old castle, the personality of the characters, and how anyone could have motive to kill. I couldn’t stop reading. Thank you net galley and Penguin Random House for the e-arc.

Thank you for the ARC. I could not read this story fast enough! Incredibly unique plot and creative story. I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery! I especially loved that though Annie never got to properly meet Frances she's able to know her through her diary entries. Unique and clever story that should be on every reader's TBR!

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I was unfamiliar with the author, but I was intrigued by the premise of the book. I enjoyed the dual timeframes of the book- the great-aunt's diary from the '60s and the great=niece in current times. There are murders in each time period and many twists and turns and red herrings along the way. There is an interesting cast of characters in the village, almost all eventually appearing on the murder board. I thoroughly enjoyed this clever and unique mystery, and I highly recommend it to mystery-lovers. I look forward to reading future books by the author.

I enjoyed How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin so much! This book is duel POV. The book follows Annie in the present and Annie’s Great Aunt Frances in the past from diary entries. Annie is a struggling writer who ends up getting summoned to her Great Aunt Frances’s Estate. Here’s the catch, Annie has never met Frances and for some reason is now written in her Great Aunt’s will. It turns out that Great Aunt Frances is obsessed with a fortune that was told to her when she was 16. This fortune predicts her murder in the future.

This book was a page turner for me! I found myself flying though this book because I HAD to know what happened in the past and present. Plus Great Aunt Francis was a vibe. She had a whole room in her house dedicated to connecting the pieces to solving her own murder.

This is Kristen Perrin’s first Adult Novel AND Murder Mystery and holy crap she knocked it out of the park. She had me guessing until the very end! This book comes out on March 26, 2024 so make sure to read it when it comes out!

A classic whodunnit mystery. Such an enjoyable read! Not just one murder mystery, but two. Do you believe in fortune tellers? Frances did and it affected the rest of her life.
Read this one with a glass a wine, in front of the fire with Murder, She Wrote on the television.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Rating: 1.7/5
Review: This was more boring than a bag of hammers. I am not one for the English style of writing. Overly descriptive and verbose, verging on the pedantic.
Because the story line is drawn out, the mystery is not really a mystery. This read more like an auto-biography as a fair amount of the novel was devoted to Frances' journals.
The author intimates at the end, that this will soon find its way to the cinema. So, brace yourselves for something so catastrophically boring as to rival Doctor Shivago.

This was a fascinating premise that pulled me in. Fortune teller, predicting your own death and then spending a lifetime to prevent it. Then your great niece searchers for the killer. So good! If not for busy life I would of probably read this in a day. As it was- it took me a few days and I will admit, with all the people I was forgetting who was who. I should take notes, but anyway. Great read. Would recommend. Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read an advanced copy for an honest review. #netgalley #howtosolveyourownmurder

Combining the recent death of an elderly widow, a baffling change in her will, and an old cold case of a disappearance, this book is one of the best mysteries I've read. The protagonist is delightful; the secrets in the village are everywhere, and the solution is a surprise. I also loved the way the book moved between past and present, creating a satisfying solution to the mysteries.

3.8

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*Received an eArc from Netgalley for an honest review. Thank you!

If you're into Knives Out, I think you'll enjoy this murder mystery novel.

>A rich matriarch who ends up being murdered right as she's changing her will and leaves behind a family all vying to get a piece of her inheritance.
>A mystery case that is inherited by her least closest of kin to solve.
>A murder entangled in deceit, obsession and jealousy.
>Many characters of various histories and connections with the victim, each with their own motives for winning.

While the beginning was a bit slow, and familiarizing myself with the names was a bit challenging, I eventually settled into the story as it progressed and I found myself really curious to figure out who the murderer was. And I was surprised who it ended up being. The author does an excellent job giving us enough info, red-herrings and foreshadowing to lead us astray and suspecting other characters, while inserting minute details that points us towards the actual murderer and their nefarious motives. Mysteries like this are exaggerated and bizarre, but it's not so bizarre that it didn't make sense. It was certainly a fun, excitable experience that kept me speculating all the way through to the end.

I admittedly wasn't very fond of the characters at first, but I warmed up to them some. I notably enjoyed reading the journals from the victim the most because it delivered a more personable insight into her life.

Overall, a wonderfully thought-out mystery with interesting motives and carefully planned sequence of events.