Not a horrible book but I'm afraid everyone is going to over do the whole Eleanor Oliphant thing.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

"Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder" is a compelling and entertaining read that blends dark humor, suspenseful intrigue, and insightful character portrayal. Kerryn Mayne's adept storytelling and memorable characters make this book a standout in the mystery genre, appealing to readers who enjoy a mix of wit, suspense, and moral complexity.

The title and cover mislead the reader into thinking this is going to be a quirky cozy type of campy story. It isn't. It is much more serious than that. Still really good and a great read, but go into it knowing that while you have a main character that is outside of what we consider "the norm" this isn't one of those books. Lenny is adorable, self-protecting, and needs a good friend. She struggles with relationships and misses her mom. Her instincts are off kilter. As the story progresses, the reader learns more about Lenny's past and what has brought her to her present circumstances. While I truly enjoyed this read, it wasn't what I thought I was getting when I started out. But that doesn't keep the reader from cheering for Lenny!

What a fantastic surprise getting to know Lenny Marks was! This is an incredibly well written debut novel from Kerryn Mayne with a character reminiscent of two of my favorites (Eleanor Oliphant and Molly the maid). The cover and "vibe" of this book is deceptive from the reality but in the best way, for my senses. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and encourage others not to be misled into thinking this is a "cozy" mystery or a thriller. It's a great read with a great lead character!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication!

This book came recommended by another Aussie author and I was so excited to read this highly anticipated book. Sadly, I didnt love it. There was a lot of lingo that is exclusive to Australians, which made it a little confusing at times. I also found it to be repetitive. Overall, I think other people will like this book, but it's just not my cup of tea.

Lenny Marks has mastered the art of forgetting. For the past twenty years, she has successfully avoided thinking about the day her mother abandoned her, though her stepfather's haunting words, "You did this," still linger. Now 37, Lenny clings to comfort and routine and order, steering clear of the messiness and chaos of happiness and relationships. A teacher at a local primary school, Lenny spends her evenings playing Scrabble with an imaginary roommate, comfort-watching Friends reruns, and rearranging her 36 copies of The Hobbit. Lenny’s recent goal to 'get a life' aims more at establishing a good enough façade to please her foster mom rather than actually extending herself beyond what is familiar. But when an unexpected letter from the Adult Parole Board arrives, her carefully constructed world begins to crumble, forcing her to confront long-buried memories.

Lenny is a delightful character — one of those quirky oddballs who easily charms the reader. Mayne has written a heartwarming story that is a balance of endearing moments in Lenny’s everyday life and stark flashbacks as she begins recalling her repressed past. Mayne delivers her main character with depth and heart, as well as rounding out the book with a solid set of secondary and tertiary characters who add that level of playful realism without ever pushing the believability too far. I’d love to see what’s next for this Australian author.

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder is quite unlike anything I’ve read recently other than maybe The Maid. A late-thirties woman with a traumatic past is living her life as small and quietly as possible, not realizing that everything she worked to keep in the past and contained is about to come to life. As a child, her mother disappeared, and her stepfather ended up in prison. But she has little memory of this. She was bounced around between her grandmother’s home and later a foster family who adopted her. She’s since changed her name and taken much care to leave herself unfindable. When a letter from her stepfather arrives at the school she teaches at, she begins to panic and all her carefully constructed barriers to the real world and her past begin to crumble. As she begins to lose her firm grip on her tightly controlled life, she slowly realizes that she can allow people in and open herself up, and show them the real her. But first she needs to come to terms with her past and what really happened, and deal with the consequences of it all these years later. Part coming-of-age (even later in life) and part mystery (what did happen all those years ago), this unique novel started out slowly and continues to build the tension until the end.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 343 / Genre: Fiction
Release Date: Tomorrow! July 9, 2024

Lenny Marks lives a quiet, repetitive, lonely life. But she’s determined to break out of her shell and finally get a life, as her foster mother has been encouraging her to do for ages. She’s on a mission to make friends with the girls at work and do things outside of the solitary bubble she’s created around herself. But there’s a lot more to Lenny than just a shy woman on the spectrum. She has some real trauma in her life and memories she’s buried so deep down that she doesn’t even remember them any more. But when a letter arrives announcing the impending release from jail of her stepfather unless she comes forth and speaks against the decision, the floodgates start leaking and her past and present finally collide.

I really enjoyed this book. Lenny’s lack of social skills coupled with her good intentions add humor to her personality quirks and the real trauma of her childhood adds drama and intrigue to the story.

Thank you, @NetGalley, @Macmillan.Audio, @StMartinsPress, and KerrynMayneAuthor for my gifted copies of this book. I loved it.

Synopsis: Lenny Marks lives a quiet, routine life, but, when she gets a letter from the parole board about her stepfather’s release from prison, her life is upended as memories from her past come back to haunt her.

Thoughts: The title screams thriller and the cover screams cozy mystery, but this book is neither of those things. Not in a bad way - I really enjoyed this book and think it is a fantastic debut - but maybe not marketed quite accurately. Anyway, Lenny is a super endearing neurodivergent character, and I want to give her a hug and be her friend! This book is her story of healing from past trauma and finding joy in her life with her community. While there are quirky and humorous aspects, the subject matter is quite heavy at times so I recommend checking out the content warnings.

Read this if you like:
🚲 quirky characters
🚲 found family
🚲 healing from trauma
🚲 slow burn
🚲 character driven

Like Great Gatsby: SLOW Start, Explosive Ending, *NOT* Neurodivergent. I tell the story often of my experience with The Great Gatbsy. Back in sophomore year of HS, it was actually assigned as summer reading before the school year. I didn't read it. Every time I tried to open it, the first chapters were just SO UTTERLY BORING that I literally couldn't keep my eyes open. Managed to bullshit through the discussion of it during my International Baccalaureate level English class that fall. Switched to a school without an IB program in Spring Semester, where now I had one of those old school even then (late 90s) slap-the-knuckles-with-a-ruler type English teachers. This lady *forced* me to read the book via making it a point to call on me to read out loud during class. She knew I HATED it, I wasn't subtle about my disdain at all, and I had a superiority complex at this new school to boot.

But god DAMN if she didn't wind up getting me through those first boring chapters, where the tale then woke up and became truly one of the great American books, particularly of its period and truly quite possibly ever.

I tell that story here because it directly applies to this book. This book is S L O W at first and utterly, completely, mind bogglingly BORING. There simply is no way around that. Even at 20% in, I was commenting on social media (without naming that I was reading this book) that it was horrible.

And then...

And then you get to the point - roughly halfway in - where you find out WHY the front half was so utterly boring.

And like Gatsby, this point turns the novel on its head and makes it a truly great book. No, it still isn't Gatbsy's level, but this is where it is going to make you *feel*. It is going to make the room so dusty you'll be verifying that the walls around you haven't suddenly collapsed, because you're going to be crying so hard during some of this next section that you're going to be snotting all over the place and finding it very difficult to breathe. Mayne manages to utterly bore your mind before absolutely DESTROYING your heart worse than a direct hit from a G2 Research RIP round would.

This back half is truly what makes the book, so fight through the boredom of the front half - it really does get so very much better.

Oh, and the neurodivergent thing; A lot of reviewers (I'm somewhere right around the 1,000th review on at least one review site) have mentioned that this book features a neurodivergent protagonist. It does not. The words "neurodivergent", "spectrum", "Autism", or even "Asberger's" are nowhere in the text of this tale, and while the front part of the book in particular (and to a slightly lesser extent the back part as well) characterize our protagonist as *stereotypically* neurodivergent, just because someone acts according to a stereotype does not mean they actually *are* whatever the stereotype is supposed to be of. Indeed, we actually get an explanation in that back half of the book that is *not* any form of actual neurodivergence so much as ... something else that is directly explained and explored (part of what makes the heart shatter so much), but which would be a spoiler to reveal here.

Overall truly a tale of two halves as far as the reader experience goes, but absolutely one you should read.

Very much recommended.

I absolutely loved Lenny Marks! Awkward, isolated, possibly neuro divergent. Struggling, trying, stumbling. She may not be for everyone, but she has so much heart!

When a letter regarding the parole hearing of her step father shows up at her work (Lenny doesn't want anyone knowing her home address) she struggles to ignore it. With it come a rush of repressed memories and feelings too strong for her to handle. She wants to keep the past locked away as she has for the last 25 years, but it's fighting to be heard.

Meanwhile, Lenny has decided it's time that she made friends. There's Ned, who she talks with at her twice weekly routine trips to the market. Her neighbor she avoids even as she tends to her garden. The two new cool prep teachers she's trying to get in with. And the rest of her colleagues that she knows the routine and habits of inside the staff room. A trivia night leads to her seeing some of these people in a new light, and slowly as her younger self confronts her current self, she struggles to keep people in their proper places.

Along the way with a stolen dog, Lenny's memories build inside her until she can't ignore them any longer. Until the truth needs to be heard and she falls under the weight of it. How can she recover, when her very structure is altered.

This incredibly moving book and the unassuming woman it centers on is just what I needed. Someone who will stick with me for a long time, I'm so glad to have met Lenny, and hope even more people will get the chance to get to know her too!

I went into this mostly blind and I ended up very surprised with how much I liked it.
First of all I loved our FMC Lenny, she was so different and it was incredibly interesting being inside her head. I also liked the other characters and feel they really helped add to the story.
The story line ended up being very twisty and had a lot of unexpected secrets hidden deep down. I felt like a true detective trying to uncover everything that lurked under the surface.
This book definitely had me on the edge of my seat and I found myself turning the pages very quickly.
I think this book was very well written, even the small every day details that were given had me hanging on every word.
I feel like this is truly a perfect cozy mystery/thriller and I really enjoyed it!
Thank you NetGalley for my arc copy, my opinions are my own.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an electronic advanced readers copy of this novel.

Lenny Marks is trying to have a "normal" life. She teaches primary school in Australia and does her best to fit in and make friends, even though it doesn't come naturally to her. She has a regimented life, wearing the same clothes and eating the same things. Raised by her grandmother and tben a foster family after her mom left and her stepfather went to prison, she knows she is different but is making the effort to expand her life.

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne was not what I was expecting when I started reading it. I thought it was going to be a light fluffy read about a woman finding herself. The finding herself part is true but the story goes much deeper into a darker story. I don't want to give away spoilers as her past gets discovered during the course of the novel. But I really enjoyed it and it was definitely a unique plot with an endearing yet heartbreaking main character.

A delightful debut novel with a main character that will tweak your heart. The character of Lenny is one you will like and feel for. At times heartwarming, at times upsetting and sad, her story is peeled away in layers like an onion. You will understand and root for her in the process.

Lenny Marks is an organized teacher, who rides her bike to work and shopping but at age 30 has not really lived her life to include a meaningful social life, and real happiness, but as you read along you will understand why. It’s not a gripping novel but it moseys along at its own pace and had me enjoying getting acquainted with the characters.

The author shows much promise. If you liked A Man Called Ove, or Eleanor Oliphant, this will appeal to you. Personally, I will keep an eye out for future endeavors by this new author, Kerryn Mayne.

Release date is July 9th. My sincere thanks to my fave publisher, St Martins Press and NetGalley for the galley e-copy for me to read and offer my personal opinions.

A very solid debut! Although this one started a bit slow for me, I absolutely loved the way the story unfolded, and the ending hit me in all the feels. Lenny is one of those characters that will stick with me for a long time (and Maureen and Ned are also very well developed characters). There are moments that might be unsettling to some so some may want to check out the trigger warnings before reading. I can't wait to see what Mayne writes in the future!

"Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder" by Kerryn Mayne is a compelling debut novel that combines elements of mystery and heartwarming drama. Lenny Marks, a quirky and socially awkward primary school teacher, lives a life of strict routines. She bikes home at exactly 4 PM every day, eats the same meals weekly, and owns thirty-six copies of "The Hobbit," arranged by height. Her closest companion is an imaginary Monica Gellar from "Friends," with whom she plays Scrabble.

Lenny's orderly world begins to unravel when she receives a letter from the parole board. This letter brings back long-buried memories of her traumatic childhood when her mother and stepfather disappeared. The voice in her head keeps whispering, "You did this," and Lenny's attempt to ignore it fails. As her carefully maintained routines fall apart, Lenny starts connecting with her community, forming unexpected relationships and slowly uncovering the truth about her past.

Mayne's writing beautifully captures Lenny's journey from isolation to connection. The narrative is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, making you root for Lenny as she navigates her past and builds a new life. The book delves into themes of trauma, healing, and the importance of community support. Lenny's character is richly developed, making her struggles and triumphs deeply relatable.

While the book starts slowly, it picks up pace in the second half, with the action intensifying as Lenny's past catches up with her. The story's twists and turns keep you engaged, and the resolution, though somewhat predictable, is satisfying and leaves you with a sense of hope.

"Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder" is not just a mystery but a story of personal growth and resilience. It’s a well-crafted, emotionally rich debut that will leave a lasting impression. Perfect for fans of character-driven novels with a touch of mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this one! At first I wasn’t sure, but as I got into the story line I started to love the quirky reliability of Lenny Marks! I was confused about the title, but by the end it made sense!
Lenny Marks had a rough upbringing. First, her mom married an abusive alcoholic and tragedy struck their home. Then, she went to live with her grandma and that didn’t work out. Then at age 13 she moved in with foster parents Faye and Robert. They loved her and gave her a stable home. She later finds out they kept secrets about her past to protect her.
At age 37 Lenny is struggling socially. She does things that people think are weird and doesn’t have many friends. As a 5th year teacher she is trying to find ways to fit in with her coworkers to make her mom happy. What she finds is that she starts doing stuff that make her happy. She begins breaking her routine and gets out of her comfort zone. She wouldn’t expect this to lead to finding about her past. Can she handle the secrets?

#MiniReviews:

Thank you so much St. Martin’s Press & Macmillan Audio for my gifted copies.

Super short sweet reviews to close out the week.

🚲 Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder:

It took me forever to get into this one. I love the quirky MC trying to figure out life, but nothing really gripped me about Lenny. I just read it to read it. I felt like it was a good journey, but I didn’t know where we were going. People are gushing over this one, so don’t miss out. Audio was great in my opinion, book just maybe wasn’t for me.

Everyone is hyping it up, but Lenny Marks missed the mark for me. (I’ll see myself out on that one)

Out July 9th.

This book by a new to me Australian author has been getting a lot of hype but honestly I was kind of underwhelmed. I emphathized with the main character, Lenny who is abandoned by her mother and grows up in foster care but I just felt like nothing was really happening plot-wise in the story and I ended up DNFing at around 50%. Perhaps more happens later on but I couldn't get invested in this one sadly. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

Will remembering the past lead her to a happier future?

Many people find comfort in organization, and Lenny Marks is definitely one of them….it brings her something as close to happiness as she ever expects to have. She enjoys her job teaching grade 5 at Shelby South, feels safe and comfortable at her house aka The Tree House (its not actually a tree house, but….well), and enthusiastically rides her bike to and from work every day. She’s not lonely, at least she doesn’t think so, and while she doesn’t have any friends per se she does have acquaintances, like her colleagues at school and Ned at the grocery store. Her foster mother Fay regularly tells her to make the effort to step outside her comfort zone and try to make some friends….eat her lunch in the staff room, for example….and Lenny doesn’t like to disappoint Fay, so she has been doing just that and trying to make friends with the two bubbly prep teachers, Amy and Ashley. Lenny doesn’t read social clues well, so she’s not sure if she is on the verge of being invited to join a group night out or is being mocked behind her back. Her world goes topsy-turvy when a letter addressed to her under her former name, Helena Winters, is delivered to the school (she doesn't care to give out her home address, not even for official correspondence) from the Adult Parole Board in Victoria. The denizens of the staff room are more than a title curious about the letter’s contents….they thought they knew everything about solidly dependable, quirky but definitely boring Lenny…but Lenny doesn’t even want to open it. She fears it has something to do with Ferguson Sullivan, the stepfather with whom she has had no contact for over 20 years, since she was abandoned by him and her mother Tammy when she was 12. Her memories of that time are fuzzy, locked firmly away in her mind….she was placed briefly with Zanny, her maternal grandmother, but that didn’t work out either. She was taken in by Fay and Fay’s now-deceased husband Robert, and they took very good care of her; she has always wondered, though, why the people she love always seem to leave her. The letter has ripple effects in her life; thanks to another colleague, Kirra, she is invited out to a trivia night at a local pub with Amy, Ashley and the others. There she (a) gets rather drunk, (b) provides the answers to many of the questions, (c) discovers that Amy’s boyfriend is Ned from the grocery store, and (d) rescues (dognaps?) an abused Rottweiler on the way home. Ned, with whom she shares a love of Tolkien and 80’s shows, may be leaning into friendship, as it seems are Kirra and Lenny’s elderly neighbor Maureen. Memories of her painful past are coming back to her, and Lenny is going to need all the support she can summon to discover and cope with what really happened all those years ago.
I can’t imagine not falling a bit in love with Lenny Marks, a character revealed to the reader with such empathy; it is so easy to see her loading her grocery bags into the panniers on her bike and jauntily riding home, playing Scrabble with her imaginary opponent Monica (from the TV show Friends….she watches reruns of the show religiously, and the characters do seem to her to be like friends), and doing her best every day to follow the rules of behavior that come easily to everyone else but her. She wants to have friends, but seems to be wasting her time trying to make the “cool girls” Amy and Ashley like her while totally missing the friendly overtures of Kirra and Ned. She has so much heart, and a reader would need to be rather cold not to root for Lenny to find not just peacefulness but true happiness. Her backstory is the mystery that drives the plot….what happened between her and Fergus 26 years ago, where is he now and where is her mother, and why did she have to leave Zanny’s house and come to live with Fay and Robert? Will digging into those memories just bring Lenny more pain, or will it be the way through to a better future? Wonderful, quirky characters surround Lenny and her story, while full of more than its share of tragedy, is told with care and honesty. Be prepared for your heart to break just a little but expand to welcome Lenny in. Readers of Nita Prose, Sally Hepworth, and even Mark Haddon absolutely must experience Lenny’s story as should anyone who has room in their imagination for another friend, the character of Lenny Marks. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me access to an early copy of this heart wrenching but beautifully told novel.