*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

I can't believe that I put this book off as long as I did. What a fantastic debut novel for Karryn Mayne and I am adding her to my authors to follow on Goodreads. And recommending this book to everyone!

On the surface, Lenny Marks is set in her ways and one could assume it is due to being on a spectrum of some sort. That is certainly what I thought for most of the novel. Her schedule is never changing - grocery store, food, work - every week it is all the same thing. Until she realizes that she is lonely, admits it to her mum, and her mum starts pushing her to make friends at work and to engage. And when a letter from the parole board is delivered to her at work, it starts a spiral of changes that Lenny can't stop.

Lenny's quirkiness with her anagrams to calm herself sometimes had me thinking - "wait... can you really make that word?" And the answer was always yes!

The novel was a great pace and with a bit of a mystery behind the parole board letter. and it works to dismantle Lenny's world piece by piece until she is precariously close to collapse. The characters are fantastic and Lenny's loneliness is palpable. Her actions to try and make friends and adjust to the outside world are enough to bring her (and me) back to being alone in her home and disregarding every chance to change her life.

I want to say that I hope I can read more about Lenny Marks, but in order for that to happen she needs another mystery and I would very much rather for her to live her life in the peace that she finds!

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder…

Advanced copy provided by NetGalley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Ok Lenny, first of all you had no right to live in my mind rent free for weeks. Did it take me weeks to read this book? No!! It only took a couple of nights but I was obsessed! Lenny Marks was the most neurotically fascinating character to me, I was hooked from the first couple of pages which, usually would have had me questioning as it was a lot of internal monologue but lo and behold, I would come to crave his monologue.

Lenny marks lives a very normal life, with a very strict routine, an imaginary “friend” to play games with on the weekend, and absolutely no room to stray from the above. Until she receives a letter that brings her past hurtling forward into the present, pushing Lenny to do things outside of her norm, sending her foster mother into fits of worry, and ending on a night that she can only hope to cover up.

Lenny is tragic and misunderstood and your heart physically hurts through parts of her story, and some of us might even be able to relate (f*** off mean girls,) and by the end she may not be fully ready to change but she is willing to open the door to see what is out there now that her past is well and truly in the past.

I will admit that I went into this book thinking it would be more of a thriller/murder mystery. It's not that. We are introduced to Lenny's quirky and particular ways immediately. She has a strict routine, keeps interactions with people to the barest of minimums - so much so that she goes to different grocery stores on different days and times so that she will only deal with the people she knows, her friends are the ones that she makes up in her head or who share her living room with her via the tv. Slowly, we start to understand that she is like this due to childhood trauma. Her brain has been protecting her since she was a very young girl. Once she starts coming to terms with her past, she opens up more. Her routines change and people start entering her life.
I was not all that crazy about the end, which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. I felt frustrated a lot while reading, but I also know that was probably the whole point of Lenny and her personality. I did like that in the author's note, Kerryn Mayne did say that while this timeframe was during covid, she kept that part out of the storyline. I appreciated that note a lot.

I absolutely loved Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne. Lenny is a quirky main character who, due to events in her childhood, lives a very ordered, contained life. My heart hurt so much for her as I read her story. As the story unfolds, she is an easy character to root for, and I thought the ending was perfect! I look forward to reading more books by Kerryn Mayne! Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Books, for an advance reader copy of this fantastic debut novel.

Lenny Marks keeps her life small, confined, manageable, and comfortable for herself. She recognizes that she's different - she enjoys her work with students as a teacher, but she's much less comfortable in the teachers' lounge. The woman who was a foster mother to her encourages her to try to socialize more and develop some friendships, but it isn't easy for Lenny. Then she receives a letter from the parole board asking for a "victim statement", and the mystery of Lenny's past begins to be slowly revealed. This was very slow and not what I had thought this would be from the description. I felt it was just ok. I did enjoy the ending. 3 ⭐️

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn Mayne is a book about… Well… Linnny Marks she is 37 and lives a structured life which brings her comfort until the day she gets a letter addressed to Helena Winters from the parole board. At the same time she has promised her foster mom Faye that she will start going out with friends more and make an effort. So when the popular teachers at the school she works at Ashley and Amy are telling another teacher Kira about the trivia night Keira ask Lenny if she’s going to go and clearly you can see A and A doesn’t want her to go but Lenny says yes. Lenny‘s life starts changing she kidnaps a dog does her best to make friends with Ashley and Amy even has a flirtation going on with the cashier of midnights the grocery store she goes to unfortunately she is also haunted by her past and it is a pass that is quickly coming to reckon. It seems no amount of friends episodes scrabble games in the word games she plays in her head is going to staiv off the past she’s trying to forget. I kind of knew where the book was going but I really started getting annoyed with that word game she played and I also thought the whole thing with Amy and Ashley was so mean. I also couldn’t understand how this woman is a teacher when she can’t even have a regular conversation with not only adults she doesn’t know but children. Especially because children are handsy and she taught second graders I DK that didn’t seem logical to me but I digress I did find a lot in the beginning to be kind of funny but mostly I just felt bad for Lenny how was she going to date the guy from the grocery store wouldn’t that be an imbalance of power and therefore an improper relationship? I DK the end of the book was also super sad because then we get to learn about the last day she saw her mom got the scar and heard the words that would haunt her for almost 30 years. I did like Malcolm but once again find myself blaming whoever wrote the summary because it isn’t the book I thought it was going to be Itza was sadly disappointed with the book I got. #NetGalley,#Saint Martin’s press, #KerrynMayn, #LennyMarksGetsAwayWithMurder,

Wowza, this was awesome!
Lenny is the kind of character I am always attracted to.
She is awkward and weird and funny without meaning to be and I totally relate.
The story itself is great and the slow reveal in the flashbacks adds to the emotional tug.
All in all I highly recommend this one!
Much love to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for my ARC.

-This book : it is so hard to believe it was a debut.the best debut mystery of 2024 @kerrynmayneauthor

This is not a cozy murder mystery , it is a terrific character driven book that is a testament to how childhood trauma follows you through life, and how memory protects children from the darkest moments of their lives.

Lenny Marks a school teacher is introverted and keeps panic attacks at bay by routine , her love of words , Scrabble and her 36 copies of The Hobbit.

She was the last standing from a brutal murder that she has vague memories of, and her life starts to fracture when she gets a letter from the Parole Board that her father was being released.

"Lenny ran her fingers over the smoothness of the envelope. Adult Parole Board Victoria was emblazoned proudly in the top right corner, as if this was a regular and not at all concerning place from which to receive mail.”

There is a rescue dog Malcom ..and how she needed to name him that.

She finally allows Ned the grocery store worker in at the end of the book because of his patience and care.

And she is a surprise character because of all she went through she stands and learns how to.move forward. Many reviewers don't understand the quirkiness of Lenny though slightly humorous is a wall she has erected to protect herself. Just like her word games to soothe her fracturing mind. PTSD is not something that ever goes away it sounds like her foster parents attempted to take her to therapy, but most childhood trauma survivors put up walls to block out memories . When Lenny finds herself in the shed in the back of the school she blacked out ..these scenes which were dark were good representation of how a survivor copes

Lenny Mark's Is the definition of a final girl, the last standing , slaying her dragons and coping through all the tragedy . I think the marketing of this book is wrong, because fans of Scream, Halloween, or even I Know What You Did Last Summer would love the retribution Lenny Marks gets in the end.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for my advanced copy.

I absolutely loved this book. I went in pretty blind and thought I was going to get Finlay Donovan but instead, I got something more like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Lenny Marks is a 5th-grade teacher who loves her routine of buying the same groceries, making the same meals, playing Scrabble alone, and watching Friends. She has absolutely no memory of what happened when her stepfather and mom disappeared when she was 11. She gets a letter from a parole board, and a whole bunch of secrets start coming out.

I related to Lenny and my heart went out to her. This book was nicely paced and had really well-done reveals.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

I enjoyed this book so much! I loved Lenny and all her quirkiness. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the plot. The pacing was great and the story itself endearing. I will definitely read more from this author.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the copies to review.

I enjoyed this one, and Lenny was a very endearing character, quirks and all. I enjoyed her journey, she has experienced a great deal of trauma, not sure if that accounts for her quirkiness or not (I don’t think all of it but perhaps some), and how she worked through this trauma throughout the book. This is a heartwarming read with humor worked in, and I was sad when this was over, I was not ready for it to end. The audio was great, the narrator did a wonderful job with Lenny and this story.

Lenny Marks is a character that I won't soon forget. A teacher who has exacting routines, has social anxiety, and unprocessed past trauma, she is doing her best to act "normal." Yet, she cannot seem to get past social and emotional barriers to find her place. She is much more comfortable at home by herself, watching Friends and following her daily routine. Still, she makes progress and allows her neighbors and coworkers into her life little by little. All of this is interrupted by the prospect of her stepfather being released from prison after something that happened 25 years prior. The exact details are kept deep in the past, and Lenny begins to remember small snippets of her childhood, though the memories are painful.

This was so good on audio - I loved the voice given to Lenny. Her inner monologue delighted me, and I felt for her as she struggled through normal aspects of life. Still, I wanted to hug her and loved how she fiercely protected those close to her. My one gripe is that the mysterious events of the past took too long to unravel. I just wanted to know what happened! Still, the journey was both enjoyable and emotional. Some of the details of Lenny's past trauma were difficult to read, yet the outcome was quite heartwarming. The Friends references were fitting for a huge Friends fan like myself!

After a traumatic childhood, Lenny Marks leads a very structured life. She has no real friends, bikes to the store at the exact same time everyday and purchases the same foods weekly. She doesn’t quite remember what happened in her earlier life, but structure helps her through. Keeping to a routine and teaching the fifth grade, she’s thriving, but when a letter arrives from the parole board, she tries to ignore it, but her well structured life starts to unravel. As Lenny steps out of her comfort zone, she asks for help and is surprised by how many people are willing to come to her aid. Lenny is on a journey of self discovery and this is a beautiful heart warming story. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Loved this. I really enjoyed everything about this. I loved the story completely. It will stay with me for a long time. I appreciate that the author has very strong voice - one I really enjoy.

This novel is an absolute gem! This book masterfully blends suspense, charm, and humor, creating a story that’s both chilling and heartwarming. Penney herself is unforgettable! She is a character you will root for from the beginning to the end.
Such an engaging story and this one will keep you on the edge of your seat and will be hard to put down.

Highly recommended!
Thank you NetGalley and to the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Marketed as a cozy Aussie murder mystery, this book was neither cozy nor a murder mystery. That being said, this book was an absolutely endearing and heartwarming look at surviving childhood trauma and navigating adulthood. Oh yes, and there is murder.

Lenny Marks is a neurodivergent adult elementary school teacher who lives alone and is obsessed with old school tv shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Friends. Her routine is very structured and she is trying hard to make friends in order to cure some of her lonliness that her former foster mother feels she is becoming too comfortable with. When a letter from a parole office arrives, Lenny's world starts to spiral out of control as she tries to keep the reality of what happened to her as a child at bay while also attempting to move on.

I absolutely fell in love with the character of Lenny Marks and the rest of the supporting cast. Her actions were always true to her character and I loved watching her evolve as she dealt with her past and coming to grips with what she truly went through when she was little. As a mom of two neurodivergent children, all I wanted to do was protect her. I would definitely marketed this one more as Womens Fiction rather than a murder mystery, however.

For fans of The Maid and other murder lite stories. This one focuses on character development far more than plot and there is zero spice, but hints of possible romance.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Kerryn Mayne for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

**This is NOT a mystery. I picked it up thinking it would be such. However, don't let that deter you!
Lenny is content to do her own thing in life and not let anyone in. She has her routines and that's that. However, when she receives a letter from the parole board, she finds her life turned upside down. As she struggles to remember what truly happened when she was a kid, she learns that letting people in isn't so bad.

I almost put this down because the first quarter at least, maybe closer to third, was a little slow (things start turning better with Malcom, and then after page 100 really picked up). However, once we really get into Lenny starting to remember and open up, I really enjoyed it! Once you learn why Lenny is the way she is, it makes the rest of it make sense. I was also confused by the title until the last quarter or so. Don't pick this up if you are looking for a mystery. However, if you are looking for something more similar to Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (now looking at it, the title structure is so similar too!). Perhaps a different cover, something that looks less mystery-esque, would help steer people in the right direction. It is also on Goodreads as a thriller?? So don't pay attention to marketing I guess!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For a debut book, this one blew me away! Maybe she has some undiagnosed behavioral disorder ( no expert I am for sure), but she is loyal, endearing, and smart to boot. Her fascination with the Friends show and her clumsy efforts at trying to make new friends at school while being totally oblivious to who her real friends felt very real to me. If you liked The Maid's Molly, you'll love Lenny as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I did not love this one as much as I thought I would. The story was a bit slow and I was expecting it to have more of a thriller vibe than what I got from it.