Sometimes the book just isn’t your vibe 🤷🏻‍♀️

This story takes place primarily in the characters own thoughts and there is very little interactions with other characters (if that makes any sense) and I found it boring. Maybe it gets better but I had to let it go.

Lots of great reviews on it though so it could just be a me thing 😉

Lenny Marks was a single 38 year old neuro diverse woman. Lenny followed her daily routine and didn’t like to deviate from it. But her foster mom, whom Lenny loved, wanted her to enjoy life and make friends. So she tried to do as her mom asked. Lenny tried her best to become friends with her popular teacher colleagues. However, the choices she made were not always the best ones for her. People were mean and not always welcoming. Additionally, Lenny had to deal with someone from her past that left her emotionally and physically scarred. Her once routine life was spiraling out of control and she didn’t know how to stop it.

Lenny was one of those characters that you rooted for from the start. She was so incredibly interesting. She had an air of innocence about her but also strength of character that was both feared and loved. I enjoyed how she evolved throughout the storyline and the connection to the title.

This storyline felt like an emotional roller coaster. There were heartbreaking scenes as well as heartwarming and humorous ones. It was nicely balanced throughout. Most importantly, from start to finish, this was a thoroughly engaging read.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC of Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne.

This was an amazing debut. Don’t let the bright cover fool you. It seems like a light hearted beach read, but it has depth and tackles a lot of tough topics including animal and child abuse and focuses on childhood trauma. The author did an amazing job of really making Lenny come alive. She incorporated her personality into the story and you felt you really knew her. I liked how the author described Lenny as neurodivergent, but it wasn’t explicitly said and was just a part of who she is. This was an emotional book and I highly recommended it.

Lenny Marks has a predictable life as a primary school teacher. She finds comfort in her routine and solace. Her life gets turned upside down when a letter comes from her stepfather’s parole board. Lenny must confront some tough truths. Throughout the book Lenny’s story unfolds as well as her growth as a character.

Mein Leseerlebnis

Zur Abwechslung habe ich mal ein Buch gelesen, das nur am Rande eine Liebesgeschichte enthält und absolut nicht als Liebesroman beschrieben werden kann. Ich war mir nicht sicher, ob das mystery Buch wirklich mein Fall sein würde. Da sich die Geschichte aber faszinierend angehört hat, wollte ich ihr eine Chance geben.

Rückblickend bin ich über diese Entscheidung sehr froh, denn “Lenny Marks gets away with murder” hat mich nicht nur gut unterhalten können, sondern auch tief berührt. Zudem ist Lenny eine Heldin, die ich so schnell nicht vergessen werde.

Die Mystery wird intensiv und ruhig erzählt. Man hat im Verlauf der Geschichte die Chance die Charaktere und vor allem Lenny wirklich gut kennen zu lernen. Ich konnte sie mir ohne Probleme als echte Person vorstellen und habe sie beim Lesen wirklich ins Herz geschlossen.

In Situationen, in denen Lenny Probleme hatte soziale Interaktionen richtig einzuschätzen, hätte ich sie am liebsten in den Arm genommen und fest gedrückt (auch wenn Lenny solch ein Verhalten sehr verwirrend gefunden hätte).

Man macht sich im Roman zusammen mit Lenny auf eine Entdeckungsreise in ihre Vergangenheit. Diese Reise war mitreißend und hat mich teils zu Tränen gerührt. Ich würde Taschentücher bereit halten.

Dreiviertel des Romans fand ich sehr stark, das Ende des Romans und vor allem den Bezug zum Buchtitel hatte ich mir allerdings etwas raffinierter vorgestellt. Gerade weil die Autorin selbst Polizistin ist, hatte ich mir von der Auflösung um den angedeuteten Mord mehr erhofft.

Davon abgesehen hatte ich mit “Lenny Marks gets away with murder” eine tolle Zeit und kann mir gut vorstellen, in Zukunft mehr von der Autorin zu lesen. Buchempfehlung!

🖤🖤🖤🖤 1/4

Für wen?

Wer mystery Romane mit einer besonderen Heldin und einer emotionalen Reise in ihre Kindheit ansprechend findet, sollte sich das Buch unbedingt näher anschauen.

Lenny is a teacher at a local school, and her nights are spent playing solitare Scrabble, watching TV, and arranging her The Hobbit books collection. When her mother encourages her, Lenny has unwillingly made up her mind to spice up the mundane but safe life she has.
Lenny gets a parole board letter about her stepfather that brings up traumatic childhood memories.
This hits many walks of life and ends on a good note.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC for this novel. I so enjoyed meeting Lenny!
Lenny is one of the most interesting characters I have encountered in a book. We learn her story little by little in the book. She lost her mother - literally we think at first and her stepfather is in jail. She went to foster care first with her Grandmother and then a family who did become her forever family.
Lenny is now a 37 year old primary school teacher who has many quirks resulting from all the trauma in her life.
We see Lenny try to blossom and widen her world. At the same time events are unfolding that will force her to reckon with the past.
There is a lot of humor and charm in this book to contrast the stark horror of what has happened to Lenny and her family. Lenny becomes a heroine one really wants to root for!
I did find the ending satisfying but also a bit bizarre for my taste.
This is an excellent debut novel and I love forward to reading more from this author.

Lenny Marks is one of those sweet characters like Eleanor Oliphant, Molly the Maid, or Ove whose existence is “many things: simple, predictable and uneventful.” She might initially be described as neuro-divergent, but as the narrative continues, she’s mainly been shaped by past trauma that she’s mostly forgotten and buried. She’s 37 years old, a primary school teacher who bicycles to work, has a schedule of meals for every night (except for Thai takeout on Saturdays), streams “Friends” all the time, plays Scrabble with an imaginary Monica, and owns her own adorable secluded house. But she’s mostly friendless and is still being encouraged by her foster mom to step out of her self-imposed boundaries. Lenny has been this way since childhood, but even more so since the day her mother and her stepfather suddenly disappeared from her life when she was eleven. She’s managed to keep control with rearranging words mentally. Is she…

Unperturbable: trueblue, ultrapure, reputable, upbeat, rebel
or
Disintegrating: danger, rigid, straining, stagger, insane, rant

However, at this particular moment in time something arrives that starts a chain of changes in Lenny: a letter from the Parole Board. First, she steals a Rottweiler named “Beast…”

Lenny is such a wonderful, complicated character who you can’t help rooting for as her regulated life undergoes a metamorphosis. Author Mayne has created a truly memorable personality and plot that keeps you engrossed until the last chapter . 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Lenny’s eyes have tones of olive and eucalyptus.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Lenny might not like them, but she knows that it’s necessary to deadhead the agapanthus.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne introduces us to a character who will find her way very quickly into your heart.

Lenny Marks relishes her solitude, finding comfort only in the companionship of her beloved Friends reruns. She is a thirty-seven year old fifth grade teacher who is well-liked by her students and colleagues, but she never seems able nor inclined to engage with any of her peers outside of school. A look back at Lenny's childhood, one filled with trauma, pain, and a very big secret, will soon provide answers to the questions behind her odd behaviour as Lenny is confronted with pieces of her past that she thought had been left behind long ago.

This was a bit of a departure for me from my usual mystery/thriller genre, but I quickly found myself becoming thoroughly engrossed in the fascinating life of Lenny Marks. Kudos to the author for her sensitive handling of some very delicate themes. 3.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC.

All in all, I think I was a fan of this book. The story was engaging, the characters were interesting, and it didn’t drag on. There were definitely bits that felt like a little too much, but it all ended up making sense in the end. Lenny was definitely an interesting character, there were parts that she made me crazy, and that she was perfect. Lol, a solid book!

This book was fascinating and engaging - a different thriller/mystery take, dealing with Anxiety Fear, and Anxious Behavior, That pause we sometimes don't recognize is our * deflect/reflect/isolate/response* is more pronounced in some people, those who are insecure in what is expected. Whether by nature or nurture (due to trauma) this aspect added a real twist. The word game was hard for me because I have my own ritual but it gives insight into this coping mechanism ( I just skipped that part and did my own when I recognized it) Loved his book and was cheering for Lenny the whole way. no matter the outcome

3.5-4 ⭐️

Lenny Marks is different. She longs for solitude. She has lived and survived trauma. She has learned to suppress her worst memories. Yet, she continues to have a heart of gold.

This story is told in a dual timeline - Lenny as a young girl, and Lenny as a 37 year old single primary school teacher. While these two lives seem completely disjointed in the beginning of the story, Lenny slowly remembers her past and the two plot lines come colliding together.

Lots of themes are woven into this story and the author did a wonderful job making big topics feel light for the reader.

What I didn’t love - the big reveals felt a little too big. Things happened that just didn’t seem plausible. The ending felt too neat and tidy for all that had happened. However, this is still a fun read for those looking for a book filled with a quirky character battling old demons.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for the chance to read and review this novel!

Lenny is a bit odd. She likes order and quiet. Some might say isolation. She is an almost 40 year old introverted 5th grade teacher. She spends her days rewatching Friends and playing scrabble against her imaginary roommate Monica. As I’m reading this I’m thinking is this woman on the spectrum? Is she just a bit odd? She goes to visit her foster mom. Her foster mom says “Lenny you need to get a life”. Lenny makes real strides to get out of her comfort zone and make friends and reinvent herself. She is trying to come to terms with the abuse she endured in childhood. I found myself really rooting for Lenny. She was such a smart, sweet, endearing likable character.

While this book does discuss childhood abuse and traumatic experiences I wouldn’t consider it a thriller. More a story about reinvention and overcoming. I thought the characters were well drawn and incredibly relatable. I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it for anyone that has ever felt a little bit different.


Thank you to netgalley and to the published for an advanced copy of this book. The opinions expressed are solely mine.

—Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like it says, this was both heartwarming and heartwarming. It slaps you in the face with unfortunate realities and unexpected fates. Life moves on it’s on accord. Lenny was so cozy and relatable but also a human who makes mistakes. It’s best to get into it blind in my opinion.

I warmed to Lenny slowly, but by mid book, the story had picked up speed like a bike down a hill, and I didn’t want to stop reading. The cast of supporting characters felt real, and the romance was sweet without being too sappy. As an American reader, there were just enough Aussie terms that I had to look up to make the story feel grounded in its place, but dialect never got in the narrative. This book is easy to read, but has enough layers and moral complexity for a good bookclub discussion.

I received an ARC of this debut novel through NetGalley.

Lenny (Helena) Marks is a single woman in her late 30s. She is quite straight laced and quirky or nerdy. She had a difficult childhood and is haunted by an incident that turned her into an orphan before she was a teenager.

The book starts out slowly as the author took a lot of pages to develop the main characters. I almost gave up, but then the plot kicked in and I ultimately was drawn into the story.

Lenny is flawed in many ways, but she becomes someone you root for as she struggles through her adult life, teaching school while otherwise being a homebody. The book's cover suggests that this would be a funny character and a cozy mystery, but actually I found the tone of the book to be quite dark much of the time.

The title is a bit deceiving. The "murder" Lenny got away with is not the heinous crime the title suggests.

All in all, this held my interest after a slow start but left me a little bit disappointed in the end.

Lenny Marks is a teacher who likes things a certain way, from her routine to her meals to her personal space. But her life is about to be shaken up by her quest to make friends to appease her foster mother, and a letter that arrives at work from the parole board. We learn fairly early that Lenny's traumatic childhood changed abruptly when her stepfather and mother disappeared, which she believes to be her fault. The letter is in regards to his upcoming parole.

Shaken up by news of her stepfather and out of her comfort zone trying to befriend coworkers, Lenny steals a dog from an abusive owner. This starts a snowball effect where Lenny stumbles into opening up unexpectedly to a new coworker and a clerk at her regular grocery store. Interspersed with flashbacks to her childhood, Lenny starts to experience what seem to be hallucinations about her past.

I liked Lenny right away. She's a character who is clearly struggling with a lot, and just as clearly unwilling to admit this to herself. The comfort of her routine is tinged with loneliness. The reader is able to see much more clearly than Lenny that the mean girl teachers at school are being rude to her, but also that Ned and Kirra genuinely do like Lenny. Some of the reveals and twists felt a bit fantastical towards the end, but I thoroughly enjoyed the resolution. I also liked that the structure was about piecing together what exactly had happened in the past, which built suspense. The reality of what happened to Lenny's family is fairly dark, but having the telling happen through flashbacks and statements from other characters was a smart choice to keep it from overwhelming the rest of the book. The ending is a great contrast to Lenny's past, and shows her taking control of her life in a way she wasn't able to as a child. Her actions feel very deliberate and clear-headed, where before choices like controlling her environment carefully and stealing the dog felt much more impulsive and defensive. I enjoyed it very much.

This book was soo much better than I anticipated, and I anticipated a lot! We learn about our heroine in small bursts, and each one is better than the one before. She starts out with this calm, orderly life. Everything is fine. At least that's what she keeps saying.
Then one by one things begin to change. It's how she deals with the changes that make her such an amazing character. Go into this book prepared to read some disturbing stuff, but important for character development.
Awesome book!!!

I received a free advance e-book copy of this book from Netgalley.

Other reviewers have written synopses and described the plot to a degree that, in my view, came perilously close to spoilers.

Lenny is an elementary school teacher who follows very strict self-imposed routines covering every part of her life. Lenny's well-ordered routine, including a number of interesting quirks, begins to fray, however, when she receives a piece of mail addressed to a name other than the one she currently uses, but there's never any doubt that the mail's addressee is indeed her.

Her background is slowly revealed in bits and pieces, and sometimes in flashbacks. There were times when the flashbacks threw me off, as it was sometimes difficult to tell just where in her earlier life she has gone to. This is the reason for my giving the book 4 stars instead of 5. And where those flashbacks led Lenny was no real surprise.

I don't want to take this review any further to avoid spoilers. I will only say that her daily routines are a coping mechanism, and leave it at that.

This had such a fantastic blurb that I was really looking forward to it, unfortunately I felt like the book I was reading bore very little resemblance to the tone, tenor, or substance of that blurb.. From the beginning I had a hard time connecting to the character and found the word list interjections distracting rather than endearing. I never found the humor or snark that I expected and struggled to connect to the characters and the plot from the opening pages. This one wasn't a good fit for me.

Lenny lives a predictable life - right down to her weekly Thai order - and she prefers it that way. She would much rather play Scrabble alone than put herself out there, as relationships are hard for her. However, when Lenny receives a letter from the parole board regarding someone from her past, she is forced to examine the circumstances that led to her closing herself off from the world. Will she be able to work through her traumatic past and enjoy her life?

This book is slow paced and a bit melancholy, but still manages to be compelling. The plot has a fair amount of twists and the reader is forced to examine their own notions of right and wrong.

Lenny as a main character is intriguing. She is socially awkward and unable to pick up on social cues; your heart can’t help but hurt for her with each interaction. She is also intelligent and well intentioned, so there is a feeling of hopefulness in the book as Lenny is forced to remember what happened in her childhood so she can heal.

Overall, this is a heartwarming story about both vengeance and forgiveness. It would make an excellent choice for a book group.