A unique book with a unique and interesting main character. Lenny is... different, unusual. But you find yourself on her side and both uplifted and heartbroken by her story. Her coping mechanisms and way of life is relatable to anyone who takes comfort in and finds peace in an orderly, small life (me!). But as her world gets bigger, we see there is a benefit to being forced outside our comfort zone.

This book was hard to read at times because it was so obvious that poor Lenny was not mentally well and she was deeply struggling to move on a tragic event from her childhood. While Lenny is socially awkward and also a loner, the author creates a fabulous character profile for her. Lenny is kind, hard-working, decently good-looking… it’s impossible not to like her or, at minimum, have empathy for her.

There were some very surprisingly twists in the book and I think it’s well worth a read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin e's Press for the eARC.
What a lovely book this is; quite moving at times and sad. But uplifting as well, with a fascinating main character. Lenny.
I loved the fact Lenny rescued Malcolm the dog from an abusive situation and that he became her first best friend on her way to working out her terrible past so she could heal. It was a long and arduous journey, but she survived it and found some peace.
An impressive debut novel!

Lenny is a very unique and delightful character. There is a lot happening in the story but it easy to follow. The character development is well done. I loved the progression Lenny went through.

Ladies and gentlemen, author Kerryn Mayne is one to watch! Rarely have a read a more polished and self-assured debut novel. Lenny Marks, a quirky and thoroughly lovable character, will win her way into her heart, and soon you will be cheering for her to get away with murder and win a life!

When we meet Lenny, she is a primary school teacher at Selby South, and she is on a quest to make some friends. She is 37 years old, but a real loner, playing Scrabble with her imaginary roommate, Monica, named after the character in the Friends show, which Lenny watches incessantly. But trouble is looming on the horizon. There is something in Lenny's past that she has erased from her memory, but blurry edges are starting to appear. A letter from the parole board lets her know her former stepfather is due to be released from jail soon. Uncomfortable memories from her childhood are bubbling to the surface. Where did her mother disappear to all those years ago?

Lenny's healing and start towards a new, less solitary life, begins when she liberates a dog from an abusive owner after a drunken night out with her teaching partners. She names him Malcolm, after her imaginary childhood friend. Lenny will find she has more people rooting for her than she realized, just not necessarily the people she thought were her friends.

Can I just mention how hard it can be to name a character, especially when it features front and center as the name of the book. It's no small feat to achieve a memorable and fun name, and with Lenny Marks, the author did just that.

There is a murder in the this book, but it is not front and center. A lot of the book is about unraveling the mystery of Lenny Mark's past, and watching her grow as a functioning social being. Thus, I think this book could appeal to multiple groups of readers. And this book was championed by one of my favorite writer's, Sally Hepworth!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed getting to know Lenny. She is such an interesting character! She is kind of like Eleanor Oliphant - simple, quirky, good. But it is her haunting past and the choices that she makes in the book that make her so interesting.

The book sort of unravels. At first it looks like a simple book, but as it unfolds, the people and events show up in the right places. I liked the pace and enjoyed every new discovery!

I really enjoyed reading this book and meeting Lenny. It was a hard book to put down! I am going to miss her and Malcom!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kerryn Mayne for an advance copy of this book!

Lenny Marks has very few memories of her life before having been abandoned by her mother and stepfather when she was eleven years old. That’s when she was sent to live with her troubled grandmother, whose fondness for alcohol forced Children’s Services to place Lenny with a foster family where, despite being loved by Fay and Robert as if she were their own, Lenny still failed to remember her childhood. Now, at thirty-seven, Lenny has created the life she needs: she lives alone, in a house she loves where she retreats (except for twice-weekly stops at the market) every day as soon as her fifth-graders have left, and as quickly as she can get there on her bike. Once home, kept company by endless reruns of Friends, and kept busy by games of Scrabble (Lenny plays both sides, although she plays and scores as if her imaginary roommate, Monica, is real). The single memory of her childhood Lenny allows herself is that of curling up as small as she can make herself as she reads from The Hobbit to her imaginary friend Malcolm.

All in all, as long as she can limit interactions with other people, Lenny thinks she functions well until two things happen: first, an official-looking letter arrives at the school for her, asking her to provide input regarding the pending parole of the man whose name she has tried for almost thirty years to repress. And, second, in an act Lenny would once have said was impossible for her, she steals a dog from a man she sees abusing him, a dog who, once she has saved him, she names Malcolm. When Lenny’s terrifying memories begin to creep back, she starts to realize just how alone she is, and how much she needs the people who, for years, she has been shutting out.

Kerryn Mayne’s writing debut is nothing short of amazing! Don’t miss this book!

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Bantam Australia for the opportunity to read an ARC of this excellent book.

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Omigahhhhhhh....I dare you to read this book and not fall completely in love with Lenny. She is so well-written and it is hard to believe Kerryn Mayne is a first time author with a husband, four kids, and a bustling career as a police officer. Please keep writing. I promise to keep reading, if you do!!

This was a wonderful debut novel by Kerryn Mayne! I was invested in the main character, Lenny, from the beginning . This story made me happy, sad and outraged … but always cheering for Lenny and hoping she could alter the course of her life. Highly recommend and will definitely look forward to reading the author’s next book.

Thank you Netgalley. I love Lenny Marks!! This book gave me Elinor Opliphant vibes which was a story I adored. The pacing was a bit slower than I'm used to but was definitely worth the wait. The story was great and the characters were so well done. I am looking forward to more from this author. Highly recommend

I loved this book and the characters in it. The book wasn't exactly what I thought it was after reading the synopsis and I ended up liking it even more. There are a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming! I really enjoyed how the author wraps up the book also.

The book feels part rom-com, part mystery and a little bit thriller. It was the perfect combination without being too scary.

SPOILER: This book deals with domestic violence, child abuse and murder. These topics aren't looked at extensively but they are very much a part of the story.

Lenny Mars (given name Helena) is a quirky and unusual person, happy with her job, her bike, and her beautiful home. Throughout the book you learn of her past, where she was called "different," but you soon realize she is neurodivergent. You also learn of a traumatic childhood.

Her coping mechanisms, her way of functioning on the job and in society are very well written. She undertakes projects to help her "get a life." Her efforts on the job to make friends made me squirm a bit, because I couldn't help but sympathize with what she was feeling and going through.

This was a lovely, unique story, and I'm hoping there will be more books in the future from this author.

I really liked this book. It kept a great pace and lots of little twist and turns. The ending was really good and wasn't all "everyone lived happily ever after" . I really don't like it when books have endings that don't seem like real life. Real life is messy and not always perfect.

I had so much fun reading this!!! The characters were great and I enjoyed the pacing. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this book! Lenny, as a character, totally worked for me. Her quirky personality, likely a combination of a trauma response along some neurodivergence, made her into a character that I wanted more and more of. As her backstory unfolded, between chapters of the present, the reader became more aware of the gravity of some of the situations. This kept me turning the pages, but I also didn’t want it to end. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC— I will definitely read Mayne’s follow-up novels!

In “Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder,” the protagonist is a 37 year old primary school teacher in Australia who has issues understanding social cues and forming interpersonal relationships. It’s clear early on that some childhood trauma has deeply affected her, since there are hints that she was found locked in a storage shed at the age of 11, covered in blood, with a wound to her thigh. At that time, she went to live with her grandmother, then 2 years later, something happened and she was sent briefly to a group home and then to foster care with Fay and Robert Marks, who provided her with a loving home. Although Robert later died, Fay keeps in touch with Lenny and still provides emotional support. The novel deals with Lenny’s day to day life as a school teacher and her awkward encounters with coworkers, interspersed with snippets from her early childhood with her abusive stepfather and submissive mother.

Although the subject matter seemed interesting with an emotionally challenged main character, a “mystery” surrounding her past, and the book’s setting in Australia, I never really liked this novel. My primary issues were the simplistic language used and the plodding nature of the narrative. I suppose the simplistic language was used to convey Lenny’s “differences” but if that is the case, it didn’t make much sense because although Lenny was socially awkward she was very bright, well-read and with a depth of knowledge that caused her to excel at trivia night at her local pub. Taking this into account, the prose should have been more eloquent. Not much happened in the book until the last quarter, when the full scope of Lenny’s history is revealed to both the reader and Lenny herself, who had suppressed her traumatic experience. As alluded to earlier, the book primarily consisted of details of her awkward interactions with coworkers in the school break room, her encounters with Ned, who worked at his father’s grocery store where she shopped, and her brief interactions with her Thai Food deliveryman. However, I think I could have overlooked the slow pace if the writing style had been more to my liking.

Judging from the other reviews, I appear to be in the minority, so it may just be my fixation with well-written prose that prevented me from liking this book and other readers that are more focused on the story might find this book appealing.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

"Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder" is a great debut novel about a neurodiverse woman struggling to live her life while holding in a terrible secret.. Her life begins to change when she steals/rescues a dog from its abusive owner, and over the course of the novel, finds community, friendship, and possibly even love. It reminds me of Sally Hepworth's "The Good Sister." *Trigger warning for childhood domestic violence and abuse. By the end, I felt as if I had gone through a cathartic experience along with Lenny but it was worth it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Publication Date: July 9, 2024

I really wanted to love this book, but I had a difficult time enjoying it. The pacing was slow and quite boring at times. I ended up skimming through many parts of the story. While I found Lenny to be an endearing and likeable MC with all of her quirkiness, I had trouble focusing on her long-winded thoughts and obsessions. It was a bit too over the top. I understand that she has autism and deep traumas from her past, and this is probably how the author wanted to portray her character, but I couldn't keep up and found my mind wandering away from the story. Even though this book didn't strike my fancy, I would still recommend it to others.

Thank you to the author, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for granting me digital access in exchange for my honest review!

Humor and mystery combined! This was a great debut that reminds me of Finlay Donovan. Loved this main character and couldn't help rooting for her.

An enjoyable page-turner with an endearing lead. There is a central mystery and satisfying side plots that involve romance and friendship. Lenny is so easy to love and it was a pleasure to get to know her and root for her happiness. She has experienced a lot of trauma and the author manages to keep the story from becoming too heavy (mostly because Lenny is a delightful character).

Thank you very much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.