Kristen Perrin is back with the second installment and I enjoyed this one as much as the first one. Annie is an amateur sleuth and she is back to Castle Knoll.
She is now tangled in a new murder mystery of a fortune teller who she saw just hours ago. Which makes her being a suspect so she decides to clear her name. It had lots of twist and turns and lots of character. The mystery kept me guessing and was really good. I will continue this series.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Dutton for the ARC. This review is my own.

This follow up to How to Solve Your Own Murder is just as incredible as its predecessor, maybe even better! Told in dual narratives across time, this was such a clever mystery!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for an e-copy of this book.

This is a sequel to How To Solve Your Own Murder. I think taking the first book helps, and that was an enjoyable read as well, but this book could also stand alone.

This novel is told in a dual timeline format, following Annie in present day and her great-aunt Frances in 1967 through her diaries. I enjoy the dual timeline and was engaged throughout, wondering how it all was going to come together!

I found the book to be clever and fun. The biggest reason that makes this a five-star book for me is that I can see myself reading it again and again and picking up more each time without being bored. I do plan to reread this as well as the first book in the series before the third comes out!

Review also shared on Fable and Goodreads.

This book was very good! It had so many twists and turns that I never saw coming. It was great to read about Annie again and the new mystery she solved. I can’t wait to read more in this world if there is any.

3.5/5 rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved “How to Solve Your Own Murder” and had high expectations for this story. I loved the setting of a small town and a huge old manor. I like the dual povs between Annie and Frances, with Frances’ pov coming from her journals. It adds a layer of uncertainty in Frances’ viewpoint. I really enjoyed how the two books were tied together through the fortune teller from the first book. However if you hadn’t read the first book I think this story would be hard to follow along with. I also felt that there were too many characters this time around. It felt hard to keep up with potential suspects when I spent a lot of the book swapping around three characters interchangeably. I did enjoy a few of the plot twists and I think it was a fun read. I’m hoping that there’s going to be a third book.

I enjoyed this just as much as How to Solve Your own Murder. Annie is living in Gravesdown Hall and just as involved in digging through the decades of secrets collected by Frances. The cast of characters is mostly the same with the inclusion of the fascinating and mysterious Peony Lane.

How to Seal Your Own Fate is the second book in the Castle Knoll Files series by Kristen Perrin.

In the second installment, we’re presented with two perspectives. The first being of Annie Adams who has finally settled into Castle Knoll after the events of the first book. She gets a cryptic message from a local fortune teller. Hours later, the fortune teller is found dead and Annie is thrusted into more secrets that the town has been hiding.

The other perspective is from the past: 1967. Annie’s great aunt, Frances Adams is a teenager. She investigates a mysterious car crash that claims the lives of a family. But she finds out that the crash wasn’t an accident and someone is covering up what actually happened.

2024’s “How to Solve Your Own Murder” was such a fan read for me last year. The stories were so intriguing that it kept me from putting the book down. Perrin has a knack for writing smart whodunnits and she delivers again with the sequel.

I was excited to jump back into this world. Both books present the same characters and it was enjoyable to be thrust back into this world. Perrin knows how to pace a story. She doesn’t rush. She gives you small clues throughout the book and by the end, you realize that you already knew what was happening all along. She has an art for storytelling.

I’m all for a good murder mystery and Kristen Perrin delivered once again. She’s becoming an auto buy author for me.

How to Seal Your Own Fate has everything you want in a classic whodunnit. It's the second book in The Castle Knoll Files series and let me tell you, Kristen Perrin has outdone herself. Unsolved cold case murder, murder in the present, secrets, fast paced, twists are all words that describe this book. Be sure to read the first book How to Solve Your Own Murder and you'll find the same characters in the second book.

I'm going to be honest, I thought How to Solve Your Own Murder was alright but not great. I did not have the same vibes for How to Seal Your Own Fate. The story was thrilling and compelling.

Read this book if you like:
-Agatha Christie
-Knives Out
-Classic Murder Mysteries
-Diffetent timelines

I give this book 4 stars and really liked it! Pick it up March 27th, 2025!

This fun mystery returns to the same small English village of a young heiress. Once again, the dual storyline involves a jump back to the 1960s to reveal the covered-up lies of beloved returning characters. This second book in the series starts to investigate how a cheerful teen turns into a doubtful, paranoid person over many decades and if that same fate awaits the young heiress. An intricately plotted book with likable characters for fans of The Thursday Murder Club.

Love the characters that populate Castle Knoll, and especially how many have surprising stories and are better (and worse) people than they seem in the surface. I also love how the Castle Knoll mysteries contain many of the usual British village murder tropes but they still feel fresh and original. Once again an excellent mystery, well told. I’m ready for the next (and would really like to see movement in what I hope is a long burn romance between Annie and Dt. Crane.)

The premise of this was fun. I hadn't read the first in the series, so I went back and picked that up before this on. Both are fun, cozy stories with a little more depth and romance to them. I don't know if I will continue on in the series if it goes on, but they are good to pick up as palate cleansers between darker, heavier books or just a cozy fun time.

It can be truly hard for a sequel to live up to a first book in a series but How to Seal Your Own Fate absolutely stands just as strongly as How to Solve Your Own Murder. Ms Perrin reintroduces us to Annie, the recent heiress of an estate and fortune, and assorted other residents of Castle Knoll while also introducing us to characters the previous outing hadn't delved into.

While I do think reading the first book in the Castle Knolls series is integral to best appreciate this book, I think the quality of the writing and storytelling feels like a very nice continuation of a larger story. It didn't feel like a sequel just for the sake of having a sequel.

I appreciated that there were some twists and turns I didn't fully see coming which can be a rarity for me. I also appreciated that the book felt complete as is, but also open for further books in a series.

My only major gripe had to do with how characters handled a few situations they were in. I struggled to find logic in their choices and it felt at times like some of their decisions weren't reflective of the way people actually think but were rather just made to further the plot. While it caused a star deduction for me, it didn't take away drastically from the quality of the book.

I would absolutely still recommend this one and I think it could be a really fun buddy or book club read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the chance to read this book for review. All opinions are my own.

This has become one of my favorite series. I'm a mystery junkie. The Castle Knoll Files Series is everything you want from a small town mystery. How to seal your own Fate keeps the vibes of the first book but still has enough of it's own storytelling to stay compelling. Each part keeps your engaged. Loved that NetGalley allowed me to read this prior to the it's release date.

How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin is an atmospheric and gripping mystery that keeps you guessing with every twist and turn. Annie Adams is settling into her new life in Castle Knoll when she meets the local fortune teller, Peony Lane, who shares a cryptic warning. Hours later, Peony is found dead, and Annie quickly becomes entangled in a web of lies, cover-ups, and dark secrets. As she works to uncover what Peony was trying to warn her about, the weight of the past comes crashing into her present. Meanwhile, in 1967, Frances Adams is dealing with the aftermath of her friend Emily’s disappearance and finds herself drawn into a dangerous investigation that threatens to unravel the powerful Gravesdown family’s buried secrets. Perrin expertly weaves together the two timelines, blending suspense, betrayal, and mystery into a thrilling narrative that’s hard to put down. With its richly developed characters and ominous setting, How to Seal Your Own Fate will leave readers eagerly turning pages to uncover the chilling truths lurking beneath the surface of Castle Knoll.

This worthy sequel to How to Solve Your Own Murder brings back Annie Adams to solve another mystery related to her aunt Frances's life in Castle Knoll. Loads of character development (both Annie and Frances) adds tremendous appeal to this suspenseful, intriguing mystery.

Annie is just a woman trying to figure out her path in life while suddenly being surrounded by the memories of her Aunts life that keep coming back and needing untangling of the present from the past.
These books are reminiscent of mysteries of the past, there are no wicked turns you didn’t see coming for the need of shock because this author spins a web of wonder and mystery that unfolds in a pure moment of whimsy.

How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin is the second book in this series. This dual timeline story starts with Annie in present day as she is adjusting to living in her Aunt Frances's estate Gravesdown Hall. Little does she know her skills will be put to work again to solve not one, but four murders, one in the present and three from the past. The story takes us back and forth in time using Frances's journals to show what actually happened in the past and how Annie and Jenny use what they learn to solve the present day murder. The stories build on each other and the clues add up as you go along with a satisfying resolution. The one thing that is a bit of a caveat is that you need to be familiar with the first book in the series to truly understand what is going on. I read the first book about a year ago so I was able to piece things together.. I think it would have been helpful to have more of a review of the first book in the set up of this 2nd one. That being said, I still really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery to solve.

Annie Adams is back. Castle Knoll may seem like a quiet town, but secrets, lies, and murder seem to be around every corner. This time it is the fortuneteller Peony who read and told Frances Adams fortune , the one that shaped her life. In the present, Annie is trying to discover who wanted Peony dead. Also, why that person framed Annie.
In the past, we learn more about France’s. Her relationship with Archie Foyle, and the wealthy Gravesdown family. I don’t know what it is about Frances, but her chapters were my favorites.
By the end, the guilty party was exposed. My bad, this person was about the only one I didn’t consider. Another engaging cozy mystery. I’m curious to see if there will be some growth in Annie’s character in the next book. I’m also sure there are a lot more secrets to be uncovered in aunt Frances’s packed files.

Another cozy mystery from Perrin. I did enjoy this book and will most likely continue to read the others in these series BUT the Gravesdown family characters and quite a few of the townspeople confused me. I frequently struggled to remember who was who. The back and forth time hopping may not have helped matters either, usually this doesn't affect me keeping characters straight though. This was the biggest downfall for me. Otherwise a fun to read murder mystery.

Definitely enjoyed How To Seal Your Own Fate, the second book in the Castle Knoll Files written by Kristen Perrin. However, I agree with others who pointed out that it's best to read this book right after the first one, mostly because it involved the same characters and when Frances, the primary one, is murdered in the first book but we re-live her life in the second, you need to be prepared to understand all the timelines and connections between the stories. That said, I loved the alternating time periods in chapters, as it really helped create a story within a story. In one of my books, I did the same thing, meaning as you end a chapter with current time on a cliffhanger, you find out what happens only thru the scenes from the prior time period. It's a cool plot device and helped make this book stand out for me in 2025. I'm now curious if there will be a third... love Frances but she's likely gone, and unless there's more to her secrets, I'm ready to find out what her niece's sleuthing skills are like on her own.