I enjoyed this book! It was a fun ride... a double murder mystery that jumps back and forth between two time periods. Although I was able to figure out 'who done it' before the big reveal, I still enjoyed the journey to get there. Although I'm not aware of any murders in my family, I did have some relatives I never got to meet and I would have loved if there was a journal or diary that would have let me get to know them even if I never met them. This book also makes you think through most of it... Frances got a fortune as a teenager that predicted her murder and she became obsessed with it, however, did her obsession with it actually end up causing her murder? You'll have to read it to find out.

A pleasant read good for readers who are looking for a cosy yet thrilling time.. loved the plot and the pacing!!

This book grabs the reader’s attention right from the beginning. It is captivating and introduces a very likable and relatable Annie. I could not put this book down and that is a good thing. This is such a fast read as well. I was fully invested and the twists and turns had me gasping the entire time.

This was a fun, twisty, cozy mystery. The characters were engaging and the story was intriguing. I hope there will be more in the series with Annie Adams in the lead!

If you are a fan of Clue, I have a book for you. How To Solve Your Own Murder is the story of a woman who stands to inherit a fortune from her great aunt if she solves her murder. This book was so much fun. It flips back and forth between the 1960s when the great aunt was a teen and given a fortune predicting her murder to present day when her murder must be solved. The clues are dished out slowly and carefully in such a clever manner. The relationships are all dysfunctional but so cleverly intertwined. I loved seeing how the pieces all fit together and how it all played out.

For the most part, this mystery felt a lot like other mysteries to me. The blurb tries to play up the fact that Great-Aunt Frances is trying to solve her own murder based on a fortune read for her when she was a young person, but the 60-year time gap kind of undercuts the immediacy of her investigation. It would have made more sense if she'd had the fortune read shortly before she actually is killed (I could easily picture Frances, Emily, and Rose going as older ladies out on a lark, like, "We've lived enough life to have seen it all," and then Frances gets a shock when she's told she's going to be murdered and becomes obsessed with it and then dies.)

Annie is an incredibly likable character. I was really rooting for her to win the whole time. However, I don't feel like she did a lot other than read her great-aunt's diary, snoop around the house, and talk to Rowan Crane every so often. I did appreciate how realistic her emotions and reactions were.

There was also a problem with one character just completely disappearing after several pages, which was really confusing. This person had such a strong presence early on, and you think they're going to be instrumental later, but then they leave and we just never hear from them again. That made it all the more obvious that this character was included as a distraction; there was no way they were going to be the murderer after not showing up.

Speaking of characters, I kept losing track of who was who. The author did a great job of reminding readers about the roles each person plays and their relationship to one another, but more than anything the long list of characters makes the book feel really cluttered. I'm not sure this aspect really worked. I also kept waiting for a much bigger reveal in Frances's diary but was kind of underwhelmed with it when it family came.

If you're looking for a quick mystery, maybe pick this one up. Pretty good overall.

3.5⭐️ - I wanted to love this one so badly. The entire concept of solving your own murder is something I thought was so fascinating and a fresh new idea but the last third of the book felt very drawn out. Very like-able characters in a cozy town but probably won’t continue with the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!!

It’s 1965 and teenager Frances Adams has just gotten been told a prediction that will change the course of her life: she’s going to be murdered. Frances spends the rest of her life trying to solve her own murder that hasn’t even happened yet, only to be proved right 60 years later. In present day, her great-niece, Annie, has been called to Frances’ country estate for a meeting. When Annie arrives, however, she finds Frances newly dead.

Told in alternating timelines between Annie working to solve her great-aunt’s murder and Frances’ diary from the 1960s, this book kept me guessing up until the very end. Unfortunately, it seems almost everyone in the quaint village of Castle Knoll might have had a reason to kill Frances, but by digging to find the murderer and with the clock ticking, is Annie allowing herself to become a target?

I really enjoyed the dual timelines and thought this book was well done. I’m always happy to pick up a mystery that I’m not able to solve halfway through. There are a lot of characters to keep straight, especially between the two timelines, but the continuity of a few of Frances’ friends made this story even more enjoyable. I’m hopeful we will see more books to follow this one as great-aunt Frances absolutely left enough unopened files and diaries to continue to keep us guessing. Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this unique dual-timeline mystery! I'm glad it's the first in a series.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. It was a fun whodunit type mystery with a lots of characters to choose from as the murderer. I also enjoyed the past and present timeline. This definitely falls under the more cozy side of mysteries as it didn't have that edge of your seat suspense, but was intelligent and entertaining throughout.

What an absolute gem of a book! Loads of characters but easily kept track of, this story had me from the first page. Annie was such a great sleuth and had a real reason to solve the mystery of who murdered her great aunt but the money was secondary to her need to learn about her great aunt Frances's history, which was so intriguing. I loved reading Frances's diary along with Annie and I had a hard time deciding which timeline I enjoyed more because they were both steeped in mystery. If this indeed the start of a series, I couldn't be happier!

This book had a lot going on. There were a ton of characters and sometimes I had trouble keeping them all straight. I lost steam about halfway through, but wanted to know who did it. I was disappointed in the ending. I felt like we didn't really building up to who the killer was, but the author just decided this is who it would be and forced it in. Not my favorite mystery I've read.

This is such a good little murder mystery. Following Annie as she solves Frances’s murder is both interesting and sad, because you can tell how well they would have gotten along if they’d known each other. There were so many layers to the mystery and to Castle Knoll, that the end did actually manage to surprise me. Something I can’t often say about thrillers. Definitely give this one a read if you like a cozy mystery with just a hint of the slightly less cozy at the solve. I would absolutely read a prequel where Frances is solving Emily’s disappearance. I found myself enjoying the parts that were diary entries from Frances the most.

Obsessed with a fortune presented to her at a young age, Frances spends her life solving mysteries in an attempt to discover who will be the one to murder her and make her fortune come true. When she turns up dead, her niece is her only hope at justice. Armed with a her aunt Frances’ teenage diary and a knack for writing mysteries herself, Annie embarks on a sleuthing adventure to unearth her aunt’s killer.

Although I did connect the dots on who the murderer was before the ending, I really enjoyed this story. The author does a good job of making every character involved present as seemingly guilty. The dual timeline provided a good insight into Frances’ life while Annie is tracing her steps in the present day. I look forward to the series continuing.

If this wasn't a lovely read! I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but it was a nice surprise. Frances is read a fortune at age 17, telling her of her impending murder that will take place 60 years later. She is paranoid & weary of all those around her. She keeps meticulous records & journals to assist in this murder that will take place.

Current day, it is up to Annie, Great Aunt Frances's great niece, to solve her murder in order to receive Frances's inheritance. This story weaves together so nicely and the supporting characters keep you questioning.... who murdered Great Aunt Frances?

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a murder mystery vibe in their next read!

Thanks go to NetGalley & Dutton for the advance copy of this lovely book. Pub date March 26, 2024.

I actually did not finish this book. I felt the writing was good but it just wasn’t what I expected. I think the title is a bit misleading. I am sure it is a great book, as I’ve seen a couple of my friends review it and say they enjoyed it. But it just wasn’t for me. For this reason, I will not be posting any reviews of this book online.

Really enjoyable lighter mystery. The pieces all worked together to lead to the mystery and the side/small mysteries lead into the overall mystery with out sidetracking the reader. The only challenge was keeping track of the family lines and how everyone was connected to each other.

In the 1960s, when Frances was a teenager, a fortune-teller gave her an eerie prophecy, and ever since, she has been obsessed with the idea that she will someday be murdered. In the present day, Annie is summoned to her eccentric great-aunt Frances's estate to discuss her inheritance – something Annie expected to go to her mother – only to find that Frances has suddenly died. Now, Annie, an aspiring mystery writer, is left to solve the murder while competing against other prospective inheritors to see who can piece the puzzle together first.

This was fine but for some reason didn’t hold my attention very well until the middle. Once I was into it, though, I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to switch back and forth between the present and the past via Frances’s diary. It seems like this is going to become a series, and I liked this one enough that I’ll probably seek out the next!

There is a part where a grown man has sexual and romantic relationships with 17-year-old girls, but 17 is above the age of consent in the UK, so I’m not sure if it merits a content warning or not but I thought I’d still mention it here.

CW: domestic violence

This books got me out of my reading slump! I really liked how it was different that other murder mystery's in the sense that they didn't have a "who done it" moment in some parlor and their was a race to solve the murder with a prize in the end. I would love to have known more about the house and the other things the aunt was involved with over the years. Hopefully this becomes a series.