How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin #twentyfifthbookof2024 #arc

CW: death, murder

Frances is sure she will be murdered. More than sixty years later, she is proven right, and it’s up to her great niece Annie to solve the mystery.

The investigation into Frances’ death now reveals the disappearance of one of her close friends sixty years ago, and in order to earn her inheritance, Annie has to solve both mysteries.

I wouldn’t exactly call this a cozy mystery, but it’s not super high stakes. I learned it’s the first book in a planned series (I somehow keep reading series-launching books!) and I can see how the people about town could sustain a few more mysteries. I won’t continue it but it will be right up some readers’ alley.

I enjoyed the dual timelines and liked Frances as a main character. I thought Annie wasn’t very developed, but I liked her mystery-solving. Some of the townsfolk needed a little more fleshing out as well. A lot of people will enjoy the small town setting, and the cover is charming.

Thank you to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for the advance copy. (Available now, pub date was 3/26/24)

#castleknollfiles #howtosolveyourownmurder

I’d rate this 3.75 stars! It was cozy but not in a cheesy way. I liked the pacing. I didn’t really connect to any of the characters, but I like the plot and it was sprinkled with enough clues to Keep you interested

I had the best time reading this! It was just cozy but not cutesy, lovely, and felt like a comfy old episode of Midsomer Murders. I will def continue in this series to see what other dirt Frances dug up before she got hers!

Thank you for this ARC.

This was a fun read, very Agatha Christie-esque. The story was interesting and I thought pacing was great - there were enough clues or bits of action sprinkled in to keep me drawn in without giving too much away. Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher for the eArc in exchange for my honest review!

Cozy mystery. A fantastic who-done-it that had me questioning everything until the very end. See Frances got a fortune read when she was young that foretold her eventual murder. Fast forward to said murder and her great niece Annie has a ticking clock to solve it or the entire estate is lost to the dreaded golf course developers. We go back and forth between Frances, Emily and Rose’s time as teenagers and forward to Annie rifling through the present - the shady attorney, slimy real estate developer, handsome detective, weary best friend and conniving great nephew.

Back in 1965 teenage Frances attended a country fair and received an ominous fortune which implied she would be murdered one day. When one of her best friends goes missing weeks later, Frances’ obsession is born. She devotes her life in large part to attempting to prevent meeting this fate, noting each time a possible hint to the future crime takes place. Fast forward sixty years and Frances is indeed found murdered. Will her great niece Annie be able to solve the crime? This is a fun approach to a standard locked room mystery, with Annie puzzling out clues in part with Frances’ teenage diary, Frances’ own “murder board,” some help and quite a bit of hindrance from other parties hoping to profit (or prevent) from the crime remaining unsolved. The writing is very reminiscent of Agatha Christie, with many intriguing characters and red herrings. There's also a well done arc of Annie's interest (none, except for a vague curiosity) towards Frances shifting gradually to a wistfulness of a missed opportunity for an actual connection.

An ominous fortune, a potential inheritance, and a race to solve a murder. What could be more exciting!

I really enjoyed this book. The transitions between Annie’s present and Frances’ past through her diaries were seamless, and I really thought both character were well-developed. There were a lot of twists and turns, and it was a fast-paced read.

The book didn’t have as much humor like the stories it was compared to (Thursday Murder Club and Knives Out), but it was a great read and I couldn’t put it down.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #PenguinGroupDutton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 Stars
This was a great murder mystery! The FMC Annie needs to solve the murder of her eccentric very wealthy great aunt before someone else does. This story is a dual timeline as she reads her great aunts diary to try and figure out any clues. I love these kind of stories. Probably because I can never figure out who did it or any of the twists! If mysteries are your vibes for sure check this one out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Totally enjoyed How to Solve Your Own Murder written by Kristen Perrin.. The first installment of The Castle Knoll series is told from two perspectives in two different periods of time. I enjoyed how the stories were interwoven and gave insight to the current day mystery. Although categorized as adult fiction i am confident my high school students will love this novel. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced eGalley!

This is an entertaining read overall! I didn’t absolutely love or connect with the characters, but there were enough hooks and twist to keep me engaged throughout the book. I really enjoyed the dual timeline/POV and getting to see how specific relationships got to the point at which they are in the present (probably my favorite thing about this book). It was fun to continuously tie in how each character is related to the other, taking clues from the past and applying them to the present.

I will definitely be reading the next book in the series when it’s available. Thank you NetGalley and and Dutton books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“And that’s the thing with lies: They’re much easier to believe when it’s an idea you like.”

Two murders. Two timelines. And one paranoid woman believing a decades old prediction that she would be murdered. What a crazy concept!

I enjoyed this one. The past timeline is told via Frances’s old journal entries and that was my favorite part. There is devious behavior, a love triangle, a crazy murderous prediction told via a riddle, and jealousy abounding.

The current timeline is not quite as fast paced or interesting in my opinion, but I did enjoy Annie’s character and her desire to get to the bottom of the death of her great Aunt Frances. There are a lot of characters to keep track of which did detract from the mystery a bit for me as I struggled at times to remember who was connected to whom and why. Overall a solid murder mystery.

Thank you yo Netgalley, Dutton Books, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a special book! If you’re a fan of a cozy mystery, you’ll fall in love with How to Solve Your Own Murder. This book is the launching of a new series, and I for one am all in after reading this book. Told from dual timelines, this book about family secrets had me guessing until the very end on who murdered Great Aunt Frances. I do have to agree that if you like the Thursday Murder Club books, you’ll probably like this book.

As with most dual timeline stories, I have a tendency to lean into the older timeline and enjoyed that part of the story much more than the modern story. I loved the fact that the setting was a large country manor in a small town. There are a lot of characters introduced in this book in both timelines, so you’ve really got to pay attention and stay sharp to catch all the clues.

I just can’t wait to find out what Kristin Perrin comes up with next! Highly recommend.

Thanks so much to Dutton Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a fairly basic whodunit. The reason I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable is that the characters aren’t entertaining or dynamic. I prefer a good amount of humor in this type of novel, but I didn’t even crack a smile during this one. The premise and framework were clever but, in my opinion, good detective crime novels are character driven.

I’ve noticed that this is supposed to be book #1 of a series. I will likely check out the sequel in hopes of character development.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an Advanded Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

A right proper English murder mystery. Small rural village, amateur sleuth and all. Well written and plotted.

This was a book… that I read. It’s one of those books that left me shrugging my shoulders and forgetting all the details by the next morning. I hate to say it, but while I didn’t dislike this book, it was utterly forgettable, which definitely makes writing a review difficult!

The story is told in two different timelines from two different POVs, which I really enjoyed. Where I started to get tripped up was that I had a hard time connecting all the names from the earlier timeline to the later one. Everyone’s name (except Rowan) was very old fashioned, and they started to all blur together. Other than the main character, who I really enjoyed, I just had a hard time keeping track of all of the other characters, as they all seemed to blur together in my mind.

Now, here are the positive qualities, because there were many. The premise of this mystery is really unique and definitely grabbed my attention from the start. I really loved the quaint English village that served as the picturesque setting, and I also really did grow attached to both female leads, the one from the past and the one from the present. The dual timelines complemented each other very well, and I did NOT see the ending coming, which is always nice!

Ultimately I enjoyed this cozy mystery and definitely wished that I could live in a small English village rife with murders myself. I think the genre itself is a double-edged sword; a cozy mystery is, by definition, not going to stir up major emotions for the reader, and in order to make it a real mystery, there needs to be an abundance of characters with a motive for murder. I can definitely see the signs of this being set up as a series, and I will probably read the sequel if/when the mood strikes!

This was cute, but I found certain parts dragged. Overall, a good mystery read!!! I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being a series!

A fun, multi-generational murder mystery that you'll want to consume in one sitting. Who knew small towns and cottages could be so full of gossip and intrigue (everyone, and there's a reason for that)? Enjoy the adventure in Castle Knoll as Annie pursues the unsolved case that her great aunt was fascinated with for a lifetime.

Frances spent her life worried about her death, and murder, as foretold by a fortune teller. As a young woman, she spent her time with her best friend, Rose, and her friend, Emily. Emily is an instigator, and after causing issues amongst Frances’ group, she disappears. Annie, Frances’ great niece, is summoned to Castle Knoll to meet with Frances, only to find she has been murdered. Annie knows there is some connection between Emily’s disappearance and Frances’ death. With a cast of characters and an incentive to solve the murder, Annie becomes involved. I liked the mystery, and the characters. Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Shout out to @duttonbooks for an ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder via @NetGalley! This was suchhhh a fun cozy mystery and felt like a BBC/Masterpiece/Grantchester situation.

In 1965, Frances Adams and her friends attend a country fair and get their fortunes told. Frances is given a foreboding warning about her future: betrayal, justice, and murder. And then she spends the rest of her life trying to avoid her fate, eventually failing. Annie, Frances’s great-niece and potential heiress, will have to solve the murder as an outsider in a small town in which *everyone* has secrets.

@kristenperrinwrites did a phenomenal job with this story; I literally couldn’t put it down for the last half of the book. The pacing worked really well for me between the diary entries and the present day action — I certainly never got bored!

Pros:
- We LOVE a spooky manor and a Westing Game-style contest for inheritance.
- Small town characters with secrets!
- The ending felt EARNED. The resolution made total sense and the motives felt real.

Cons:
- 🤷🏼‍♀️

3.5/5 rounding up to 4 Stars! Thank you, NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton / Dutton for this eARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin.

Very clever! This is my first book by this author and she's got a new fan for sure! I enjoyed the mystery and suspense that each interesting character brought. The setting was perfect for this story and the story was easy to follow - this is a different writing style than I'm used to and I like it!