4.5 - Super solid mystery with a classic feel. A lot of characters to keep up with, but I liked the "small village" feel with the endless possibilities.

Great Aunt Frances is iconic - I wish she wouldn't have been dead when the story begins. I liked the balance of present & past flashbacks, and think it was executed pretty flawlessly.

Annie as a main character doesn't stand out as much to me, so I'm not sure how memorable this will be.

I do appreciate that there wasn't an overwhelmingly overwrought romance element to the book like we frequently see in mysteries.

Recommend for fans of Knives Out and mysteries with a classic, cozy feel!

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions remain my own.

Featured in this reading vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GLfWvoxbXM

This was an interesting read. I loved the writing style and it felt so cozy to me. It was a fun read, but I don't think it's the kind of read that's going to actually stick with me for a while.

This book was so much fun!

It reads like a classic who-done-it mystery with a lovably flawed main character. It features passages from a diary that are so scandalous and so entertaining! There was the perfect amount of twists and turns to keep you on your toes without feeling forced or overdone.

The book bounces between the perspective of Francis, a teenager in 1965 that just received a cryptic fortune predicting her murder; and Annie, her great niece who 60 years later is tasked with solving her murder. In a way this should be easy, Francis has been keeping tabs on everyone in her life for the past 60 years out of fear of this exact situation. However, it seems most people in town have shameful secrets that could easily translate to motives for murder. As Annie goes through Francis’ diaries she is thrown into an even more complex web; back in 1965 one of Francis’ best friends mysteriously disappeared and was never seen again. In order to solve her Great Aunt’s murder she must first solve this decades old mystery, all within one week while simultaneously trying to not be killed herself.

This book had me annotating everything, questioning everyone, and left me constantly thinking about it every time I put it down. The ending was the perfect balance of leaving you completely satisfied and excited to read about where the characters go from there. I’m really looking forward to the next book in the Castle Knoll Files series!

Such a fun murder mystery decades in the making!!

This story is told non-linearly with two narrators. Half of the story is diary entries from the '60s and the other half is current day with a great niece trying to solve her great aunt's (who she has never met) murder in a week! If the week goes by without an answer to who killed Frances then the entirety of the estate, including a family's farm, and Annie's own house!

I loved the mystery and had no idea who did it until the VERY end of the book- which kept me reading because I needed to know who did it and WHY!!!

Also, I would love to read more about what is going on in Castle Knoll because it seems like there are SEVERAL mysteries in that small town just waiting to be solved.

A great cozy mystery about a murder that was decades in the making so that when the victim, eccentric Great Aunt Frances does die, the reaction by all is "Finally, I guess she was right!" Foretold as a young girl at 17 by a fortune teller at a carnival, Frances lived her life with this hanging over her head. When Annie is set to inherit her fortune, so too is France's nephew and a few others who are in the room. This is reminiscent of a good Agatha Christie plot or "All Knives Out" as someone in the room is guilty but Annie needs to uncover who by following all the clues. Everyone has an idea. This is just a fun fun mystery. Not sure how it could be a series, but I look forward to more from this author. I throughly enjoyed it. Many thanks to #netgalley #howtosolveyourownmurder #kristenperrin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is good! Typical whodunit but with a twist over an extended timeline! I wasn’t too excited to read this because I haven’t gotten into a thriller in awhile. But this was a great way to get back into them!

A cozy mystery of sorts about a young woman desperate to solve her great-aunt’s murder, a murder that everyone saw coming. I found so much of this book delightful. It has a quirky cast of characters and a gorgeous setting. The pacing is right on & things develop quick enough that the plot doesn’t drag. A nice fun read!

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are mine alone.

I am not really sure how this is going to be a series, because i felt like it made such a great standalone! I was hoping for a little more originality and goofiness, but it was a fun agatha christie-esque book! It gave me The Immortalist vibes but in a mystery setting. The beginning had a great hook, and it was a quick read!

A likable young woman finds herself in a contest to solve the murder of an estranged relative. A murder that we foretold nearly 60 years ago. This was a very entertaining read. Annie Adams goes to Castle Knoll to meet her great aunt for the first time and unfortunately is one of the people to discover that Frances is already dead. Can she solve the murder in a week and win the fortune? Is she the "right daughter?" There is much at stake and secrets abound. Annie has possession of the diary Frances was keeping when she first had her murder foretold. I enjoyed the diary entries interspersed between chapters giving Annie's experiences in the present. I would definitely like to see what happens in Book 2!

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely a fun murder mystery set in an idyllic town in the UK. I felt like most of the twists were earned but I had a hard time believing Emily’s killer was able to get away unnoticed when they were supposedly covering for Frances. Overall, I enjoyed this and would consider reading future installments in the series.

4.5/
4.5/
"I just want to play along. Like when I watch Bake Off and try to do the challenge, but with murder."

This one was so fun! A definite must-read for any thriller/mystery fans. It reminded me of the Knives Out films and I've never read Agatha Christie's works, but based on plays I've been in that referenced her, I'm assuming it is reminiscent of her works. There are lots of characters with potential motive, high stakes, family secrets, and the chapters from Frances' teenage journal allow you to try to solve the mystery alongside Annie. I was pretty excited for this one and easily lived up to my expectations. Honestly, it felt like the ending left a sequel on the table...and that would be very welcome. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the eARC.

This wasn't bad, I was unfortunately just bored. There are too many characters and too many style choices that don't work for me (time jumps with the diary entries, lots of telling rather than showing, and an uncompelling narrator who is extremely wholesome compared to an unlikeable cast). Because there are so many people to keep track of, the diary entries make it very difficult to keep them straight. Maybe a paragraph or two that's relevant at the start of every chapter would have made it feel more balanced?

The mystery itself wasn't super complex, which is okay, but it also didn't feel very satisfying once it was solved. I won't say more so that I don't spoil anything, but I was hoping after all Frances' years of trying to solve her murder before it happened would have had a little more splash. Instead, it just felt a bit sad.

If you love Knives Out, you'll probably really like this, because a lot of elements felt similar to the first film. However, if you prefer some likeable characters and higher stakes, this might not be your cup of tea.

Retail reviews on release date.

This was an adventure from beginning to end! For the fans of the movie Knives Out, The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Black. This murder mystery centered around two main characters in different timelines follows Frances as a fortune of a certain murder told to her at a carnival begins to ruin her life, and Annie, Frances’ Great Niece, as she gets called on to solve said murder.

I was so excited about this premise and it gave me everything I wanted and more! I loved following Annie as she found different clues that would help her in her discovery, made even better by being able to learn these things right along side her in the “past” timeline chapters. I grew to love Annie and Frances and loved being able to explore Castle Knoll and the Gravesdown Estate with them both in their respective timelines.

If you love a good murder mystery, I cannot recommend this one enough!

We have our fmc, Annie, who suddenly has the possibility of acquiring a lot of wealth upon the death of a mysterious great aunt. She goes to a cozy English countryside village to visit this aunt only to find out that she's dead. Oops! The rest of the book follows Annie who is trying to find out what happened to her great aunt, and in the meantime she stumbles across some of the aunt's diaries and we get to learn a lot of JUICY history! And will Annie acquire any wealth at all? 👀

On to the review!
It's been a LOOONG time since I flew through a book, so that should say a lot about this! I've also been craving a cozy mystery for the longest time and this was a bundle of cozies (despite the murderous behavior lol).

To be honest, there's nothing I disliked about this book, I LOVED everythinggg. So, I'm going to list out and explain all of my loves:
- Annie is so lovable and quirky and hilarious, not to mention her cutesy, modest fashion sense🥹.
- The other characters are just as intriguing with their own drama going on on the side. One of my absolute favorite things about the characters was the diversity represented. The author includes poc characters who appear as a normal fabric of society, and they're not "othered". We don't go into depth with racial/ethnic history, but rather the characters are stated to be of ethnic backgrounds, and they are essential to the story, plot, and the environment of the village. This doesn't work for all books, but it worked for this one and I liked that the author found a balance.
- The mention of Afghanistan as a beautiful place, with no mention of war or western veterans. YES AND THANK YOU 👏👏👏
- There's sort of a double mystery going on, between Annie's and the great aunt's pov. Along with all the tea we learn from the great aunt's past - at some point I was sooo invested in all of that drama more than the murder lol
- Such smooth beautiful writing giving both of our fmcs very distinct characteristics and personalities, I was so invested like I said!

- THE COZINESS, I can't even begin to describe it, ---> which is why you all need to go read this book asap!!!

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin--This was a fun cozy mystery set in an English village. Annie has arrived in Castle Knoll for a meeting about her great aunt Frances' will. Unfortunately Frances is found dead before the meeting occurs. Annie is drawn into figuring out who killed Frances and discovering if it was related to a fortune teller's prediction to teenaged Frances that one day she would be murdered. The story is unfolds from 2 POVs--from Annie and from a diary Frances kept as a teen. The book has the feel of an Agatha Christie mystery or an episode of Midsomer Murders. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance digital copy. The book releases on March 26.

"Your future contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins right when you hold the queen in the palm of one hand. Beware the bird, for it will betray you. And from that, there's no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point to your murder."

This is the fortune young teenage Frances Adams receives from a fortune teller at a fair she attends with her best friends, Emily and Rose. Frances spends the rest of her life hyperfixated on the details of this fortune, unraveling their intricate meanings and implications and determine to solve her own murder before it occurs...only to be murdered after all. Now, it is up to Frances' great-niece Annie to solve Frances' murder in just one week - a seemingly impossible feat considering Annie never knew Frances, and Frances' neuroticism was not always easy to decipher.

If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for a dual timeline and narrative. I loved reading about young Frances, her friends, and the teenage woes of love and rebellion and adventure she experienced, paralleled with Annie's determination to unravel the truth of what happened to Frances and ensure justice and closure. The dual timelines added depth and intrigue to the plot, as well as context for Frances' actions that otherwise would have been missing if the book only focused on present day.

Perhaps there were too many characters presented in this book - I had trouble keeping track of everyone's history and connection to Frances and often had to pause my reading to refresh my own mental map of who is who. I wasn't invested in any character besides Annie, but at the very least the characters were complex and intriguing.

Thank you Netgalley and Dutton for this ARC!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Loves the characters and twists It would be interesting to see Annie investigate all of the other crimes that Aunt Francis was working on. Such a fun read!!!!

How to Solve Your Own Murder follows Annie, an aspiring murder-mystery author who gets summoned by her Great Aunt Frances to solve her own murder-mystery. From there, the story takes off.

Here's what I loved about this book. I really loved the dual POV of Annie and Frances' diary entries. I love when authors incorporate this into their stories so I found that touch to be enjoyable. I also loved the small town of Castle Knoll and the closeness of the community. Everyone knows everything about everyone and that was evidential in the story.

Here's what I didn't love as much. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of characters in the story. Trying to keep up with everyone, I felt like I needed to put out my own murder board and red line how each person was connected to the story. I also didn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted to, but then again, I never really do with murder mysteries.

Overall, I decided to give this book three stars, not because it was bad, but simply because it just wasn't for me. I think the writing style was good and the story was enjoyable. If you love murder mystery, I think you'd really like this book. Others have rated it highly, and for good reason. It did leave me guessing all the way to the end and when it was finally solved, I was shocked by who the killer was. Personally, the more murder mystery books I read, the more I realize that they just aren't my favorite genre and that's okay.

This was a really good murder mystery, without any crazy murder. I love the small English town and how everyone's business is known, but not in an annoying snooping way.
Great Aunt Frances seems like an amazing person and I love that we got to know her through her teenage journals, it was the sweetest way for Annie to "meet" her great aunt.
I love the fortune and how much it was used in the story, but in a precise way that didn't leave any loose threads. The murder of Emily was a great companion story to her Aunt's murder and I loved Annie trying to solve them both with the journal. Seriously loved the journal part.
The characters, including all of the side characters were great and I loved than everyone had a part to play and no one felt dumb. The ending was a great twist and I did not expect it! And I liked the hint of a romance, but no actual romance.

a enjoyable murder-mystery that i had fun with

this book follows annie adams, who goes off to the countryside to meet frances, her great-aunt but arrives to find her great aunt dead. annie is determined to investigate and find out who's the murderer, using her great-aunt's clues and notes. i thought this was a quick and enjoyable murder-mystery, with a strong cast of characters and a pleasant setting. i liked the mc; she was definitely a fish out of water in some parts, but she was capable and smart, especially in the scene where she confronts the murderer! i also liked the supporting characters; they were all super unique and interesting, from the inspector/police man to the gardener who actually has a super funny plot point like i did not expect that at all. i liked how we got like chapters from the current time and chapters from the past, detaling frances's prophecy and the events that happen after; it weaves a neat and well-crafted tale. i honestly was shocked at the killer too; it seemed out of nowhere but that's good for a murder mystery.

a breezy enjoyable murder-mystery you can finish in one day. i would give this 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

thanks to netgalley and penguin group dutton for the arc.