Thank you, NetGalley and Dutton, for providing me with this arc. I enjoyed this story a lot. I have been digging dual timelines in books lately. The dual timelines in the story work well. The characters in this book were all well-developed. Frances and Annie are two sides of the same coin, and it was nice to see how diligently Annie works to figure out what happened with her aunt. Frances, for how eccentric she was, was a great character. She was intelligent and determined. I wish there were more of Frances in the book. I devoured this story over two days; I can't wait to read more of Kristen Perrin's works.

I really enjoyed this book! It is a fast-paced murder mystery set in the English countryside. Seventeen year old Frances receives a fortune that she will be murdered. She spends her whole life trying to prevent her murder, just to have it come true sixty years later. Enter Annie, Frances’ great-niece, who finds herself trying to solve the murder while also uncovering secrets of the past.

This premise alone is so interesting and unique. It’s a classic whodunnit-style book, and I had no clue who the killer was until the very end. There are probably 30 characters introduced, which got a little confusing at times, but I enjoyed the main characters of Frances and Annie. I also liked how the story was told in dual-timelines between present day and Frances’s journal from the 1960s.

If you like classic murder mysteries with a little bit of modern flair, I think you’d like this one. The way the book ended, it sounds like this may turn in to a series as well.

I loved this book!!

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a murder mystery set in a small town in the English countryside. Annabelle "Annie" Adams travels to see her great aunt Frances, at her aunt's behest, in the town of Castle Knoll. Annie has never met her great aunt but has heard many stories of Frances' obsession and paranoia with a fortune she was told at 16 years old. The fortune foretold her murder and Frances was determined to avoid it all cost, leading to her investigation of all the townspeople around her to find who might murder her. Annie unfortunately never gets to meet Frances since she arrives at her aunt's home only to find her dead at her desk while in the middle of flower arranging. A whirlwind adventure ensues where Annie investigates who could have murdered her aunt with the help of a local detective and a journal 16 year old Frances left behind which Annie believes coincides with present day events.

Perrin writes so well and this is the most delightful and not cheesy small town murder I've read in awhile! All of the characters are well fleshed out and it's difficult to figure out who would murder great aunt Frances. We'll definitely be ordering this for our library and I'm excited to read more in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Three teenage girls have their fortunes read at a county fair. The narrator tells us that the fortune teller is a 20-year old young woman who has added a rasp to her voice to make her persona seem legitimate. Two of the teens take their fortunes as a lark, in the spirit they were meant to be taken. But one takes her’s seriously and spends her life trying to solve her predicted murder. When Annie is named in her great-aunt’s will as her beneficiary. She arrives for the reading of the will only to find her aunt has been murdered. As Arthur Conan Doyle would say, the age is afoot. It’s a fun book but I would have liked it a little better if it hadn’t tended to go round in circles.

This is a cozy mystery where you follow Annie & Frances with a dual timeline. Overall I thought it was a quick paced fun read. I think the title is a little misleading, but I won’t spoil it.

I will say I almost wish there was a family tree illustration at the beginning because it was difficult to follow all of the characters. A lot of them were only mentioned a couple of times and didn’t help in driving the plot forward.

Between the two MC’s Francis seemed a little more complex and intriguing than Annie. Kind of shocking considering Francis is a teenager in her POV. We didn’t learn much about Annie really so it was hard to make any type of connection with her.

This story had me hooked until the whole Emily storyline started and then I started to lose interest. I don’t really understand why that storyline needed to even BE a thing. It seems this genre can’t help but stick to those things to help drive a plot and use them as twists, turns, and shock factor. I honestly don’t think it was needed. Kind of cheapened it. The story could have just been about three friends and two of which were obsessed with the one, without involving the boy/man drama. But that’s all to say I still think this was a great read, even if that plot point was definitely not for me.

This was a super fun, cozy mystery set in present day, with insights from journal entries from 1965. It was an engaging page turner that kept me guessing and staying up too late trying to puzzle out the answers.

How to Solve Your Own Murder

This book has been swimming around in my brain ever since I first read it back in January. The moment that I sat down to read it, I was immediately hooked. The premise of this book is that Annie is invited out to Castle Knoll by her great-aunt Frances who she’s never met; turns out she’s been obsessed with discovering who her own murderer is, and partially as a result of that she’s designated Annie her new heir. However, by the time Annie arrives, Frances is dead, and Annie must find out what happened to receive any part of her massive fortune.

I loved that we got to see both main character’s perspectives, but I definitely enjoyed Annie’s over Frances’. I was suspecting literally everybody as the book went on. I could imagine myself in Castle Knoll.

I would recommend this to anybody who’s looking for something to get them out of their reading slump, or anyone looking for a book that they won’t be able to put down. Personally, I’ll probably be running to get a hard copy to read again when it comes out.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. Perrin’s novel is set in the English country side and revolves around Annie who has just been named benefactor of her Great Aunt Frances. When she goes for a meeting she discovers her great aunt is dead after having believed all her life she would be murdered. I couldn’t connect to the characters or the storyline but I can see how others would enjoy this cozy mystery!

First I need to say that this title is catchy. I would definitely pick this book up if I saw it in a bookstore. Secondly, this was the perfect cozy mystery. If you love Agatha Christie, you need to pick this one up.

Frances Adams spends her entire life trying to prevent her own murder, which was predicted by a fortune she received. Her body is found in her estate the same day she was to announce changes to her will. Annie Adams, an author and great niece to Frances, was summoned to the estate to hear of the will changes and was in a state of shock at the discovery of France’s body, whom she had never met.

During the reading of the Will, it is learned that whoever can solve Frances’ murder will be the sole beneficiary of the entire, massive, estate. Annie is at an immediate disadvantage since she did not personally know Frances, but her luck turns when she discovers Frances’ diary written the summer she received her I’ll fortune. In the face of death threats, Annie continues to put herself at risk to bring justice to not one, but two murder victims.

Who can be trusted? Who has the most to gain with the murder of Frances?

I was elated to see this marked as “Castle Knoll Files #1” on Goodreads because I need more! So many characters were likable, and I feel there is much more story to tell. This one I truly could not put down.

This was such a fun book! I loved the murder mystery and it kept me guessing the whole time. It had a little 0f everything - mystery, humor and intrigue. The comparisons to Knives Out are spot on. I look forward to reading more from this author and in this series. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review! 

Frances Adams is told as a teenager in 1965 that she would be murdered one day. She then spends the rest of her life trying to prevent it and figuring out who would kill her. Decades later, Annie Adams is summoned to Castle Knoll to meet her Great-Aunt Frances. Instead of finally meeting her reclusive relative, she finds Frances dead. When Frances’ will is read, Annie learns that to inherit everything Frances left behind she must compete against the nephew of Frances’ late husband to uncover the murderer. If neither is successful in solving the crime within the time frame, the estate will be sold to a developer. Annie is at a disadvantage since she is an outsider, but she stands a chance since Frances spent her entire life finding and documenting the secrets of all the residents of Castle Knoll.

I loved the quaint setting of Castle Knoll. I also loved Frances’ journal entries and seeing the past unfold. The main problem with alternate viewpoints/timelines is that one is usually going to be better than the other. And for this book, the journal entries ended up being more intriguing than following Annie.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a title and author that I had never heard of before, but was intrigued by the title and the summary. I wasn't sure what to expect, and kept being surprised by the book. It was a lot of fun to read and fun to play along trying to solve the murders. Enjoyable, quick read. I would happily read more in the series.

⭐️: 4/5

At a country fair in 1965, teenage Frances Adams has her fortune told, predicting that she will be murdered someday. She spends her life from that point on trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, the crime of her own murder. Decades later, Annie Adams is summoned to a meeting with her great aunt Frances, but by the time she arrives, Francis is dead. Now determined to catch her great aunt’s killer, Annie starts to unravel the dark secrets of the small village of Castle Knoll.

Before a few months ago, I was admittedly pretty fuzzy on what exactly a “cozy mystery” was. I had heard the term in conjunction with like, Agatha Christie, but had never knowingly read anything that would fall into the category, since my thriller/suspense book tastes generally lean more toward the darker, police/detective procedural, muscle thriller direction. So when I got this ARC and applied my newfound knowledge and realized this was a cozy thriller, I was intrigued, since it’s just…different from what I normally read. The most interesting thing I find about cozy mysteries right now is that it’s harder for me to predict where the plot is going, since red herrings are built into the plot, and I’m not as used to the flow of them and the common pitfalls and plot twist “tropes” if you will. I really enjoyed the structure of this one, with the flashback diary entries that allowed the past to be revealed just as it was relevant in the present. There were admittedly a lot of names to keep straight though, and keeping track of how everyone was related to one another and what their jobs were, etc. was no small task. Definitely a fun read that I recommend!

Thank you to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for this free eARC!!

A real multitude of mysteries in one package—a murder now, the solution of which is a timed inheritance contest, is linked to a historical missing persons case, which is related to a big family secret, all of which is wrapped around the murder victim who spent seemingly her whole life trusting no one and nosing around her neighbors and discovering their secrets (all of which, both her life and death, were a bit too tragic). There's a lot to follow, some parts are more engaging than others, and gosh is it difficult to care very much about all these rich people.

I would consider this a cozy mystery type novel. The title had me intrigued from the beginning. It was a quick read for me, but good. A good way to pass a rainy day.

I wanted to love this--the description sounded great, but ultimately it was much too slow-moving and didn't capture my attention. The main character didn't have anything in particular to endear her to me and the plot took way too long for anything to happen.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Mystery Thriller

This is a story told in a dual timeline. The past is set in 1965 and follows Frances Adams and her two best friends. One night, the three girls visit a fortune teller, who predicts that Frences will be murdered. This prediction will make Frances miserable and cause her to waste her life figuring out how to prevent that from happening instead of living normally.

The present timeline follows the character Annie Adams, who is Frances’ great-niece. She is invited to her great aunt's estate, along with other characters, to discuss Frances' will and the modifications that she made to it. Upon her arrival there, she will be shocked at what she will find there.

This is a cozy murder mystery with intriguing main characters. Both timelines are narrated in the first-person style. The premise of a woman trying to prevent her own death really sounded interesting to me. It is the main attraction of this mystery novel.

The twists are not going to shock you or anything like that, but they are suitable for the story. However, I think the dual timeframe disrupted the flow of the story. No matter what, you will find yourself invested in one story more than the other, which makes the one that you are not much invested in more like an annoyance.

The other thing you need to keep in mind is that there are many characters, and that requires you to be more focused. Certain characters are exclusive to a single time period, while others are present in both time periods. I think the author did a good job of creating different motives for the different characters. This was an entertaining read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

This story is from Annie’s perspective from reading her great-aunt’s journals from the mid-1960’s after she was murdered. Annie has to solve the murder before the police do, or the whole estate is sold off with no money to be left for family. Frances, Annie’s great-aunt, learned from a fortune teller when she was a teenager that she was going to die. She just didn’t know when (wouldn’t that be awful). I honestly was not sure if Annie would be successful or not. The only thing I found lacking was the comparison to Knives Out! I expected a fair amount of cheeky comedy weaved through, but it wasn’t like that at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh this was a fun read! It was like Clue and Knives Out, and I enjoyed it immensely.

1- I can’t totally see where this has the ability to be a good series. There’s enough quirkiness in the characters and Castle Knolls to be great launch points for future books.

2- Readers will want to underestimate Annie Adam’s because she comes across as so quiet and overwhelmed at first glance. But, she is amazing! I only wish we could have gotten scenes of her and her aunt together.

3- the two timelines worked well! Francis was so hard to like at times, but she was ultimately right in the end (unfortunately). Plus, she had her own murder board!

I’d recommend this book to any mystery fan who also appreciates humor mixed in.

"It's all rubbish anyway, you know? No one can see the future." This story is about Frances, who has spent nearly sixty years expecting her own murder, as predicted by a fortune teller. Frances summoned her great niece, Annie to her solicitor's office. Before the will was read, Frances is found dead.

Annie now must try and solve the murder, but not everyone wants the murder solved. This is a fun and fast paced mystery, it keeps the reader guessing. The final pages will leave you breathless.

Intelligent, Captivating and Enjoyable! 3.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy! This book will be released 3/26/24.