Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this unedited ARC.

Take out your notebook because you are going to want to be recording some damning details in this one!

This is the perfect example of a cozy murder mystery! (One of my favorite genres that I think the book world is very sadly lacking in). This is a twist that you can definitely see coming IF you pay attention. In my opinion, those are the very best because who wants to read an entire murder mystery that they were never going to crack because of the very unknowable detail that the author revealed at the end??? Not me! You also need your notebook to keep track of all of the characters and how they are related because wow– was I confused at times!

How to Solve Your Own Murder is about 26 year old Annie. Annie is a want to be murder mystery author, who’s entire life turns into a murder mystery. She gets a message that she is now one of the beneficiaries in her great aunt’s will, whom she has never met before. Through meeting the locals at Castle Knoll, Annie learns that her Great Aunt Frances was known to be a bit kooky, all because she believed wholeheartedly in a fortune that she got when she was 17.

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

Well, the fortune was correct, and she turns up dead 60 years later. It is up to Annie and some people she has yet to learn if she can trust, to solve her aunt’s murder so justice can be served at last.

This book is ⅘ stars because as I said– it was very exciting around 40% of the way through. From that point on, I didn’t want to put it down and I finished reading it in one day. The loss of a star comes from the first 39%... The story did not hook me like I wanted it to. It took me days of reading just a couple of pages at a time so I could make progress.

I really, really, really liked it and I am so happy there will be a second Castle Knoll Files! I enjoyed the duel timeline where we were able to see life through Frances' eyes when she was 17, and I like the hopeful promise of a blooming love story in future books. If you want a book that feels like curling up on the coach on a cloudy day, this is the perfect pick!

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is the 1st book in her new Castle Knoll Files series. The story starts off in 1965 when 3 teenage friends visit a fortune teller at the Castle Knoll Country Fair, when Francis is given a bad prediction that she will be murdered. Francis spent most of her life fixated on that message, always trying to avoid her death. The story revolves around two POV’s 1965 with a teenage Frances and present time (60 years later), with the perspective of Annie, Frances’s great niece. Frances is now making a will, and summons her niece, Annie, as well as other family/friends. Annie, who writes mystery stories, heads to Castle Knoll, to discuss changes to her aunt’s will, and meets Frances’ lawyer, Walter Gordon, his son, Oliver, and Saxton and his wife, Elva. Others working within the lands and mansion are also in attendance. When they arrive at the mansion to meet with Francis to review the will, she is found dead. Was the prophecy true? Was she murdered?

During the reading of the actual will, everyone learns that both her and Saxton will have to compete to uncover the truth about her murder with the person who resolves it, receiving the entire estate. If neither solves the crime, the house will be sold and broken down. Detective Crane notifies everyone that further examination proves that Francis was indeed murdered.

Annie is determined to find the killer and with an old diary belonging to Frances, she learns more about the past. Francis, Rose and Emily were best friends back in the 60’s. The past POV has a lot of information about their friendship, and the mysterious disappearance of Emily. The diary gives Annie an immediate connection the past, and how it effects the present. We switch seamlessly between Annie's perspective in the present and Frances' diary entries from the past, creating intrigue and suspense. Someone in the past knows the secrets, which will put Annie possibly threaten by a dangerous killer.

What follows is a captivating and intriguing small-town mystery, with a number of suspects, including the one who disappeared 60 years ago. I really liked most of the characters, with Annie being the lead. To say too much more, will ruin it for you. You need to read this book from start to finish.

How to Solve Your Own Murder turns into a wild gripping ride that will have you unable to put the book down. The plot was extremely well done, with a number of surprising twists. This was a very exciting masterpiece of a thriller. How to Solve Your Own Murder was very well written by Kristen Perrin.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perin is a fun mystery that was a very pleasant experience. It was a cleverly plotted and well-written romp in a small English village told through dual timelines. In 1965, Frances, Rose, and Emily visit the fortune teller at the Castle Knoll Country Fair. Frances begins a lifetime of compiling information that will help to solve her murder in the future. In the present, Annie, Frances’ great niece is summoned to Castle Knoll to solve her great aunt’s murder to inherit her estate and fortune. As Annie and the very interesting cast of characters work through who in fact did kill Aunt Frances. I was delighted and surprised by the conclusion. This mystery was a great fit for me.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dutton for the eARC and the opportunity to read and review How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin.
4 stars – Pub. Date: 3-26-24

This was a enjoyable read that hit all the elements I want in a cozy-style mystery. Annie was a compelling main character, and Frances was an interesting enigma - it was neat having Frances's teenage journal entries interspersed, to give both Annie and readers a view of who she was.

Here's hoping we see Annie back in future installments!

A huge thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Agatha Christie meets Knives Out!! I thought that this book was so fun. This small-town mystery with a playful element was a welcome reprieve from some of my darker reads lately. I LOVE the idea of someone being driven to the point of obsession over their own projected murder for over half a century only for it to ACTUALLY happen. I thought the concept was incredibly novel and original, and that kept me interested from the very first page. Perrin makes the characters of Frances and Annie play off of each other so well even though they have no actual exchanged dialogue. I thought the plot was twisty yet endearing with a really fun ending. I truly enjoyed this book and I think readers will eat it up once it publishes later this month. Four stars!

How to Solve Your Own Murder is set in a small village with a bit of a Midsummer Murders feel and the story unfolds with all the intrigue and charm you'd expect from such a setting.

The large cast of characters added depth to the narrative, but at times, it slowed down the pacing, making the journey feel a tad longer than expected. However, the fun and original premise kept me engaged.

While the comparison to "Knives Out" set high expectations for humor, the novel leans more towards traditional mystery vibes than outright wit.

Despite these points, How to Solve Your Own Murder lays a solid foundation for a promising series. I look forward to other mysteries in Castle Knoll.

This mystery takes place in two time periods. It begins with a teenager named Frances Adams going to a fortune-teller with her two best friends in 1965 and receiving a fortune that will haunt her life. The fortune teller says that she will be murdered!

Frances spends the rest of her life trying to discover who is going to kill her until she is finally killed nearly 60 years later. On the way, she creates all sorts of files about the people she connects with which contain many of their secrets.

In the present day, Annie Adams receives a summons to the small village to learn about what will be coming to her in her great-aunt's will. Annie has never met her great-aunt although she and her artist mother live in her great-aunt's London home and have for most of Annie's life. Annie has recently lost her job as an administrative assistant and wants to become an author of mysteries. She has sent her first book out to agents and publishers.

When Annie gets to the village, she meets the lawyer and other potential heirs but doesn't meet her aunt. When they go to her aunt's home, they discover her dead in suspicious circumstances. When the will is read a couple of days later, Annie learns that she has a week to discover who murdered her aunt if she wants to inherit all of her millions. She is in competition with her aunt's nephew by marriage and with the police. If the murderer is not discovered in a week the property will be sold to property developers and the monies donated.

Annie does have her great-aunt's journal to help her which is the way we get to know Frances Adams too. I liked that way the story switched from the past to the present and back again. I liked Annie's determination to solve the murder both as a way of getting to know her great-aunt and as a way to save the many villagers who life would be ruined if the property was sold for development.

This was an engaging mystery. I really enjoyed it.

A cozy mystery that you can’t help but read in an English accent in your head!

I liked the pace of the book, the characters were lovely, and the twist was sufficiently dramatic and surprising.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is about two timelines - 1960s and modern time, and actually has two murders. We see the 1960s mostly through the diary of Frances in which she describes the events that took place when she was 17. One of her friends (frenemies?) disappeared back then, never to be seen again.
Now her great niece, Annie, must solve the 60 years old mystery to figure out who might have wanted Frances dead (lots of people fit the description).

This is an easy read and the pace of it works well. We get a tidy ending and a bit of a promise for the future installments.

I am not usually into murder mysteries but the description pulled me in and it was a delightful read.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

The book is out on March 26.

I was a little hesitant to read this because I thought it might be too slow or cozy for me but I wound up loving it. The suspense and clues in each chapter kept me engaged. I loved learning about Great Aunt Frances through her diary entries and I felt like I was solving the mystery piece by piece along with the main character, Annie.

This book did everything it needed to as a murder mystery: I was intrigued by the plot, invested in finding the murderer, and ultimately unsuccessful in guessing whodunit, which is always a pleasant surprise. However, beyond the essential elements of a cozy mystery, I found this book sadly lacking. I did not have a problem with the slow pacing, but the characters were forgettable and I could not recall a single detail in the book that had moved me emotionally beyond intrigue a day after reading. This is not a bad book by any means—it is still certainly an enjoyable read. It just needed a little more to cross the line into being a memorable one.

What a fun read! The title and cover caught my attention and I was hooked within the first 10 pages. I liked the use of present timeline and flashbacks and really liked how it wrapped up at the end. It was a fun read that was also suspenseful and kept me guessing. I would definitely recommend this when it comes out.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

my rating: 3.5

How to Solve Your Own Murder elicits memories of sitting in my grandma's living room watching back-to-back episodes of some British murder mystery or another on a late Saturday afternoon: it's intriguing and yet a little boring at the same time, has likeable characters, and you can't put it down until you know whodunnit.

This book is an easy read and equally easy to pick up and set down for periods of time, which made it not a particularly quick read for me: fast when it was happening, but not very often—as someone that enjoys reading multiple books at once this quality was very much a pro.
I was also very intrigued by the dual timelines, each piece balancing out the other to create one cohesive, well-presented story.

I wish I had more experience with these kinds of books to know if everything came together much *too* easily or if that's just the standard for the cozy mystery genre.
Overall I enjoyed my time with this one though it didn't blow me away and I plan on checking out the next installment of the series if that ever materializes.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

This was an interesting read. I didn't love this book but I also didn't hate it. However, I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters. I thought they were a little flat. I would consider trying another book by Kristen Perrin in the future, and I may even try this book again at some point.

Read if you like: Agatha Christie, Lucy Foley
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I enjoyed this twisty murder mystery of a young woman who has to solve a murder to inherit the family estate. It is the beginning of a series, but no cliffhangers here. There is a good-sized cast and some of the story is told in flashback (the Castle Knoll Files). It has a bit of a creep factor - the tale hinges on a fortune a teenage girl receives at a carnival and a couple of the characters are just a shade weird.

I found the story to be well-plotted. There are plenty of red herrings and plenty of secrets to make everyone a suspect. While I guessed at part of the truth, I didn't figure out the mystery before the big reveal at the end.

If you enjoy a good mystery, you'll like this one.

Family friendly, but some of the subject matter is inappropriate for younger readers (this is a murder mystery after all).

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton. I receive a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The mystery and pacing of this book were excellent. This is good because the writing was very juvenile, and I would have stopped reading, but the pacing kept me interested in reading what would happen next.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for my honest thoughts.

Thanks to Penguin Group & NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute and enjoyable, if overly-complicated bit of plotting. And I think it marks the first time I've ever enjoyed a dual timeline story!

In the present day, weird old Great Aunt Frances has been obsessed with a fortune given her at a fair when she was a teenager in the 60s (which seems to have foretold her death by murder), and now she has summoned Annie, her niece's daughter, to meet with regard to her estate, which is not inconsiderable. Shortly after Annie arrives, Frances is dead, and it appears to be foul play. Annie sets about solving the mystery immediately. but just to make it even quirkier, Frances has made provisions for the dispersal of her estate based on which relative solves her murder (so certain was she that she would be murdered, and apparently given to whims of a legal nature). Annie finds herself pitted against her cousin by marriage, and even wary of sharing too much info with the local constable, who is about her age and very cute, lest he solve the murder first and take options away from Annie (and her Chelsea property away from her mother, an artist who's pretty disinterested in responsibility from what we see).

Pros:
Clever plot, engaging heroine, hint of romance, creepy villains/family members, old country estate setting, dual timeline doesn't feel forced or lazy

Cons: TOO MANY CHARACTERS, challenging to keep sequence of characters appearing in both timelines who aren't major players, clever plot borders on incomprehensibility and I think I could pick holes in it if I could be bothered

All in all, I have way more good feelings than bad ones about this book, and I would read the next one if Annie decides to delve into the mystery of her father or whatever. 3.5 stars rounded up.

I enjoyed this mystery. When Frances is young, she goes to a fortune teller who tells her she’s going to be murdered. She becomes obsessed with the fortune, journaling and taking notes to figure out who’s going to do it, try to prevent it, or help her family solve the crime. She is, in fact, murdered, and her great niece has to find out who did it, racing against the clock to piece together the clues.

The perspective shifts between the present day and the past. I liked them both- when I was reading one I didn’t want it to end, then it would switch and I wouldn’t want that one to end. Frances’ story kept revealing little bits at a time, with mysteries inside mysteries and a town full of secrets buried in the past.

This was a fun mystery, and I’m looking forward to reading more by this author. Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for the eARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars

A fun and engaging murder mystery of a different sort.

This book follows a dual POV and timeline; told through the present day voice of Annie, and through writings of her now deceased Great Aunt Frances.

I loved the whole whodunit feel and the multiple mysteries taking place aside from just the main murder plot.

I never really read a cozy mystery before, but I can definitely see what the allure is after reading this one. It kept me guessing in an enjoyable game of Clue type of way, rather than being overly involved and complex like my usual thriller mystery reads.

Overall, I found this book refreshing and a great adult novel debut by the author.

Goodreads and Fantastic Fiction have this listed as book one in a series, while the publisher makes no mention of one. This book wraps up nicely with no cliffhangers, but I can see Annie leading readers on more mystery solving adventures in the future; perhaps one involving her dad since his mention is brief yet cryptic.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House (Dutton), and the author for this digital Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderfully fun and twisty mystery! This one kept me guessing up until the very end. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me enjoy it early.
This book is definitely one any fan of mysteries would enjoy. By focusing on 2 different murders that took place almost 60 years apart the story is able to take you on twists and turns you don’t see coming. You spend so much time trying to piece together what clues matter to which crime it becomes even harder to guess the ending before it arrives. It keeps you on your toes throughout, second guessing all the players and clues. Something I consider a hallmark of every great mystery book. I was very happy with the ending and one particular trope the story used that I won’t reveal. It’s a trope that I think almost always heightens the enjoyment for reader. Definitely recommend!

This cozy mystery has a lot going for it---the setting and it's unique plot (plus an adorable cover). The plot begins with sixteen year old Frances hearing a fortune teller tell her she will be murdered. What she doesn’t know is it will take 60 years for the forecast to come true. The title is a bit deceiving because it's actually not Frances who will solve her own murder. In her will, whoever solves it first stands to inherit everything.
The story is told from the perspective of Annie, her great-niece, in the present day and from Frances’ journals from 1965-66. I enjoyed the alternating timelines. I liked this book wasn't too cozy and sweet---it had some bite to it. I predict this be a highly popular book club title, as well as a popular book in general.