How To Solve Your Own Murder was such a clever whodunnit story. This book features dual timelines of Annie trying to solve her great aunt, Frances’ murder, while Frances is trying to solve a fortune teller’s prediction of her own murder. While Annie explores multiple theories throughout the book, and brilliantly discusses them with her best friend, I was crossing off and adding to my own theories. I adore mysteries where I can’t guess the ending and this one satisfied that.

Kristen Perrin’s writing is hands down wonderful. She truly left no stone unturned in this story. The characters were interesting and memorable. There are quite a few characters so I believe drawing out a character map may help during the reading experience. The choice of utilizing journal entries for Frances’ POV was fun! 

Overall, this was a wonderful book. I look forward to seeing where this cozy mystery series goes next. A huge thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this mystery novel!

First, I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

I added this book to my TBR the second I saw it on Goodreads and I was thrilled to be given an ARC to review.

I really enjoyed this book. Annie was a delightful main character and I felt like she really came into herself as the plot developed.

Annie is called to meet with a wealthy great aunt she has never met just when her career has taken a nose dive. Just as she gets to the manor in Castle Knoll for a meeting about an inheritance, she finds her aunt dead in a suspicious situation.

Frances, her great aunt had been trying to solve her own murder ever since a fortune teller told her when she was 17, she’d be murdered.

Annie is tasked with trying to solve the murder and secure an inheritance. Not knowing who is friend or foe becomes challenging as she works to piece together not only a murder, but the truth about her own family.

I’m rating it a 4 out of 5 stars only because I figured out the murderer and some of the twists a bit earlier than expected. Overall, I think the blurb was right and if you enjoyed Knives Out or Agatha Christie, you’ll really enjoy this novel.

I’m definitely hoping to read a sequel!

Annie has a high stakes mystery to solve set in small town Castle Knoll. The cast of characters were really fun to follow and to see how they intertwined in the past and the present.

This is one mystery I’m not afraid to admit I didn’t solve. But the ending was satisfying and left me feeling like everything wrapped up nicely.

This book was a solid 3.5 rounded up to 4 ⭐️. I really enjoyed it but the beginning almost lost me. There are a lot of characters and I struggled at first to follow along. However, about 40% of the way into this book it all clicked and I was really invested I couldn’t put it down.

I do think the letters from the past were my favorite part and I just wanted to sit and read Frances’ diary all the way through.

I am definitely interested to see how this series progresses. Thank you Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is perfect for fans of the Thursday Night Murder Club, cozy mysteries, and detective fiction..

When our main character is summoned to see her great aunt and hear about changes to her will, she doesn't know what to expect. When her great aunt turns up dead, things get really messy. The will creates a race to solve the murder and could put everyone in danger, because not everyone wants the murder solved.

This book is a murder mystery told from a dual timeline. I had such a hard time switching back and forth because the author really builds up the tension and makes you want to know more and then BAM! She switches to the other point of view. I mean, I guess that's a good sign because it made me keep reading!!

I couldn't figure out who the murderer was and I kept trying to guess as more information was revealed. I appreciated a well thought out twist/ending and enjoyed the book overall.

Thanks to netgalley for an ARC to read and review..

How To Solve Your Own Murder - Kristen Perrin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is fun and full of amateur sleuthing, twists, and mystery!
I found it so entertaining. I didn't want to put it down and take care of my responsibilities. 🤭 I wanted to travel to Castle Knoll and help Annie solve the mystery of what happened to Frances.

BLURB:
Back in 1965 Frances is at a fair with her two friends Emily and Rose. A fortune teller makes an ominous prediction: Frances will be murder one day. From then on, Frances spends her life trying to solve who is going to murder who before they can. She pieces together every bit of incriminating evidence on her friends, family, and neighbors doings and harbors it. It doesn't make her many friends and she is believed to be a bit off her rocker. Until one day, sixty years later.. Frances is found murdered.

Fast forward to now, Annie is told she is to go meet with her great aunt Frances at her estate to speak about her will. But when she arrives, Frances is already murdered. Annie who is quite into mysteries herself is determined to solve Frances murder, with the help of all the information Frances has kept on everyone she has encounter in her life. But in trying to solve her murder, will it put Annie in danger, too?

From the publisher: For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

How to Solve Your Own Murder has been called the biggest debut of 2024. It’s the first book in the Castle Knoll Files. In a familiar pattern, the book moves between passages from a diary set in the 1960s and narration by Annie, the main character set in the present.

It’s 1965. Frances is 17 and at the Castle Knoll Country Fair with Rose and Emily, her two best friends. She receives a fortune that will change her life. Like most fortunes received from fortune-tellers at a country fair, it is filled with nonsense that can be interpreted in many ways. But Frances can’t shake it. It also includes the dire warning that “All signs point toward your murder.” In what seems to me to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, she becomes obsessed with her fortune. And sixty years later, she is murdered.

The obsession with a fortune that later comes true is a nice twist. Otherwise, the book is familiar in a comforting way. If you like cozy mysteries, it will probably remind you of books, TV shows, and movies. There are a lot of characters and I could have used a list of them and how they are related. I had an especially hard time keeping the men of the past straight. There are hints at a future romance for Annie. Annie also devises a too-stupid-to-live plan to catch the murderer, which works, but I hope that does not become a pattern. The author does her best to sell her red herrings and misdirection, perhaps to excess.

Still, it’s a fun book, and I’ll probably read the sequel. The cover is very eye-catching. I read an advance reader copy of How to Solve Your Own Murder from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be released on March 26 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library.

How to Solve Your Own Murder starts off with Frances Adams receiving her fortune as a teenager seeing a fortune teller at a country fair - "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 toward your murder." Then, the POV switches to her great niece, Annie, in present day. By this point, Frances is wealthy and eccentric - Annie's never met her although her mother, Laura is set to inherit everything. Then, a letter comes from Frances' lawyer that requests Annie to be at a meeting. When she arrives, Frances is already dead. At the will reading, Annie learns that Frances has determined that whoever solves her murder first will win her inheritance. As the only person who has never met Frances, Annie aims to get into her head by reading her diary from the time period when she was first told her fortune.

There are so many moving pieces in this book that it's hard to keep up with everyone's relationship to Frances and the murderer is even harder to suss out. Which made the story something I wanted to continue reading because, just when you had convinced yourself someone was the killer, some information would pop up to clear them. I loved that the story went from the POV of Frances' diary and the real-time of Annie trying to solve what happened. It made it so that we were working to solve the murder along with Annie.

“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.”

I don't normally read "Cozy Mysteries" opting to pick up psychological thrillers or horror instead but I found the premise intriguing. This book did not disappoint and have now taken me on a ride down cozy English mysteries. I've found a genre I love (thank you Kristen Perrin!). I throughly enjoyed the cast of characters present day and past especially young Frances. I also loved the small town feel with secrets that gave enough interest to the story. I also enjoyed the dual timeline of past and present, though found myself drawn to the past more. I was that eager to solve the murder!

If there is one flaw to this book it was that at times I forgot it took place in the UK and assumed it took placed in the States. But perhaps we can just say that unfortunately, murder is universal. Overall, it was entertaining and all the stars for getting me to read cozy mysteries.

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for an advance copy of this book!

I loved the Agatha Christie vibes of this book! I don't read a lot of cozy mysteries but this one hit the spot. The past diary entries vs the present storyline meshed really well. I really enjoyed the characters and felt like it was interesting enough to keep me involved and guessing.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I really loved this book! It was a cozy mystery but so much more and I loved getting to the know characters both in the present and the past. From the way it ended, it looks like it's set up to be a series and I really hope we have more of Annie solving murders/mysteries with the help of her late great Aunt Frances! And perhaps a little more romance too...

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read this title early!

This was really fun! I like mysteries but I tend to lean towards the thriller end of the spectrum rather than the cozy end, but I definitely enjoyed reading this. I liked Annie as a narrator and I found the murder itself to be pretty unique--it reminded me almost of the Inheritance Games series, but if it was a cozy adult mystery instead of a young adult thriller.

I honestly don't feel like I have a ton to say about this one, but that's not a bad thing. It's a perfectly enjoyable mystery that more aggressive mystery readers might be able to solve before the big reveal, but that is not me so I was just along for the ride. I enjoyed the diary entries, as well as the character nuances that were slowly unveiled over the course of Annie's investigation.

Giving this one a healthy 3.5 that I'll round up to a 4!

Perrin did a good job of keeping me guessing, though I do feel like the third act was a little messier. I liked Annie and enjoyed seeing her unravel secrets from both the past and present. Frances’ diary was a cool way to slowly learn more about the past and Emily’s disappearance. A whiff of romance without being unbelievable (because solving murders comes first!).

I loved this one! I expected this to be a simple cozy mystery, which I love. But this one actually leaned into some excitement and it really played out well. I really enjoyed getting to know Great Aunt Frances through her diaries from her teenage years. I found myself wondering how believable she was. I was rooting for Annie, our very own murder mystery author/detective, right from the start. The only thing I didn’t love was her damsel in distress moments. I’m all for the romance though. It ended with a hint of more mystery in Annie’s family, and I’m here for all of it. 4.5 ⭐️.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder in exchange for an honest review.

How to Solve Your Own Murder has an interesting concept, but the writing is incredibly slow. I had to DNF this novel at 33% because I cannot get into the story at all. Our main character, Annie, has no personality, and everything about her feels boring and uninteresting. Each conversation that is had between the characters feels forced and fake, making every scene drag on.

The most interesting part of the story are the throw back parts about great aunt Frances, but even these plot points feel a bit more YA than adult mystery. When the story switches back over to modern day, I'm bored again.

Nothing has happened, the characters are uninteresting and flat, and I just do not think this story will be for me.

The blurb for this book sounded very appealing to me, and it was classified in the thriller/mysteries category. I soon discovered that this is more of a cozy and I am not too much into those. I loved the descriptions of the house, as well as the game that the recently deceased millionaire matriarch conveys to solve her own murder. It may also require her potential heirs figuring out the disappearance of her old frenemy. It is well written, and the plot gives enough clues to be able to follow along. The author also obeys the guidelines of the classics, and the characters are self-aware enough to discuss their investigation with regards to these books. That said, I didn’t connect much to the characters, including Annie, the lead. The conversations had too many details that I tend to find distracting, and the whole situation requires a huge suspension of disbelief. I can imagine how much work went into this novel, but I was not the right reader for it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#PENGUIN GROUP Dutton.

I loveeeee the Agatha Christie vibes of this story. This book caught my attention immediately and I loved the past and present being put together so flawlessly. It was very well written and I did not want to put the book down. I needed to know who the murderers were. I did figure it out ahead of time but that is not out of the ordinary for me nor did it ruin the book. I absolutely loved this and will be recommending it to all of my friends!

I gave this book 5 stars. I really enjoyed the writing style. Short chapters, and some chapters were written in a diary entry style, which gave insight to the past as you followed the story in the present. I really enjoyed the main characters. There was just enough details to make it work without being overwhelmingly focused on character development alone. I enjoyed the twist at the end. I never guessed it the entire time I was reading the story. I lived the concept and the layout of the mystery. I will recommend this to my audience.

How to solve your own Murder by Kristen Perrin
When Frances Adam’s has her fortune told in 1965, the course of her life changes. And Frances changes the course of her great niece, Annie’s life when she summons her to her mansion. After not being a part of her aunt’s life for 24 years, she becomes involved in a murder investigation, one that she must solve in order to inherit her aunt’s estate. Annie learns about Frances’ childhood and the people that were important to her, the fortune that changed everything and the disappearance of a best friend and rival.
I thought that this was an interesting premise : a murder mystery with unique characters and the twist of unraveling, a lifetime of clues. All of the different characters add to this mystery in a delightful way, and I would recommend it to any reader, mystery lover or not.
#netgalley

I really liked this book, although I did have some feasibility issues. The dual timeline is interesting, and I enjoyed the cast of characters (though sometimes hard to keep track of them in past and present). Just enough twists to keep things fun and enough character secrets to withhold the solution. I felt like Annie's ambition to become a mystery writer was a compelling attribute, although felt like the author didn't use it to its full potential. Overall, a good read!

This book made me feel like I'd lost my mind.

So, the main character Annie is a mystery writer. Or...she wants to be. Unclear if she's actually finished anything. But it's her passion, so when she's confronted with a REAL mystery, this is her time to shine, right? This is a woman who wants to make a career out of writing about crimes getting solved. You assume she must have read extensively in the genre, knows all the ingredients to a good mystery, how to treat clues and all that. I mean you assume that, as a human person alive in contemporary times, she's at the very least come across some media about crime and has a basic understanding of how crime-solving works.

Then there's a murder of a woman who, famously, believed her whole life that she would be murdered. It's a little messy getting the cops to the scene, but they look it over and I guess say it was natural causes (???). Later, Annie's at the scene. She's poking around what should still be an active crime scene, but I guess the cops had too much cozy village stuff to do so they just bailed and left it as-is. And she finds what she thinks is the murder weapon. Oh dang! Well, time to back away and call back the incompetent cops who missed this obvious thing, right? Especially since the thing could cause further injury if handled. Right?

Right?

No. Annie grabs the potential murder weapon - yeah, picks it up with her bare hands - get it into a car, and takes it to the police station. Oh, of course it injures her as well. And the cop seems to be untroubled by the way this woman removed a weapon from a crime scene and then transported it elsewhere, contaminating any evidence that might have still be available under all her added fingerprints.

I - what? I'm just, I'm so sorry. This is like writing a main character who desperately wants to be an astronaut, who then finally gets to NASA, looks around, and asks the first person she sees, "So how do we get to the moon? Do we take a car?" And then agents, editors, friends, and everyone else who read the book gets to that part, sees no problem with it in any capacity, the book gets printed and lands in my hands, and I think I've gone absolutely stark raving mad because there are also hundreds of reviews where NOBODY ELSE mentions this insane, glaring, obvious, ridiculous, dismaying moment that completely removes any credibility from the main character and also demonstrates an astonishing lack of care not just for the genre but for, like, the intelligence of the reader...I just...what? Anyway, then the main character finishes the book by going to the moon because she's just sooo smart actually, and everyone else at NASA ferries her around and holds her hand on the way.

This book is apparently the start of a series, which feels like a threat, but at least explains why most of the bloated cast of characters barely gets any characterization. It also explains the glanced over suggestion of a future love triangle where one of them is a jerk and the other is a cop, gag me with a spoon. I have to also point out the very strange writing style here in which the present day narrator has the voice of a teenager (seriously, how old is she supposed to be? she acts like a 17 year old but apparently graduated from Central St. Martins which is an incredibly prestigious school to go to for a person who didn't commit to a career in fashion and also acts pretty dumb) while the flashback scenes (allegedly journals, but written narratively with full dialogue which I'd complain about were the rest of this book not so much worse) that are actually from the perspective of a 17 year old seem much more maturely written.

I'm so glad this book is over.

My thanks to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC.