While this isn’t the type of book I usually gravitate to, I was pulled in by the clever title and the intriguing premise.

At age 16, a fortune teller predicts Frances’s death. For the next 60 years, Frances lives her life in fear of this prophecy. Days after changing her will to include her estranged great niece, Annie Adams, the prophecy is fulfilled and Frances is murdered. Wealthy Frances has left her entire estate to the one who can uncover her murder, so Annie sets out navigating the quirky small town and town folk, and uncovering secrets from the past, in an attempt to solve the crime.

The book moves back and forth between Annie, in the present day, and Frances as a teenager.

While the book was lighthearted and cute, and a fast read, most of the characters fell flat for me. I wasn’t overly invested in finding out the murderer’s identity. Still, I would recommend for anyone looking for an easy mystery read or something light!

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is a captivating and unique thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. While the pacing is a bit slow in parts, the intricate plot twists and unexpected revelations make up for it. Perrin's skillful storytelling and clever plot devices earn this book a solid four-star rating. I’m looking forward to more books in the Castle Knoll Files series.

A classic whodunit that had me conspiring and theorizing throughout. If I’m being honest, I’m such a mood reader and wasn’t sure I was in the mood for this book, but I actually couldn’t help but really enjoy it! It pulled me in right away and kept me engaged. I loved the development of this book and how it was written using diary entries to get a feel for the past and then bringing us back to the present. Add this to your list if you need a cozy mystery!

A genuinely delightful read, and that honestly seems like a perfect descriptor for this book. The tone and writing is light and conversational, like catching up with a friend over coffee, only in this instance she’s telling me about her recent whirlwind experience getting drawn into an Agatha Christie style English country house murder. I sometimes get miffed with dual narratives in novels where we’re following one story in the present and another in the past, but it was done so well here and I enjoyed both of them so much that I was never eager to ‘get back’ to the more interesting one. They each wove into the other compellingly, and made the whole book sing.

This is clearly intended to be a series and I would like to see these characters again, particularly the gruff but dreamy local detective, so I will certainly be back for the next book. I think my only real quibble would be that we meet several interesting characters who do not get real roles in the story, and I expect they’ll be back for the next go, but specifically in this book I kind of wondered why they just wandered through the story and left.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton in exchange for an honest review. This clever whodunnit switches between Annie’s perspective and Great Aunt Frances journal entries in the search to uncover a murder but with twists along the way. I love the unique perspective this novel gives by allowing us into the mind of the murdered while also searching for the truth in the present day. I did struggle with the pace and the sheer amount of characters. It felt like a lot to get my mind around at times. While I enjoyed the differing perspectives, it was difficult to get hooked again once the frame of reference switched. If you enjoy cozy mystery’s and knives out, you should definitely give this book a go!

The plot was fun, but the writing was of varied quality for me. Our protagonist and her interactions with the townspeople are far less interesting than the excerpts from the '60s told via diary.

If you’re a fan of mysteries or even British murder mystery tv shows, this is for you. I was sucked in immediately. I’ll be shocked if this isn’t adapted for television. A twisty mystery all the way through. I did not crack the case & enjoyed all the surprises. Frances Adams spent her life trying to stay ahead of a fortune teller’s prediction of her death. While also trying to solve her friend’s disappearance when they were teens. She believes her great niece, Annie Adams will be the one to solve her murder when it happens. I loved getting to know Frances from her diary. I liked getting those chapters from the past firsthand from Frances. I also loved Annie. I hope to see her again with a new mystery to solve.

"How to Solve Your Own Murder" was a pretty middle-of-the-road read for me.

There wasn't anything too awful about it, just some minor issues. Nothing felt particularly believable or realistic, but not in an obnoxious way. Several readers have already mentioned the abundance of characters being a problem (especially because none of them were distinct/unique/memorable), and I agree with them; I was having trouble keeping Emily and Rose straight even after getting about 75% done.

I can see the potential for this to turn into a decent series. I suspect the ample cast of characters will provide plenty of material (and hopefully become less forgettable/generic) as the series expands, and I plan to read the next title whenever it becomes available.

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

In 1965, a fortune teller told sixteen-year-old Frances she would be murdered. What she doesn’t know is that it will take 60 years for her fortune to come to fruition. In the meantime, Frances spends her life compiling information on every person who could possibly murder her.

Annie Adams has been invited to a meeting in Castle Knoll, a small town where her great-aunt Frances lives in her large estate. However, by the time she arrives, Frances is already murdered. It turns out that Frances has set up her will so that whoever solves her murder first will inherit her fortune. Annie is determined to be the first to find out who murdered her great-aunt.

The story is told through alternating viewpoints. Annie’s point of view alternates with Frances’ diary from 1965-1966. Plenty is going on in the story. Inheritance issues, odd characters, and riddles. There are numerous suspects as well. The plot was good and I wasn’t able to determine the murders (past or present) until the big reveals so that is a plus. The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that it took me a while to finish. I wasn’t truly attached to any of the characters other than Annie, so for that reason, I give it 4/5 stars. I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys a more cozy mystery vibe.

this was fun! i loved the mystery and i was gripped by the whole story, the only thing i didn’t like was the reveal of the murderer, in my opinion, emily’s murderer made sense, but frances’ didn’t and i didn’t love that for the book and my hopes as a reader

Such a fun read! This reminded me so much of one of my all time favorite books “The Seven Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle”. The murder mystery was done fantastically, where you feel like you’re part of the plot, part detective and trying to solve the murder. The twists were great because they were so unexpected but not outlandish. Great characters, some are your typical murder mystery guests (you know what i’m talking about if you’ve read any Agatha Christie novels), but the main character, Annie was 10/10. I definitely recommend anyone looking to solve a murder mystery to pick this one up, 4⭐️.

Thank you to Dutton for a copy of this title via NetGalley.

2.5⭐️ This book was unbelievable.. but not always in a good way. Throughout the book I encountered situations, character traits and lines of dialogue that didn’t feel authentic, emphasized by the frustratingly nonchalant tone of the book. None of the characters — especially the police — went about the murder investigation with the protocol or level of seriousness you would expect and it pulled me out of the story a few times.

The sheer number of characters was overwhelming (I really needed a chart or index), and the story suffered from the majority of them written as all blatantly suspicious in a way that felt overdone.

Although this book didn’t resonate with me as much as I had hoped, I think a lot of readers will appreciate the Agatha Christie like setting, the story’s clever premise, and the page-turning twists and turns.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

📚 How to Solve Your Own Murder 📚 by Kristen Perrin

Publication date 03/26/2024

I needed to break out of my romance era and read something a bit different. How To Solve Your Own Murder was a perfect choice 👌

Set in both the modern and 1960s English countryside, this read was interesting from the very beginning. Three teenage friends visit a local fair and visit a fortune-teller. The fortune given becomes an obsession for one of the teen girls and shapes the course of their collective lives forever. Fast forward to modern times, and their friends and family gather together, trying to piece together the girls' complicated history.

I found this book entertaining & intriguing. It's a perfect mystery without being too dark and heavy. I'm not always up for horror type mystery reads 😬 It's not overtly light either. The mystery definitely touches on themes of death, murder, and adult relationships. The cast of characters is woven together well, and the story moves along at a pleasing pace. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a good read but doesn't want something too heavy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶/5 for some non-detailed talk of sex
🤬/5 for light swearing occasionally

Thanks to Penguin Group Dutton for an early copy of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Group DUTTON, and Kristen Perrin for an advance copy of How to Solve Your Own Murder in exchange for an honest review. This was such a fun read and somewhat different then most mysteries I read! We find Annie heading to visit her great aunt after learning she has been included in her will. When she arrives, she ends up having to try to figure out who killed her aunt. The ironic part about this is that her aunt, Frances, believed she was going to be murdered based on a fortune she received as a teenager. It was fun to see Annie piece together clues and get to know the other suspects and characters in Castle Knoll. The ending did not end as I predicted and in fact was quite good. This is truly such a fantastic cozy and you can add it to your shelf on March 26th!

I love cozy mysteries, but this one missed the mark for me. The plot seemed a little too chaotic and because of this I had a hard time feeling invested in the story. There were also too many characters, in my opinion, which made it difficult to connect with any of them. I felt like we spent so little time with each of them that I didn’t get a feel for who each of them were.

I feel like a little more editing would have really helped this book to tighten things up a little bit and make them more cohesive. I’m sad this one didn’t work for me, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for future books from this author!

Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book!

British Cozy-ish Mystery in which a woman's summoned to a quaint English village to discuss changes to her reclusive great-aunt's will turns sleuth after finding her dead.

4/5 stars: This is a stand alone by Perrin which is a British Cozy-ish Mystery that features an out-of-work want-to-be writer who uses the excerpts of her great-aunt's diary entries from 1966 to sleuth out her killer. With plenty of twists and turns, Perrin has crafted a mystery that balances the suspects, clues and red herrings and will leave you pondering the whodunit until the final reveal. I also really like how Perrin wove the 1966 cold case into the current day mystery of Annie's great-aunt's murder. Additionally, Perrin's character work is great; the characters are well-rounded, complex and yet remain likable. Annie's floundering in her life but finds herself during her investigation into her great-aunt's death. While Frances is killed at the start of the book, you really get to know who she turned out to be be through her teenage diary entries. This book touches on some sensitive topics, so take care and check the CWs. I would love to read further adventures of Annie and the village of Castle Knoll, there are defiantly still mysteries to uncover.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

As an avid mystery reader, I really enjoyed this fun, fresh take on a murder mystery. I was immediately excited to read it when I saw the description about it being excellent for fans of Knives Out because that is my favorite movie.
The book does feature an eccentric cast of characters in a big, old house trying to get to the bottom of a murder. It is a fun read that does not take it self too seriously, and I look forward to checking out this author's next book.

A truly great mystery. I got really swept up in the story. It’s fast paced but not too fast for you to grow attached to the characters. I would absolutely read a sequel. My only small gripe are the cringey millennial neologisms every once in awhile. They feel jarring.

I usually hate the term “cozy mystery”, but it is fitting for this one. A cute little read in front of the fireplace.

While the premise was cute - a woman gets her fortune read when she’s 16 and spends the rest of her life trying to prove it wrong - the execution lacked for me. There were far too many characters to keep track of for a 300 page story, and I found myself bored due to extraneous details.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.