Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton publishing for providing me

Kristen Perrin’s debut is a very enjoyable mystery. The dual timeline aspect of the novel, Frances in 1965-6 and Annie in the present, works really well to propel the story along.

As the story progresses, even more mysteries are unveiled. There is a large cast of characters, spanning 3 generations of several families, which I admit did get me confused once or twice, but I was eventually able to keep them straight.

I think most fans of a cozy mystery or Agatha Christie-esque mysteries will enjoy this. This book is set up as the first book in a series, and I will definitely be interested in reading the next installment.

What a cozy whodunit with an amateur sleuth, who is an aspiring murder mystery writer! Think a game of Clue with some spice of Knives Out mixed in. Pieces of the puzzle were given throughout; only enough to keep you guessing though. It would be a fun one to discuss with a book club. If Perrin happens to write more, I would happily keep reading and hope that some of the side characters might be developed along the way.

This is without a doubt, my favorite murder mystery I have ever read! I was getting cozy "Knives Out" and "Clue" vibes.

60 years before the story takes places, a 17 year old Frances, is given a fortune that outlines her "inevitable" murder., causing paranoia for all the years to come. Fast forward to present day, when our main protagonist, Annie, is summoned by her estranged Great Aunt Frances to her estate, just in time to play a game in solving her mysterious murder.

With an inheritance on the line, Annie has to now dive deep into France's past and uncover secrets from a disappearance that happened 60 years ago, in order to solve her Great Aunt's murder. This is the type of murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I felt like I was playing the "game" alongside Annie and uncovering the clues with her piece by piece.

“Oh, you joke, but this would make a good one! Like Clue, but you have to solve a fortune-teller’s puzzle to beat your friends to an inheritance. But you’re all also guilty of a secret crime, and—”

"I'm a contestant in Great Aunt France's murder games"

"It was character building, but I think my character is fully formed now"

As this book kicks off, Annie travels to her mysterious great-aunt Frances's house and ends up having to solve a present-day and a past murder. I had a hard time finding my way into the story. It was pretty slow to start and there were so many character introductions. There are people only in the past, only in the present, and many who are in both whose past and present selves need to be reconciled.

It took a few times of me picking it up again, but by halfway through I loved Frances and Annie both and wished I was there in the house walking around and holding the clues physically. I almost felt like I was! I still think of the people and the house fondly several days after finishing reading. I think future books in the series will benefit from the cast already being introduced in this one and I'm ready to read them. Too bad they haven't been written yet!

The book follows Annie, who, summoned to her great aunt Frances' estate, finds her deceased instead. Frances, obsessed with a teenage fortune-telling prediction of her murder, collected information throughout her life to solve the crime. As Annie delves into the mystery, she unravels the town's secrets and suspicious characters while reflecting on the legacy left behind by her aunt. The story provides a compelling and captivating introduction to the town of Castle Knoll and sets the stage for potential future mysteries.

my kind of cozy mystery! the story reminds me of the only one left by Riley Sager but within a complicated family / town dynamic. thanks NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I liked this book a lot and I did not figure it out! It is always nice when a book makes you say "No Way!" at the end. I hear it is going to be a series and will absolutely read book two and see where the characters go. I will probably see the movie when it is available, of course the book will always be the better choice. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and well done Kristen Perrin!

I love a good murder mystery and this one did not disappoint. Annie has to solve the mystery of her Great Aunts death in order to keep her inheritance. This book was a lot of fun to read, had me guessing until the end I don’t know how many times I changed my mind on who-done-it. Great book!

Honestly overall really enjoyed this book. It’ involves a small town mystery. I loved the different POVs and trying to figured out the ending along with the characters!

A dueling timeline and a double murder set in the English countryside. Great Aunt Frances gets a dismal fortune while a teen and spends the rest of her life trying to decipher it. When she turns up dead, it is up to her niece Annie to figure out who did it. Was it the cook in the kitchen, the gardner in the roses, the lawyer in the library, the vicar at the church? I found this a fun read that had enough mystery to keep me intrigued to the very end. It didn't end the way I thought but it all came together to make sense. 4 out of 5!

I would like to thank Net Galley for providing me with the ARC for this book! I read the first 75% of this book in one sitting, because I could not put it down. It's great for fans of Knives Out and Agatha Christie, or anyone who wants a lighthearted murder mystery to read.

I loved the way this book is set up with the dual POV, and you are learning about the characters as the main character is. My only problem with this book is that sometimes the character's dialogue felt a little far fetched, but it was still overall a great read!

4 stars. Was difficult to keep all the characters straight even towards the end. But overall really liked it and enjoyed the format of the dual timelines. Would read more by this author.

When I saw that this book was for fans of Knives Out and the Thursday Murder Club, it immediately landed on my TBR. Unfortunately, I don't feel that this book lives up to that description.

The idea of this book is extremely unique, but I felt that overall it was a little underwhelming. It wasn't the can't put it down story that I was hoping for. I found most of the characters unlikeable, and even though I feel the author wanted to gain your sympathy for them in the end, I don't feel that she succeeded. It took forever to get through this book because it just wasn't entertaining in my opinion.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

This was my first cozy mystery and let me tell you, it was a JOY! A woman is tasked with solving her great aunts murder, with the help of her great aunts old diary entries. Perspectives switched between today and the 1960s, which was a detail that I really enjoyed. It really was a unique story; definitely one of a kind. It had me guessing at every turn!

As an Agatha Christie fan, I was absolutely delighted by this, which I wanted to read solely for the title, and it gave me so much more than I was hoping. It was engaging, it kept me turning the pages, and it was just a fun read all together. Never underestimate the power of a good whodunit and the author hit the mark here

My love for a good 'whodunnit' is strong, so when I came upon "How to Solve Your Own Murder" by Kristen Perrin, I knew I had to read it. Set initially in the 1960's, How to Solve Your Own Murder begins with the story of three best friends- Frances, Emily and Rose- when a fortune teller offers Frances a cryptic message, which sends her on a 60-year, paranoid trajectory of attempts to solve her forthcoming fate. Fast forward to Annie Adams, aspiring author and great niece of Frances, who is summoned to France's home just in time to solve her mysterious murder.

🕵This unique whodunnit storyline is the debut adult novel from Kristen Perrin (she's written a middle grade series) and gives nod to classic mysteries like Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, and Knives Out- some of my favorites.
🕵I appreciated Perrin's choice to use dual timelines to navigate between the early life of Frances Adams and shortly after her death; I felt the writing flowed smoothly and the technique allowed important storyline details to be offered in a more natural way.
🕵To my dismay, I felt like the pace of the story started off slow. Admittedly, I put the book aside fairly early into it, thinking it might not be for me, but eventually picked it back up again. I'm glad I did, because I quickly became intrigued and worked through the remainder in no time.
🕵I really enjoyed the protagonist, Annie, who felt normal and brave and flawed in all the right ways. There was nothing about her that felt over or under-done. Unfortunately, I can't say that I felt the same about many of the other characters (and there were A LOT of other characters)- many of whom felt superfluous, problematic and/or left me feeling confused about who was who, even up until the very end of the book. In this case, less characters would have offered more "space" to focus on the development of the important ones.
🕵The use of multiple overlapping storylines for various characters was- for the most part- great. I really enjoyed catching bits of information to help piece together the larger puzzle. With that said, because there were so many characters, I felt like there were also too many storylines to tell. Unfortunately for me, this both complicated and rushed things, which wasn't a fault of Perrin's writing; had there been less characters and stories to keep track off, I think the success of the plot could have been even stronger.
🕵As you can probably guess, the challenge of too many characters + too many storylines lead to the issue of too many twists and turns, which (yes, you guessed it) took away from the really GOOD twists and turns that Perrin created... and subsequently, what felt to me like a rushed, slightly over dramatic ending that left me feeling underwhelmed.

Overall, despite a few other nit-picky issues (Ford is creepy + Great Aunt Frances is a lot write AND read over and over and over again!) generally, I felt like this debut novel was fun and had great potential, which allowed me to rate it on the higher side given the issues I had. To me, the issues felt like a problem of too much excitement and too many ideas by the author being crammed into one story vs. a problem of poor writing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group, Dutton for the opportunity to read the ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin in return for my unbiased review.

Happy reading!

Kristen Perrin’s How to Solve Your Own Murder, which follows Annie Adams as she races the clock to solve mysteries new and old, was quite a lot of fun to read.

The book successfully straddles the line between the amateur sleuth and cozy mystery subgenres and is well-paced. Its dual-timelines approach—one presented from the protagonist's point of view and the other through her great aunt's teenage diaries—allows the reader to collect clues and information right alongside Annie. By the time I was certain that I'd solved the mystery (ahem...mysteries) myself, I was invested enough that racing to the end to confirm my suspicions only strengthened my connection to the protagonist.

Like most mysteries, this was more plot- than character-driven, and my biggest complaint is that, with such slight development of the secondary characters, the cast seemed somewhat too large. I almost needed my own murder board to keep track of who was who. (Hey, Great Aunt Frances had two; surely I could have one without raising any eyebrows.) That being said, a few from the supporting cast, most specifically the local detective, piqued my interest enough that I'd be more than happy to see them reappear in future volumes. (Yes, I've made the not-exceptionally-huge leap that this book is the start of a mystery series.)

I wouldn't hesitate to suggest How to Solve Your Own Murder to anybody looking for a quick, mostly cozy mystery that requires the reader to pay attention without ever overwhelming them.

This book was SUCH a fun ride! A masterful, small town murder mystery interchangeably told through the eyes of Annie and her Great Aunt’s diary after her murder, this story explores relationships of friends and family. A great pick for fans of Agatha Christie and Knives Out.

All of my Nancy Drew dreams have come true in How To Solve Your Own Murder. I disagree that it's for fans of Knives Out because you barely get to explore Frances' estate, but if you loved Nancy Drew this is for you. It's also got a mystery within a mystery which is very akin to Anthony Horowitz, and it's simply my favorite type of murder mystery. Both mysteries are equally as interesting and you can't help but fall in love with all of these deeply flawed characters. Annie, the FMC, is slow to start solving her grandmother's death but her character arc is so fun to follow. The book was overall cozy, with bits of darkness sprinkled in. Not too scary but still there is a feeling of unease until the very end.

What a great read to start the year! I enjoyed the way timelines went back and forth weaving the clues together. The pacing was just right. I look forward to reading more titles from Kristen Perrin.