How to Solve Your Own Murder was a refreshing take in murder and thriller writing. I enjoyed the pacing, and the format of the plot and the setting really made this book stand out from the other thrillers many of us regularly read. I could see this as a film or series!

THIS BOOK!. I loved it and couldn't put it down!

Imagine living your whole life around a prediction told to you from a fortune teller and wondering when it will come true. What Francis didn't know was that her great niece who she has never meet will end up solving everything. Annie finds out more about her family's past in order to help solve Francis's murder. What she didn't know when she showed up to Francis's estate is what she would have to do to find out that truth.

I highly recommend this book if you like solving murder mysteries. I thought I knew who did it right away, but boy was I wrong.

Very enjoyable read! What I liked:
-Great pacing between the Frances and Annie chapters. I found myself excited to read both types, which is rare nowadays. Authors often use this narration device out of novelty as opposed to actually helping the story.
-The premise was an intriguing twist on your typical murder mystery, and the author did a great job with letting the reader determine fate vs. self fulfilling prophecy.
-She did a good job keeping the reader guessing - there are many potential culprits from the beginning (whereas the typical format of the genre would have you focused on a clear front runner, then a red herring, then the twist).

What kept me from ratings it 5 stars:
-There were way too many characters that I got character fatigue. It wasn’t until the second half when I was able to keep track of all the generational characters, a few of whom don’t have distinct personalities from each other.
-An underwhelming twist given the limited amount of time we spent with the murderer.
-The pacing began to lag halfway through. I wish the author cut out a few of the chapters since many of them didn’t move the story or characters forward.
-The unlikelihood (and storytelling convenience) of every character being intertwined romantically with each other, and all three girls having a bordering psychopathic and obsessive (somehow platonic?) relationship with each other.
-Emily is a caricature in her villainy - zero redeeming qualities. But then
-The author’s bizarre anti-party drug references - felt out of place and preachy.
-The amount of emphasis on Ford but with barely any acknowledgment of the underage manipulation and dark undertones - especially since they got married. Unclear what the author was trying to accomplish here, it felt half baked.

I had a blast with this modern-day version of the classic Golden Age mystery! Murder at a country estate, a writer forced into the role of amateur detective, a cast of intriguing, highly suspicious, and secretive side characters, and a fortune teller's prediction of betrayal and death. These ingredients were enough to keep me happily tied to the book until the final reveal.


Aspiring murder mystery author Annie Adams is unexpectedly pulled into a real-life mystery when she's summoned to the estate of her eccentric great aunt Frances. Mayhem soon follows as a long unsolved disappearance and buried secrets come back to the forefront along with a modern-day murder and a race to solve a crime and inherit a fortune as the prize. Suspects, superstition, hidden motives, red herrings, and clues abound as Annie races to solve both crimes before time runs out.


I absolutely loved this well plotted, clever spin on the classic cozy mystery. I equally enjoyed the stories from both timelines, which is a rarity in a dual timeline story. I usually find one story more compelling than the other but not so with this book. Both Frances and Annie were likable characters, and Annie's references to classic detective story details as well as her humorous thoughts, even during the more harrowing moments, gave the story an extra something I really enjoyed. 


Reading How To Solve Your Own Murder was a wonderful way to spend a cold, snowy afternoon. There's so much to love with this charming whodunit, and it was the perfect answer to my recent search for a fun, engaging, unputdownable mystery. 


Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing me a copy to read and review

This was a fun, Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery. It had the the right amount of intrigue without being over the top, and an interesting take on the historical murder turned current. I will definitely recommend this book to my friends and bookclub!

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is a fast paced read for any fans that love to read mysteries. The book follows Florance and her friends during 1965 in a quant town of Castle Knoll. When Florance, Rose , and Emily go to get their fortunes read Florance takes her reading to heart. She becomes somewhat obsessed by what the fortune teller told her. She looks for hidden meaning in everything. Upon her death she has plotted a game for Saxson, Florance's nephew by her marriage to Ford Gravesdown, and her Great niece Annie. The first one who solves her murder will inheritant her whole estate. If the police solve the crime before Saxson and Annie then the estate will go to Oliver, who work for a property firm in London. I loved Annie the most out of all the characters in the book. She wants to be a mystery writer, however she faints at the sight of blood, smell of hospitals, needles, and anything related to doctor's and their offices. I also liked the chapters that Florance had written in her diary in the summer of 1965. It made her feel alive and that she was there beside Annie helping her along the way.

How To Solve Your Own Murder starts off immediately throwing you into the story of Annie Adams and her Great Aunt Frances. Annie travels to Castle Knoll to meet with her Great Aunt, who recently changed her will to include Annie. When arriving at Castle Knoll and Gravesdown Estate, Annie ends up being smack dab in the middle of an Agatha Christie esque murder mystery. I truly enjoyed the book and the journey it took me on, suspicious of every character and being right alongside with Annie, trying to figure out this classic “who dunnit.” A strong 4 star read.

I want to thank Net Galley for the ARC of How To Solve Your Own Murder in exchange for this honest review.

I loved this book. It's a cozy murder mystery that has a great premise. I loved the characters and would definitely recommend.

A wonderfully smart and witty mystery, this terrific who-done-it pulled me right in and kept me turning the pages.

I look forward to reading more by the author in the future.


Recommended!



Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for the DRC

Fantastic, fast-paced. Couldn't put it down and will be adding this one to my collection. Liked the main character, the development of the storyline, and fell in love with the deceased through her journal entries.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own, though, and I was asked only for honest opinions, no matter the rating. In this matter, they didn't need to worry. It was a five all the way through for me. Looking forward to more by this author.

If you love classic murder mysteries, this book is for you! A great ride and likeable characters made this book a pleasure to read.

Three teenage friends, Frances, Emily and Rose are always together in the summer of 1966 when Frances receives a cryptic fortune predicting her own death. When Emily goes missing, Frances spends the next 60 years obsessing about that fortune until the fortune comes true and she is murdered in her own home. Great-niece Annie is summoned to the estate by her Great Aunt's solicitor for the reading of the will. And here's where her Aunt Frances makes her final wishes known. In order to inherit the estate, the assembled relatives will need to solve her murder in one week or the property will go to a land sales company who want to build a golf course and tracts of housing on the land. Annie is determined to solve the case but her cousin Saxon seems to have inside information and may beat Annie to the solution.
Told in alternating chapters between Annie's investigation and entries from teenage Aunt Frances diary, readers gain insight into each of the possible suspects. When it appears that Annie is getting close to solving the murder, she also becomes a target of the killer.
Fast paced and the diary entries were a brilliant addition to the novel. This will keep reader's guessing until the very end when all of the little seemingly insignificant clues come together to point out the killer.
First rate!

In 1965, Frances Adams receives a fortune at the town fair, foretelling her own murder. From there, she becomes obsessed with solving her own murder before it happens, gathering files and suspecting everyone around her. In the present day, Annie Adams is called to meet her Great Aunt and join others for a reading of her new will, but in a twist of fate, Frances is murdered before the meeting can happen. Now Annie is tasked with solving the murder before her aunt's nephew Saxon or she will lose out on inheriting the substantial estate.
This book definitely has strong Agatha Christie and Knives Out vibes but wasn't quite as clever. I expected more twists and turns, but perhaps that was a flaw in my reading to over complicate things. That said, I enjoyed the cozy mystery setting of the rural village where everyone knows everything about each other, and nothing is truly secret. The book starts off really strong and pulled me in quickly, and I enjoyed the back and forth between Annie as she investigates the murder, and the diary entries written by Frances in 1966 detailing her life after one of her best friends suddenly goes missing. The plotting was sufficiently clever and well-paced, but I was frustrated with the lack of character development and lack of foreshadowing, which is why I rated this a solid 4 stars.
Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with my very first ARC. This book was one I was excited for in 2024 and it did not disappoint.

Annie finds herself thrust into a clue like game to solve her great aunt’s murder and secure the inheritance. Her character is likable and I found myself cheering for her the whole way through. This story does a great job of throwing so many clues and pieces of evidence at you that it can be hard to keep straight, making it impossible to guess the killer. All of my assumptions were wrong. The way the story came together was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend this for a fun read.

fun, original, cozy-adjacent mystery, one flaw being at times the characters lapsed into being characters and not people. thans for the arc.

This one was a delight to read! A crazy great aunt, obsessed with a fortune told to her when she was just a teenager, stating that she would be murdered. From that day, she’s been collecting information on everyone she meets, trying to solve her murder.

Annie has never met her great aunt Frances, only heard stories about her. For as long as she can remember, her mother has been listed as Frances’ heir. So it comes as a shock when a summons is sent to Annie, instead. From the looks of things, the inheritance has been shifted from her mother to Annie.

When Annie travels to Castle Knoll, instead of finally getting to meet her great aunt, she stumbles upon her body instead. Now, Annie finds herself compelled to pick up where her aunt left off in finding out who would have wished to harm her.

People definitely aren’t all they seem upon first meeting - Frances has managed to offend everyone in the town at some point. In a strange place, not knowing who to trust, Annie does her best to find the truth. With the help of Frances’ old journals, and the files she’s gathered over the years.

I loved being introduced to the town of Castle Knoll. It’s a place that holds many secrets, but also many good people. I felt myself being drawn to it just as much as Annie, and I’m hoping from the little glimpse we were given that this is just the first of many mysteries to come!

I cannot stop thinking about this book! A double murder mystery is exactly what I was looking for to start this year off right. So many plot twists and turns that had me unable to put this book down. Who can you trust when you know no one? This book is full of characters that I loved and hated at the same time. The classic Clue story was reimagined and brought to life in this reimagined mystery spanning multiple generations.

Such a fabulous murder mystery! The author has done such a great job of breathing life into each and every character where you feel like you really understand all their motivations good and bad. Although I had suspicions on the “who” in this whodunit I never was 100% certain and I never would have guessed the full “why”. This is an author I see myself coming back to time and time again with future works!

This was a fun read! A multi-generational text, How To Solve Your Own Murder follows Annie Adams (fantastic name!) as she attempts to solve, not just her Great Aunt Frances’s recent murder, but also that of Frances’s childhood friend who disappeared in the 1960’s. Told from Annie’s POV in the present, with interspersed sections from Frances’s journal during the year of 1965, we get a deftly entwined tale.

I will say that I solved both murders fairly early on, which typically annoys me. But, because Perrin has also created this beautiful bridge between Annie and her Great Aunt Frances, I was invested in their story and wanted to see how things came to the end they did, even despite knowing who that end entailed. Perrin does a marvelous job of adding a dash of deeper tones into the text, such as friendship, grief, and family, while still keeping this upbeat. Well, as upbeat as a murder mystery can be ….

I do wish we had gotten more journal entries, because I think Perrin could have really convoluted the plot by delving deeper into Frances’s paranoia while she was younger. Between the fortune and the woods and the Gravestone estate, there was so much potential for a gothic setting, which would have contrasted nicely with the present-day take on Gravestone Hall.

Cozy, engaging, and fast-paced, I sped through this text and smiled at the end. Sniffled a little, too. And while the mystery is compelling, it’s Frances and Annie, and their connection to one another, that made this a thoroughly enjoyable read for me!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Dutton, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I loved the strong writing in How To Solve Your Own Murder in this murder mystery. The character development was great, too. This is the type of book that has something for everyone. This had a clue-like vibe to it. I would describe this as a cozy murder mystery.

In 1965, Frances went to a fair where she went to the fortune teller booth, who told her she'd be murdered. Frances talked about this throughout the years and no one believed her when she would profess that it would happen. They finally realized she was correct when she was found murdered.
The book cuts to the present when Frances's great-niece, Annie arrives in London for the will reading. Whoever solves the murder inherits Frances's estate and fortune.