Frances is given a fortune that one day she will be murdered. She loves her whole life keeping tabs on others in order to avoid her fortune. Then, one day her future comes true. Her great niece feels the clues left by the aunt to solve her murder.

This book switches from Frances’ journal back in the 1960s to present day with Annie putting the clues together. I had no clue who it was until it was laid out. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Loved it!

Thank you to Kristen Perrin, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this ARC.

I love a good murder mystery and this book definitely checked the box. In the 1960s, Frances received an awful fortune from a fortune teller predicting her murder. She spends the rest of her life looking for clues as to who will betray her and who will be the reason for her demise. Switching to present day, Annie, who is Frances' great niece, has been asked to travel to Frances' estate for a meeting about her will. When the group arrives, they find Frances has been murdered. This plunges Annie into a real life murder mystery. Who did this to her Great Aunt? And what did it have to do with Frances' life in the 60s?

The first half of this book was a bit slow moving with many characters introduced but the second half really picked up steam.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How to Solve Your Own Murder had a really fun premise, but it was hard for me to get into. I found the characters names, timeline and plot to be hard to follow, which usually isn't the case for me. I did however love the old timey feel and coziness and the murder mystery and the dual timeline.

We start the book out in the 1960's, where Frances goes to a fair where a fortune teller tells her that she will be murdered. Throughout her life, Frances was convinced the fortune teller is correct and keeps track of everyone and potential evidence ! Nobody believed that her fortune would come true, until she was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Present day, Frances great niece, Annie, ends up trying to solve the case. And if she does, she could inherit Frances' massive fortune!

3.75 stars

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

In the small town of Castle Knoll, a fortune teller gives a grim peek into Frances Adams’ life – including an untimely death. She takes this prophecy very seriously and spends the rest of her life trying to track down her eventual killer.

The book is told in two voices, with Frances’s journal in the 60’s, and her great-niece, Annie, in the current time. Annie considers herself somewhat of a sleuth and is excited to engage in a contest that Frances sets up in her will. The other potential heir, Saxon, and Annie are given seven days to solve Frances’s murder with the winner getting the entire estate.

I liked the premise of the book, and the storytelling is good. It doesn’t have a tense feel, which I like from a who-done-it novel. It also suffers from way too many characters. There are so many past and present characters that it is really hard to keep track. I’m glad I read it on my Kindle so I could enter a name and figure out who this or that person was. While I enjoyed the book, the proliferation of characters was the problem for me because it could have been any of two dozen characters.

For me, most of the fun of reading a crime thriller is trying to guess who did it. In this book, there were way too many options and all of them seemed plausible. While I didn’t guess the ending, I’m not sure anyone could. That took a lot of the fun out of the book for me. It was a good book, but I didn’t love it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.

This was a weird read for me. The first 50(ish)% of the book was a little slow and took me a decent bit of time to get through. Alas, I persevered and FLEW through the last half in less than a day. The author left just enough that you could solve along but not obvious enough that you lost interest. I thought the whodunit was very well executed and the reveal at the end an excellent finish. I do wish Annie and Crane got together or we had that closure at the end. I was really rooting for them!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin.

This was delightful, quirky, smart, and charming. A great cast of characters and a cozy mystery without being too cozy. Another good one to add to the growing number of fun and off-beat mysteries.

Great granddaughter is called to the estate of her great grandmother only to find she's been murdered. She has a week to solve the murder to inherit the estate. Book starts off extremely slowly but picks up once the investigation begins.

This was a decent murder mystery in British style (though you could occasionally tell that the author isn't British, some of the dialogue felt off). I did find it to be a bit slow in sections, and the characters slightly underdeveloped, but the plot was intriguing and the premise paid off with the big reveal at the end. I'd recommend this to cozy mystery fans!

Wow…what a terrific murder mystery! 1965 in rural Great Britain, a group of teenaged friends visit a “fortune teller” at a local carnival and one, Frances, receives an ominous message…”all signs point toward your murder.” This fortune directs the trajectory of the rest of Frances’ life, her friends’ lives and the small village where they live. Present day, Frances’ grandniece, Annie, receives a letter from a solicitor telling her to travel from her home in London to her Great Aunt’s estate because Annie is now her heir. But, when she arrives, her Great Aunt has been murdered and Annie and another potential heir are given a week to solve her murder so one of them will inherit all the wealth but if neither of them solves the murders the estate will become a golf course and shopping mall and they get nothing. Thus begins Annie’s journey into Frances’ past, the events of 1965-66 and the disappearance of one of the girls in their group of friends. Can Annie solve both mysteries or will she get herself killed when she may be getting close to identifying the killer(s)? Will she act on a spark of connection with a local detective? I hope there’s a sequel….

In 1965, Frances Adams goes with her friends to the English country fair expecting to have a normal night. While there a fortune teller tells Frances a fortune that one day she will be murdered. That night changes her until that fortune is her sole focus in life. Decades go by and no one ever believes her, until nearly sixty years later when Frances is murdered.

Annie Adams, Frances’s great niece, is summoned to her estate for a meeting the same weekend of the murder. Once she gets there Frances is dead and Annie is determined to solve her murder. Is Annie able to catch the killer? Or will she meet a similar fate as she gets closer to the answer of Frances’s murder?

This book has it all! Mystery, a cozy small town, eccentric characters, and it’s all set in the English countryside! I’m not normally a big fan of a cozy mystery but this one was perfect. The author made it easy to keep track of each character and the development they each undergo is amazing. As you read you get glimpses of the summer of 1965 alongside current day. The duel timelines were the perfect way to tell this story and added to the mystery of everything!

This book isn’t scary at all which made it so easy to read, and it had the perfect cozy vibes! If you like a good whodunnit this is definitely the book for you.

A charming mystery with lovely characters. I'm hoping that there will be another to follow.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was such a fun read. I’m going to recommend this book to quite a few people. I thought the plot and characters were pretty solid. I would read more from this author.

This book was fantastic! It was a double murder mystery from two different timeframes which I loved!
I enjoyed the story told through the diaries of Great Aunt Frances.
I enjoyed that there was some humor, especially in the relationship between Annie and Jenny.
I’m excited to recommend this book.

I was super into this book at first but it got slow after a while because there wasn’t really any true solving of the murder, it was just endless guessing of what could have happened.

How to Solve Your Own Murder has been on my tbr for months and I was so excited to get an Advanced Copy from Netgalley. I was not at all disappointed. It is nearly a perfect cozy mystery with several of my favorite story elements including dual timeline, alternating POV, and creepy old family mansions in the English countryside. As try as I might, I simply cannot inherit one – something to do with no relatives owning creepy old family mansions in the English countryside probably… no fair.
In the present day, Annie Adams, an aspiring writer, has been called to her great aunt Frances’ house on a matter of inheritance, but when she arrives she finds that Frances is dead of an apparent heart attack. But, as anyone who knew Frances knows, she has been obsessed with the idea that she will be murdered since a childhood fortune teller predicted this. Of course it is determined that in fact she has been murdered, and that the first person (Annie or a very suspicious distant cousin) to solve the murder will inherit everything.
This book was so much fun, I read it in less than two days and it had me fully engrossed. There are two central murder mysteries with such interesting back stories, and the extended cast of characters were wonderful. There were so many side stories and secret motives I got completely involved. I love mysteries that take place in small villages with old resentments and long buried secrets and this one is really great.
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC of How to Solve Your Own Murder. I will definitely recommend this for any murder mystery lover, coming next spring.
4.5 STARS

I really enjoyed this book. Definitely a fun whodunit with a few twists I did not expect. I agree with the Knives Out meets Thursday Night Murder Club description as I am a big fan of both! There were a few times I was a little lost as to who people were, which is why its more of a 4.5 star book, but still very enjoyable and entertaining.

Plotting a mystery with two timelines can be tough, but Perrin makes it seem easy. The many little details hiding in each eventually converge into one layered and great story. Watching the characters interact with each other in the past contrasted with the present is intriguing. There's so much history and hurt between them. Following city dweller Annie as she navigates village life is a lot of fun. The romance is subtle, but still a teensy bit spellbinding in a slow burn and organic way. Picking up How To Solve Your Own Murder would be a great way to spend a weekend afternoon this winter.

I enjoyed the storyline; however, there were times throughout that I felt the story dragged out. My favorite part of the book was the interlocking stories from the diary and present time.

One of my favorite reads this year! How to Solve Your Own Murder was set it a little village called Castle Knoll, and is told in a dual timeline. Annie is trying to solve the murder of her Great Aunt Frances, while also trying to figure out what happened to Frances' childhood friend, Emily. In 1965, Frances and her friends Emily and Rose go to a fortune teller at a fair, where Frances is given a fortune that she will be murdered. That fortune shapes the rest of her life. When Emily disappears not too long after that, Frances goes on a life long mission trying to solve her own murder before it happens, while also looking for Emily.
This was such a great book. I loved the characters, their stories and how they all connected in the past and in the present day. The dual timeline was done really well and really helped me connect with Frances. I found Annie very relatable and loved her ability to figure things out. This was wonderfully written and kept me turning pages late into the night! As the book went on, I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong and the ending was so great. I love a good murder mystery and this did not disappoint!
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy!

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In this novel, teen Frances receives a fortune portending her own death. Frances spends the rest of her life believing in the truth of this fortune and trying to prevent her own murder. When family are called for the reading of her will, her relatives arrive and find her dead.

Due to a clause in the will, her great niece Annie and the other relatives are on the clock to solve the murder and receive the inheritance, or all will be lost!

The novel switches between the points of view of Annie and Frances, sharing snippets of Frances life story and the ways she felt her fortune was coming true, but mostly with Annie in the present investigating her aunt's murder. There are multiple characters with motives for the crime, so this is a true "whodunit."

I am rating this novel 4 stars. It was fast paced and there were many twists and turns throughout the story of Frances' past and Annie's investigation in the present.