4.5, rounded down. I really enjoyed this one! Loved small town setting and many of the characters. The ending was surprising, yet believable, and was as heartwarming as a murder mystery could be.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC (my first🤗)!

I love love loved this book. I hadn’t ever picked up a book by Kristen Perrin, but I definitely will in the future because I really enjoyed her writing style. The premise of this book definitely gave me more cozy mystery vibes up until the end, especially with the chapters going back and forth between time periods. I feel like more people will love this due to that kind of vibe as opposed to your typical ‘thriller/suspense’ genre label. Annie was a great FMC to follow along with to try and solve her Great Aunt Frances’s murder, and I truly did not guess the ending in the slightest. All of my boxes were definitely checked in terms of what makes a mystery great on this one. Thank you to NetGalley for letting me review this early!

I was immersed in the two stories that intertwined and eventually came together. One is the story of three friends, a fortune teller’s prediction, and events that didn’t want to stay buried. The other is a young woman who needs to solve the murder of her aunt in order to receive her inheritance, but the past has secrets that need to be discovered first. I was drawn in immediately, to the story and the performance, and I really couldn’t put it down.

Thanks to Netgalley, Dutton Publishers, and Kristin Pirrin for this book!

It’s rare and wonderful to find a mystery that I can’t really predict in advance…or where I feel like the main character doesn’t do unpardonably stupid things to either uncover evidence or trap the killer…Or where I feel I understand the victim more than the investigator! All of these things were true here, making this one of the most enjoyable mysteries I’ve read this year…and I read 8 Agatha Christie books. (I went on an absolute obsessive tear, so sue me).

This is two stories in one. The first is set in the 1960s with a set of mean-girls-but-more-interesting girlfriends and their social circle. It evolves slowly and ever more menacing as the girls love each other and focus on each other and little by little they tear at each other until one of them goes missing in an unsolved mystery. That mystery is still unsolved when, 60 years later, Annie Adams travels to the same bucolic English town and discovers her Great Aunt, one of the mean girls, has been murdered. She has a week to find out the killer and prove it before she loses her house, and potentially a gigantic fortune.

I honestly thought the story could not live up to such a cool by line. But I found that it has. The writing is strong, the characters are AMAZINGLY developed, and the mystery and story is actually believable AND interesting, emphasis on the believable, thank god. I’m just so sick of writers twisting themselves into knots to save their main character from insane decisions they have to make for the story to work. This book will give you a fun time AND spare you from that BS.

The only weakness was the modern romance part - save your romantic investments for the 1960s plot line.

Recommended to mystery readers from YA up through the elderly.

Summary
A sixty-year old fortune comes to fruition when Frances Gravesdown is murdered in her own home shortly after removing her niece as a beneficiary, and adding her great niece.

Since she was a teenager, Frances took meticulous notes about anything and anyone suspicious after being told by a fortune teller that she would be the victim of a murder. Now that her fortune has come true, her sprawling estate and all that comes with it, is up for grabs. But, not without her heirs meeting the requirement as stated in her will. The first to solve her murder, acquires the estate.

As the newly added beneficiary, Annie knows the least about her great aunt Frances. Actually, she had never met her mysterious aunt. While staying at the estate, fortunately, Annie gets her hands on an old diary. With the diary, Annie begins to familiarize herself with who her great aunt really was and comes to learn that Frances’ murder isn’t the only one that needs solving.
But will she beat the running clock?


Review
There are alternating timelines taking place throughout the novel. We get to hear from teenage France through the reading of her diary, while alternating to the present day with her great niece Annie working to solve the murder. The flashbacks were great in developing great aunt Frances as a character despite her death and adds color to her story. Frances story line was at least as interesting (if not more interesting) as Annie’s.

This novel is full of charming, cozy, English vibes. Such a well-done setting. Characters were accurate for the time and place and most of them were quite likeable.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but there wasn’t really a wow factor for me.

(Thank you to Kristen Perrin, Dutton, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be published March 26, 2024)

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a fun mystery with great characters. Certainly filled with a cast of potential murderers and cleverly done.

While I'm not big on these small English village murder mysteries where everyone knows everyone and everyone is related...but this one really got me hooked! Loved the protagonist as she tries to solve her great aunt's murder. Switching back to the aunt's childhood where her murder was forecasted by a fortune teller, you get to know the broad cast of characters to figure out the murderer.

Enjoyed this one...and never a fan of these British towns where everyone is old and related lol. So many secrets are uncovered. Loved the protagonist!

I Enjoyed this book throughly. When a book has different timelines to me it adds to the mystery. It helps the book move along so it doesn't give that feeling of dragging.. Even though sometimes I skipped forward in a oh no they didn't manner. I did not see this ending coming which to me makes for a good mystery I would recommend this to others.

Annie is an aspiring mystery writer in London when she is called to her great-aunts house by an attorney. Over the next few days she learns much about this aunt she had never met. How her life had been ruled by a fortune told to her almost 60 years ago and the friend who went missing a year later. A totally different twist on a mystery and a great read

A fun and unusual take on murder mystery set in the UK (always a plus in my opinion). The story jumps back and forth in time with two main characters. I enjoyed it but it felt a bit long at times. I couldn't completely jump into the story due to the two time lines, but I'm sure other readers won't mind it. Thank you #NetGalley for this ACR

When Francis and her friends visit the English Country Fair, she is told a series of events will eventually lead to her murder. Sixty years later, when she is found dead at the Gravesdown Estate, her family and the rest of the town believes that her fortune might be correct. Frances has changed her will to make sure her murder is being looked into. Whoever solves France's murder will be given the inheritance of a lifetime. France's great niece, Annie Adams, is determined to find the murderer. However, will digging into her great aunt's past put Annie in the dangerous path of a killer?

This book was captivating. I enjoyed the two timelines and the POVs from Frances told by her diaries and Annie in present time. I was not expecting the ending but was happy to see how things lined up in the end. This book opens up the possibility of a sequel in the future (especially hoping for a book with more Annie and the detective) but is perfect as a standalone as well. This is the first book I have read from Kristen Perrin and I will be following the author for more content.

How to Solve Your Own Murder comes out on March 26th, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Publishing for the opportunity to review How to Solve Your Own Murder. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.

How To Solve Your Own Murder (Dutton Books, 3/26/24) is the debut mystery from author Kristen Perrin. At age 17, Frances Adams was told by a fortune teller at a village fete that she will be murdered. Frances spends the next sixty years trying to outwit her would-be murderer. Unfortunately for her she does not succeed as she is eventually murdered on her country estate. It's up to Frances' estranged great niece Annie Adams (an aspiring mystery writer in her own right) to solve the case. Featuring a cast of memorable characters, a sprawling country estate, a cozy English villiage , and dual narratives, this novel is a must read for fans of cozy crime. As someone who reads a lot of mysteries particularly from the Golden Age, I found Ms. Perrin's novel to be highly entertaining. I'm hoping that it will be adapted for television as the dual narratives between 1966 focusing on teenaged stranded and present day Annie's investigation would work well in a cinematic adaptation. I really enjoyed seeing Annie work as an amateur detective. I hope we have more of her adventures to look forward to in the future.

In 1965 teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own death. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered. In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager has a motive for her murder.

This is the author's debut adult novel and is so very well written that it is hard to believe she has only written two YA novels. The premise of the novel is intriguing, but I don't want to give too much away. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for introducing me to a new author that I hope will write another novel soon.

Loved this fun book! It gave me Agatha Christie vibes with a cozy mystery type of energy.

Told in two time periods and perspectives - modern day Annie and 1960s Great Aunt Frances, both with such unique voices but similar personalities. They both like to get to the bottom of mysteries.

Aunt Frances wanted to know who killed her best friend in 1966 - and kept tabs on everyone as possible suspects, all whilst holding on to her superstitions about a fortune she received at a carnival when she was 17 that foretold her murder.

Annie received a missive to attend a meeting with the mysterious Great Aunt Frances and her counsel to discuss the changing of her will - only to discover her dead. Her fortune come true.

She finds herself immersed in an eccentric small town where everybody knows everyone, they’re all hiding something and she has no idea who to trust. Will she uncover the truth about her enigmatic great aunt or be doomed to the same fate?

Loved this thriller!! I was captivated the entire time and I couldn’t wait to see how the story played out.

This isn't quite a cozy mystery, but close. It's probably what you would get if you combined Knives Out and Pretty Little Liars. It was a crazy mystery with a lot of characters and tons of lies and drama. I'm not as much a fan of the Pretty Little Liars aspect, but I enjoyed this mystery!

Here's how the publishers described the book: "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."

The story is alternately told from the great-niece's point of view and from the journal of the murder victim. I love books that alternate POV and timelines like this and it was well done here.

The mystery itself was very tangled with so many characters and different secrets, which was great but also a bit confusing. I probably would have followed things better with my own murder board! (Someday I'll make one of those, in a totally non-serial killer or creepy way).

Overall, I enjoyed the read and would recommend to those who love tangled whodunits.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Not at all what I expected, but still interesting and enjoyable. I kind of needed my own "murder wall" to keep track of all the characters and how they were connected to the story.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a great title, though not really accurate to the plot of the book if you ask me. I started out really enjoying this book, but did find the last quarter of it drag.

Annie has suddenly been called to meet her Great Aunt Frances whom she’s never met. Before they can meet, Frances is found dead. Or murdered? As a condition of Frances will Annie and another character, Saxon, must compete to solve the murder. (Can you see my hang up with the title? France’s does not in fact solve her own murder.)

But she does try to find out what happened to her friend Emily who disappeared many years ago. The story moves between the present and Annie’s sleuthing and France’s journal from her teen years. I think one of my issues was that Annie was such a cipher and unknown quantity. She says she wants to be a mystery author but there isn’t a lot to back that up or give her much of a personality. Meanwhile, Frances is vivid in her journal and I was much more interested in her.

The ultimate mystery was good but it felt like a bit of a slog for me by the end.

this was a very fun mystery! Lots of Agatha Christie vibes and I enjoyed the alternating chapters between the modern day and the journal. I will recommend this to my followers next year!