Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder is great for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - very similar vibe except Lenny is in Australia. They book starts a little light, you think it's a workplace/romantic comedy. But Lenny has repressed a lot of memories of her childhood, and it comes out more throughout the book. It seems to happen as she opens up to others around her for friendship. I enjoyed the book, it has some tough storylines, but was well written.

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Kerry Mayne

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns.

And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this.

Until a letter from the parole board arrives in the mail—and when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. As long-buried memories come to the surface, Lenny’s careful routines fall apart. For the first time, she finds herself forced to connect with the community around her, and unexpected new relationships begin to bloom. Lenny Marks may finally get a life—but what if her past catches up to her first?

My Thoughts: For a debut novel, this was outstanding. This is a twist on cozy mystery that meets neurodivergent protagonist with some thriller elements. I thought it was brilliantly written for a debut novel and cannot wait to see how Mayne develops in future novels. Lenny Marks cannot read people well and has a fantastic play on scrambling words. Lenny has buried the past when her stepfather and mother disappeared. When the parole board attempts to get in touch with Lenny through various methods, she begins to unravel when long-buried memories begin to surface. Just as she finally starts to begin “getting a life,” her past may catch up with her.

The story is narrated solely by Lenny Marks. Lenny is eccentric, neurodivergent, routine oriented fifth grade teacher. Upon learning of Lenny’s past trauma, it is understanding why she is routine-oriented. Her favorite TV show is “Friends” and her favorite book is “The Hobbit,” so much so that she has over 30 copies, each being unique from another. The characters were well developed with depth, mystery, creative, and intriguing. The supporting characters did an outstanding job of uplifting our protagonist. The author’s writing style was complex, multifaceted, twisty, unpredictable, and just brilliant. The way the author portrays this character will really stick with me for some time.

I had the pleasure of having the digital and audio versions of the ARC. This story was a perfect balance of heart-wrenching and heartwarming. The author approaches the mental health aspect with such grace, really a well-done job. We will see great things from this author. I highly recommend picking up this story!

There is more to this book than you would think by just reading the blurb. Lenny Marks (formerly Helena Winters) is living a peaceful, contented life. She rides her bike to her teaching job. She shops for the same groceries on the same day each week and eats the same meals. She is "friends" with Ned, the grocery clerk. She loves The Hobbit and watches reruns of Friends. She plays Scrabble with her imaginary roommate.
An unexpected and unwanted phone call catapults Lenny back to her childhood and the reader slowly begins to discover what makes Lenny Marks tick.

This read felt a bit slow for me, I just couldn't really get into it all that much. There's nothing in specific that deterred me or made me feel this way, just must have been my reading mood!

This was not at all what I was expecting when I started reading this I thought I was getting a cozy mystery instead I got ro met Lenny who has a trama filled childhood not at all social and loves to keep to herself. This is a introverts dream.


This was a very slow read for me but I did enjoy it.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder is a story that was not at all what I had expected, but everything that I love in a great book. In the end I had run through a range of emotions, my heart was ripped from my chest, and I enjoyed every moment.

Lenny Marks is a woman bound by her daily rituals, and right from the start we get a taste of her quirkiness and uber-preparedness. All of her daily activities are on a tight schedule, and when she feels stress she calms herself by creating anagrams out of words that describe what is going on around her. One of her stresses is a confusing fragment of a memory that haunts her as she tries to piece together what truly happened.

Socially awkward Lenny is just not good at reading people and has difficulty understanding other’s true intentions. She doesn’t know how to interpret social situations and often misunderstands if an individual is being a good friend or not. She herself has a caring heart and good intentions, but when she’s honest with herself she’ll admit she’s just plain lonely. To her co-workers, Lenny talks about an imaginary friend who she plays board games with and goes out bar hopping with, but the reality isn't that bleak - she does have actual likeable people on her side, too. She befriends her elderly next-door neighbor Maureen Simcock and slowly they start to spend time together. Twice a week she visits with and chats up Ned, the local supermarket manager. And then there is her foster mother Fay, who cares for her deeply and tries to help Lenny be more social.

Did I mention that she is the proud owner of 36 copies of The Hobbit and a beat-up, one-eyed teddy bear named Errol?

When a letter arrives it stirs up emotions and throws a wrench in to her day. The letter is addressed to a different name but most certainly is meant for Lenny, and so you know there is a bigger story to unfold. Uncharacteristically Lenny ignores the letter for as long as she can and even avoids voicemails left by the sender.

So we’ve got this letter tucked deeply into Lenny’s purse that she’s avoiding at all costs and a memory that won’t surface completely. This is about all I want to tell you because you’ve just got to experience Lenny’s story for yourself. I will say that the book discusses childhood trauma and the coping mechanisms our brains can create to deal with it.

Lenny Marks is a deep and meaningful must-read. It takes you on a journey you did not expect and will not easily forget.

Thanks St Martin’s Publishing Group & NetGalley for the free ARC, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

This was a bit of a slow read for me, but still an enjoyable story. I would defiantly pick up more by this author. It was bit quirky and fun. Some of the problems are realistic. Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC.
3/5 Stars

Lenny Marks is the hero you didn't know you needed in your life. A thought provoking book that had me on an emotional rollercoaster. Lenny is a different character that you cannot help but root for and one I won't forget anytime soon! She was written so well that I felt like she was a new friend and I was sad to say goodbye when the book ended.
There are many heavier themes in this book, such as trauma and PTSD, but they are equalled out by the happier themes, such as friendship and healing. The story unfolds at just the right speed to get to know Lenny as things about her are revealed at just the right times to keep the reader interested. The supporting characters help in Lenny's self-discovery and add so much to the story.
I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I am looking forward to reading more books from Kerryn Mayne!
All of the reviews of this triumphant book are my own. I am extremely grateful to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read a digital copy of this book through Netgalley.

What a fun book by Kerryn Mayne! Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder is indeed a book about murder (really self defense) but written in a fun, quirky way that kept me hooked til the end. If you love a bit of suspense with all the feels, this is the book for you.

This was like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine meets Strange Sally Diamond and I'm not sure more needs to be said on it. I definitely liked it more than Strange Sally Diamond (less traumatizing), but the entire structure felt so similar to it. It was a bit tough to get into because of that, but I did end up enjoying it and a lot of that is because of the supporting characters.

I feel really conflicted about this one because some parts were really great, but a lot of it fell pretty flat for me. I don't think the way Lenny's past was obscured worked particularly well. I think this one may suffer from comparison because I feel like I've read really similar characters that I was more drawn to.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it.

I loved this book! Actually my least favourite part was the actual getting away with murder, but I loved Lenny so much! More Lenny Marks please!

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder tells the story of a woman who is determined to get a life.

I very much enjoyed this book. I've never met a character quite like Lenny before. I love all books set in Australia so that had me from the start. I enjoyed peeling away Lenny's layers and learning her whole story (and seeing her blossom). The end got a little wordy, but overall great book.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

I can't believe that I put this book off as long as I did. What a fantastic debut novel for Karryn Mayne and I am adding her to my authors to follow on Goodreads. And recommending this book to everyone!

On the surface, Lenny Marks is set in her ways and one could assume it is due to being on a spectrum of some sort. That is certainly what I thought for most of the novel. Her schedule is never changing - grocery store, food, work - every week it is all the same thing. Until she realizes that she is lonely, admits it to her mum, and her mum starts pushing her to make friends at work and to engage. And when a letter from the parole board is delivered to her at work, it starts a spiral of changes that Lenny can't stop.

Lenny's quirkiness with her anagrams to calm herself sometimes had me thinking - "wait... can you really make that word?" And the answer was always yes!

The novel was a great pace and with a bit of a mystery behind the parole board letter. and it works to dismantle Lenny's world piece by piece until she is precariously close to collapse. The characters are fantastic and Lenny's loneliness is palpable. Her actions to try and make friends and adjust to the outside world are enough to bring her (and me) back to being alone in her home and disregarding every chance to change her life.

I want to say that I hope I can read more about Lenny Marks, but in order for that to happen she needs another mystery and I would very much rather for her to live her life in the peace that she finds!

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder…

Advanced copy provided by NetGalley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Ok Lenny, first of all you had no right to live in my mind rent free for weeks. Did it take me weeks to read this book? No!! It only took a couple of nights but I was obsessed! Lenny Marks was the most neurotically fascinating character to me, I was hooked from the first couple of pages which, usually would have had me questioning as it was a lot of internal monologue but lo and behold, I would come to crave his monologue.

Lenny marks lives a very normal life, with a very strict routine, an imaginary “friend” to play games with on the weekend, and absolutely no room to stray from the above. Until she receives a letter that brings her past hurtling forward into the present, pushing Lenny to do things outside of her norm, sending her foster mother into fits of worry, and ending on a night that she can only hope to cover up.

Lenny is tragic and misunderstood and your heart physically hurts through parts of her story, and some of us might even be able to relate (f*** off mean girls,) and by the end she may not be fully ready to change but she is willing to open the door to see what is out there now that her past is well and truly in the past.

I will admit that I went into this book thinking it would be more of a thriller/murder mystery. It's not that. We are introduced to Lenny's quirky and particular ways immediately. She has a strict routine, keeps interactions with people to the barest of minimums - so much so that she goes to different grocery stores on different days and times so that she will only deal with the people she knows, her friends are the ones that she makes up in her head or who share her living room with her via the tv. Slowly, we start to understand that she is like this due to childhood trauma. Her brain has been protecting her since she was a very young girl. Once she starts coming to terms with her past, she opens up more. Her routines change and people start entering her life.
I was not all that crazy about the end, which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. I felt frustrated a lot while reading, but I also know that was probably the whole point of Lenny and her personality. I did like that in the author's note, Kerryn Mayne did say that while this timeframe was during covid, she kept that part out of the storyline. I appreciated that note a lot.

I absolutely loved Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne. Lenny is a quirky main character who, due to events in her childhood, lives a very ordered, contained life. My heart hurt so much for her as I read her story. As the story unfolds, she is an easy character to root for, and I thought the ending was perfect! I look forward to reading more books by Kerryn Mayne! Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Books, for an advance reader copy of this fantastic debut novel.

Lenny Marks keeps her life small, confined, manageable, and comfortable for herself. She recognizes that she's different - she enjoys her work with students as a teacher, but she's much less comfortable in the teachers' lounge. The woman who was a foster mother to her encourages her to try to socialize more and develop some friendships, but it isn't easy for Lenny. Then she receives a letter from the parole board asking for a "victim statement", and the mystery of Lenny's past begins to be slowly revealed. This was very slow and not what I had thought this would be from the description. I felt it was just ok. I did enjoy the ending. 3 ⭐️

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn Mayne is a book about… Well… Linnny Marks she is 37 and lives a structured life which brings her comfort until the day she gets a letter addressed to Helena Winters from the parole board. At the same time she has promised her foster mom Faye that she will start going out with friends more and make an effort. So when the popular teachers at the school she works at Ashley and Amy are telling another teacher Kira about the trivia night Keira ask Lenny if she’s going to go and clearly you can see A and A doesn’t want her to go but Lenny says yes. Lenny‘s life starts changing she kidnaps a dog does her best to make friends with Ashley and Amy even has a flirtation going on with the cashier of midnights the grocery store she goes to unfortunately she is also haunted by her past and it is a pass that is quickly coming to reckon. It seems no amount of friends episodes scrabble games in the word games she plays in her head is going to staiv off the past she’s trying to forget. I kind of knew where the book was going but I really started getting annoyed with that word game she played and I also thought the whole thing with Amy and Ashley was so mean. I also couldn’t understand how this woman is a teacher when she can’t even have a regular conversation with not only adults she doesn’t know but children. Especially because children are handsy and she taught second graders I DK that didn’t seem logical to me but I digress I did find a lot in the beginning to be kind of funny but mostly I just felt bad for Lenny how was she going to date the guy from the grocery store wouldn’t that be an imbalance of power and therefore an improper relationship? I DK the end of the book was also super sad because then we get to learn about the last day she saw her mom got the scar and heard the words that would haunt her for almost 30 years. I did like Malcolm but once again find myself blaming whoever wrote the summary because it isn’t the book I thought it was going to be Itza was sadly disappointed with the book I got. #NetGalley,#Saint Martin’s press, #KerrynMayn, #LennyMarksGetsAwayWithMurder,