How To Solve Your Own Murder

An unmissable mystery with a killer hook!

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Pub Date Mar 26 2024 | Archive Date Sep 24 2024

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Description

QUERCUS' BREAKOUT DEBUT LAUNCH FOR 2024!


FRANCES ALWAYS SAID SHE'D BE MURDERED...
SHE WAS RIGHT.

In 1965, when Frances Adams was seventeen, a fortune teller told her that one day she'd be murdered. Thus began a lifetime of trying to prevent the crime that would be her eventual demise.

No one took Frances seriously for sixty years - until, of course, she was murdered. But for Frances, being the village busybody was a form of insurance. She'd spent a lifetime compiling dirt on every person she met, just in case they might turn out to be her killer. In the heart of her sprawling country estate lies an eccentric library of detective work, where the right person could step in and use her findings to solve her murder.

When her great-niece Annie arrives from London and discovers that Frances' worst fear has come true, Annie is thrust into her great-aunt's last act of revenge against her sceptical friends and family. Frances' will stipulates that the person who solves her murder inherits her millions, and she's challenged a group that includes Annie to prove to the world that Frances was right all along about her future.

Can Annie unravel the mystery and find justice for Frances, or will digging up the past lead her into the path of the killer?

QUERCUS' BREAKOUT DEBUT LAUNCH FOR 2024!


FRANCES ALWAYS SAID SHE'D BE MURDERED...
SHE WAS RIGHT.

In 1965, when Frances Adams was seventeen, a fortune teller told her that one day she'd be murdered. Thus...


Advance Praise

‘A masterclass in the art of mystery’ Elle Cosimano, NYT bestselling author of Finlay Donovan is Killing It

‘I loved it: warm, clever and wildly original’ Elly Griffiths, author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries

‘A brilliant and masterful whodunnit. For all murder mystery fans–this one’s for you! Don’t miss it.’ Liv Constantine, internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

‘There's no shortage of entertaining, well-rounded characters in this charming and multilayered whodunit, a perfect shelf companion alongside reader favorites like Agatha Christie, Richard Osman, and Nita Prose.’ Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary

‘With Agatha Christie-like vibes and perfect for fans of The Maid, this is an utterly charming whodunnit—I loved it!’ Karma Brown, #1 international bestseller of Recipe for a Perfect Wife


‘A masterclass in the art of mystery’ Elle Cosimano, NYT bestselling author of Finlay Donovan is Killing It

‘I loved it: warm, clever and wildly original’ Elly Griffiths, author of the Dr Ruth...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781529430059
PRICE £16.99 (GBP)
PAGES 384

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Average rating from 203 members


Featured Reviews

Annie's Great Aunt Frances has sent for her. Reclusive, eccentric Great Aunt Frances. Whom Annie has never met.

Great Aunt Frances owns the house that Annie and her mother Laura live in. So they suppose it's something to do with her will.

But Annie never gets to meet Great Aunt Frances, because she's dead.

And she's been predicting her death for the last sixty years. Because Great Aunt Frances believed that she would be murdered for what she knew...

Brilliant

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Just brilliant. A book packed with oddities, nasty relatives trying to trip people up, a police team that might be trustworthy and a batty fairground premonition that shapes several lives. Mixing in passages from an old diary to the murder mystery works really well and dragging in confusing and cruel relatives to twist the story and cloud the waters is great. A proper who done it with a very modern twist.

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This was such a wonderful and enjoyable read!!!! I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I wanted to read this book so badly, because on a booksellers' event it was hyped very cleverly by the publisher. Image the song and dance I did when my request was approved by the publisher!
Did this book live up to the hype? Yes. Yes it did, I seriously cannot wait to handsell this titel to our customers.
*The plot was intricate, it kept me guessing till the very last moment, but the story was full of red herrings. A re-read will be a lot of fun :)
*The writing style is highly addictive, not for a moment did I want to put this book down. I am especially in awe of the way that it was so easy to remember who was who in this enormous list of characters and how they were related to each other.

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A really enjoyable read and an excellent example of writing where the story is told from both the past and the present both in real time and written accounts. The story flows well and is easy to follow with well structured and good length chapters.
The story kept me wanting more and to find out the mystery of who murdered who and why. The characters have depth and all feel 'real' and not too clichéd like some can.
I would definitely recommend this to all murder mystery readers

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Superbly crafted murder mystery. Concepts don't get much hookier than this.
Frances, a woman who was given a fortune reading as a teenager that predicted her own murder, spends the rest of her pretty long life trying to solve who is ultimately going to be responsible for her death.

When the prophecy finally comes true, it is down to her great niece, Annie, to pick up the reigns and wade through the evidence built from a life investigating the possibilities of one's own murder.

Told in the now, through the eyes of Annie, and the then as we read Frances' diaries, this is a fabulously complex look into superstition, fears, neuroses and how feeding all of these can ruin a life in more than one way.

A clever, captivating debut with an abundance of style.

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When Annie receives a letter summoning her to meet with her wealthy but eccentric Great Aunt Frances, she's excited to visit the picturesque town of Castle Knoll and to find out more about the relative she's never met. Instead, Annie finds herself drawn into a murder investigation, with an inheritance that will change more lives than her own hanging in the balance. Thanks to a fortune teller Frances visited when she was seventeen, Frances has lived the last sixty years of her life as if somebody wanted to kill her, suspecting everyone, and inadvertently giving most of the village a reason to want her dead.

I loved this one. How to Solve Your Own Murder is a title that I couldn't resist, and it didn't disappoint. The story itself is mainly focused on the present day, where Annie finds herself drawn into investigating Frances' murder, but it is also interspersed with some of Frances' diary entries that relate to the sixty-year-old prediction of Frances' death that has finally come true. I loved both storylines equally, and especially the fact that I didn't trust any of the characters. The small town setting really adds to tension, while also ensuring that I never lost track of who was who. This plot kept me guessing until the very end, without ever becoming overly complicated or implausible, and I particularly enjoyed the way aspiring-writer Annie approaches the mystery.

I could quite easily have read How to Solve Your Own Murder in one sitting. It grabbed me from the first line, and didn't let me go until the very end. I just found this one such an easy and engaging read, with a really interesting mystery at its heart, and a charming setting and cast of characters. Despite this book being light on romance, it somehow strikes me as what would happen if you dropped a romance heroine into a murder mystery (and I absolutely mean that as a compliment).

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Three seemingly inseparable friends in an idyllic summer and then it all goes wrong. Frances has her fortune read and from that date until the day she died it dominated her life and in this case death too. Four people are tasked with solving her murder and two could inherit the multi million pound inheritance.

A quintessentially English mystery set in a small town ( which for some reason I think of as Castle Combe), full of gossip and history and all with their own secrets. Who can our heroine, Annie trust, the rather dashing police detective, her fellow investigators, Frances’ childhood friend.or are her instincts right, solve the mystery of missing Emily and that will solve the murder of Frances. There are some pretty unpleasant characters in here but can Annie weed them out to keep herself and her inheritance safe.

This is a fabulous concept, follow the clues left by the victim who essentially does solve her own murder, thanks to Annie’s intuition and determination. A clever plot line with some lovely twists with some well written characters. There’ seems to never be a quiet moment in Castle Knoll . I can safely say I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it’s well worth a read.

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