I loved this! Such a great book, with neat flashbacks via diary entries and a compelling murder-mystery story, this was great fun.

I loved the unique premise of this - a life spent trying to solve your own (as yet not happened) murder after its predicted by a fortune teller. And I really enjoyed the strong characters including Annie Adams "recently redundant admin assistant by day, wannabe writer by night, "prone to fainting." and "a contestant in Great Aunt Frances' murder games." Frances herself is "a paranoid busybody". It was funny too such as best friend Jenny's astute observation: "If TV has taught us anything, it's that the murder rate in small villages is disproportionately high." The only thing I didn't like was the "why" behind it all. But that obviously didn't affect the read which I thoroughly enjoyed. I really hope there's a sequel as the ending suggests or opens up the possibility for.

The book follows two timelines, Frances' diary entries from the 1960s and Annies experiences in Castle Knoll. I enjoyed these dual narrative storylines, especially the journal entries by Frances.

The book involves two murders, 60 years apart. Even thought the clues are there, I was guessing until the end. A very clever murder mystery story.

One of the best murder mystery books I have ever read, if not the best one! Kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat for most of it, even the beginning which is a rarity for me. Reading this, even in the first few chapters, I was absolutely obsessed with the story, the intrigues, the different characters, and the mystery behind it all, which roughly means I only ever took breaks from reading when I had to sleep or work.

I don't want to give too much away of the plot because going in blind added so much to the mystery, so if family drama, small town gossip, high stakes, found family, and revenge themes resonate with you, run don't walk to get your hands on this book. It is a cozy mystery that doesn't loose its grip on the reader for being cozy, which is a complaint I had with past cozy mysteries.

Absolutely recommend this to lovers of mystery and Agatha Christie. Do not recommend this to those that are facing busy periods of their lives because they will feel the need to drop everything to read this just like I did. Can't wait to purchase myself a copy once this comes out!

Thank you NetGalley, Kristen Perrin and Quercus for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Frances Adams has been haunted her whole life after visiting a fortune teller at 16 and being told several things about her future. When her Great nice Annie is summoned to Frances's estate, she thinks it is just to sign some papers after Frances has decided to change her will, but before anything can be read or signed, her body is found.

Following past and present POVs, Frances in the past in the years after the fortune telling as it takes a hold on her life, and Annie in the present using the files 'Castle Knoll Files' that Frances wrote to try and solve her murder. This was a good cosy mystery with two great lead characters.

It took me until approximately half way to really get into this book. I kept picking it up and putting it back down. I’m not a big fan of changing timelines and I didn’t love the MC in the present day (liked Frances though!!) It for more interesting and the big reveal was pretty good but then it just stopped. I feel there could have been something extra….

This was such a fun book! I've never read any cosy crime before and this was a great story to introduce me to the genre. With alternating timelines, an isolated community, and characters you're not sure you can trust, I was gripped. It feels weird to say that a murder mystery book can feel warm and cosy, but this one really did. I think it was the growing up aspects of it - seeing characters as teenagers in the flashbacks and then as adults dealing with grief and complicated life things. It gave the book a more grounded feel to it, and made the community feel more real.

I couldn't wait to find out what really happened to Frances and Emily. I really loved the fortune / premonition aspect of the book, and how that kind of festered and became an obsessive piece of the case. Watching everything come together was very satisfying, and I was surprised by the twist at the end.

The only reason I've marked it down a little is because I personally didn't really connect with the main character. I would've loved to see more of Frances and the 1960s timeline, but the writing from Annie's perspective felt a little stilted for me.

But I'd definitely recommend this one if you love your cosy crime, Richard Osman, Ian Moore, type books! It was a really nice change for me, and has made me want to explore the genre more.

A dual-timeline whodunnit that follows the recent death of an elderly woman seemingly ruled by her paranoia, and the investigations of her pseudo-grandniece into uncovering the truth behind her passing. Straddling the line between the cosy Death in Paradise and the darker Midsomer Murders, Perrin's cast of characters are enjoyable to follow and seem ripe for further adventures, even after the primary crime is solved by page's end, and her plotting of the mystery makes How to Solve Your Own Murder a breezy, entertaining read.

The idea of this was a good one but it lacked somewhat in execution. The plot was very convoluted and ending up being two mysteries to solve not just the murder of the great aunt but also the missing friend from the 60's. The jumping back and forth in time and the convoluted relationships of people in the village added to the confusion and the solving of the mysteries seemed to happen more by accident without a clear answer, Also the character's felt a little flat and needed more development but a promising start. Will wait and see where it goes next. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Frances was told of her death by a gypsy fortune teller when she was only 17. She spends the rest of her life preparing for it. However, the friends she has at 17 still surround her, but the dynamics change dramatically after one of her friends disappears.

60 years later Frances summons various relatives, including her great niece Annie, as she has made changes to her will. Annie has never met Frances, and never will in this life as she dies as the group congregate. She leaves a will reflecting her lifelong obsession with her murder and challenges them to solve it.

The story is a little unusual, as we are led by the victim through her diaries to unravel the past. Annie doesn't come over very strongly as a character, and does do some strange things if she really wanted to inherit the millions, as well as trusting some of the odd characters around her. Some characters are a little blurred and so are hard to identify with, meaning the final denouement fell a little flat for me, but overall its a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is an intriguing and cosy-ish mystery that spans two viewpoints and several decades.

In 1965, 17-yr-old Frances has her fortune told, but is dismayed to hear a prophecy that includes her own murder. Eventually, she will become obsessed with it, leaving instructions in her will and testament that when she is murdered, her great-niece must be one of the ones to help solve the crime...

Today, great-niece Annie is summoned to Frances' home when the worst happens. Can she unravel the past and solve the crimes of the present?

It took me a little while to get into this one, but once I did I was hooked. Annie has Frances' diaries to read and I enjoyed the combination of discovering secrets in the past and future at the same time. There are a lot of characters to get to grips with (with many from the present being related to those from the past!), which meant at times it was tricky to follow them all.

The mystery kept me guessing throughout and I enjoyed spending time in both timelines. While there may be another book in the series, this one served perfectly well for me as a standalone.

A fun, fast paced mystery. I really enjoyed this brilliant debut.
In 1965 when Frances Adams was seventeen, a fortune teller told her that one day she’d be murdered. So began a lifetime of trying to prevent the crime from happening. But when sixty years later she is found murdered, it’s up to her great niece Annie to try to put all the evidence together to solve the case.
The plot is brilliant, kept me guessing till the end, a story full of red herrings, great twists and well written characters.
The story flows well with good length chapters which are easy to follow, it’s told through present and past timelines by Annie and Frances diary entries. Annie is an interesting character and I liked her passion for solving mysteries. I also liked her relationship with Detective Crane.
Overall, a clever, easy engaging book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s well worth a read. Definitely recommend.
I look forward to reading more books from this author @Kristen_Perrin
With thanks to #NetGallery @quercusbooks for an arc of #HowToSolveYourOwnMurder in exchange for a honest review.
Book publishes 26 March 2024.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!

This was a phenomenal book. I found myself trying to work out the mystery alongside Annie and Frances, reading and making notes the whole way through.

- I loved Kristen's writing style. The imagery within her writing is so beautiful and poetic at times. There are so many parts I highlighted just for the writing style alone!
- This feels like a classic mystery novel and a modern mystery novel all rolled into one, which I assume is partly because of the fact that there are two narrators from two times in history, Frances in the 1960's, and Annie in the present.
- Kristen writes these two women, and in fact, all the characters, so perfectly that you feel like you're a part of the story. You feel the emotions the characters are feeling, experience what they're experiencing.
- The characters are so real. I cannot emphasise this enough. And the setting of Castle Knoll is so mysterious and charming all in one that you want to visit yourself - I know I do!
- I am so grateful to have received a copy to review, because it's introduced me to who I'm certain is going to be an auto-buy author for me, and I can't wait to read more, especially in the Castle Knoll series!

A fortune teller predicts a young woman’s murder, yet she lives to a ripe old age in this crime mystery tale - How To Solve Your Own Murder (2024) by Kristen Perrin. The lives of three teenage girls and best friends are inextricably changed due to that murder forecast, with one disappearing within months and the murder finally occurring decades later. Annie Adams is a struggling writer when she gets called to a meeting to find out what inheritance her great-aunt will bequeath her. Annie’s hitherto unknown elderly reclusive aunt is found murdered before they can meet. The reading of the will sets off a hunt for the killer, with a fortune for the person who solves the crime within the week. This cosy mystery debut novel is a pleasant read with a three and a half stars rating. With thanks to Quercus Books and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

I have mixed feelings about this title - I almost felt it should be directed to a teenage fiction reading group.
For a young woman to spend her whole life searching out who might murder her because of a fortune teller's reading seemed a little far-fetched and self-defeating.
Annie comes to the village to meet her Great Aunt for the first time only to find after 60 years her Aunt has in fact been murdered. And so starts Annie's attempt to solve her Aunt's murder.
As the story continues the story picks up - told between Annie's efforts and her Great Aunt's diary entries from the 1960s.
Overall, 3 /1/2 stars for me!
Many thanks to Netgalley/Kirsten Perrin/Quercus Books for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

How To Solve Your Own Murder is a distinct cut-above your average entertaining murder mystery.

In this, her adult fiction debut, Kristen Perrin has taken one of my favourite literary constructs, parallel present day and historical first-person narratives, the latter epistolary, and executed it superbly.

The character development feels deeply authentic, with both narrators, instantly engaging. I found both women’s unique spark and persistence highly appealing. Annie in the present engages in some fantastically funny banter and simmering tension (romantic and otherwise) with the entertainingly varied ensemble cast that’s brimming with depth and heart.

In addition to the myriad clever twists, turns and reveals woven into How To Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin’s almost literary writing style is something I enjoyed immensely.

Each setting and scene depicted is vivid and the sense of time, place and mood is always strong.

Plus, there’s a clear story path for us to revisit the characters in the future, and the fact that the publisher has already named this Book 1 of the The Castle Knoll Files series indicates that is likely to happen. Sign me up for Book 2!

When Annie Adams receives an invitation from her estranged Great Aunt Frances about a change to her will, she is looking forward to a family reunion. Frances has been plagued by a fortune that was given to her as a child and is obsessed with her own murder. However, when she is discovered dead in her house, the race is on to see if her fortune came true.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is quite a cosy murder mystery – there are certainly some cliches, particularly to the beginning of the story which made me feel that it isn’t very original. It is an easy read though and it kept me gripped throughout - although I don’t think it has the humour that Knives Out or The Thursday Murder Club does, so I think this comparison on its description is misleading. The narrative alternates between Annie’s present-day investigation and diary entries from Frances telling of events that happened in the 60s after her fortune was told and before her best friend disappeared.

The diary technique is a little weak – there were certainly a lot of plot points not revealed until a lot later which are conveniently hidden from both Annie and the reader because she put off reading it or fell asleep before finishing the story. It gave the feeling that the murder could have been solved earlier if she had just read it in one sitting (which you would do surely, if a murderer was on the loose and your family house was at stake) and this made it feel too convenient and unrealistic.

I didn’t feel that I particularly sympathised with Annie – she makes some questionable decisions throughout. I did however, feel that we got to know Frances quite well, despite not meeting her ‘in person’ and I enjoyed the diary entries about her. I didn’t feel that we got to know the other characters as well because there was too much suspicion that one of them was the murderer which was a bit if a shame. I also wanted to hear more about the ‘Ford’ character in the present day narrative as well.

Overall, How To Solve Your Own Murder is a cosy murder mystery that feels a little too unrealistic and cliched in places. Thank you to NetGalley & Quercus Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fortune told to Frances in the 1960s takes over her life.
When the fortune comes true and she is murdered it falls to Annie to find out what really happened.
The story is told from the current day and also through Frances's journal from the 60s
This is a good way to tell the story as it fills in more about the characters who Annie doesn't know.
A big house, a list of suspects and some nice diversions. I enjoyed this and sped toward the end.

Reminiscent of the classic murder mystery, this book offers lots of clues to solve the murder(s) but then throws in a new twist to make you think again.

When Frances has her fortune read, it changes the way she is going to live the rest of her life and when her friend disappears, she spends the rest of her life trying to discover what happened to her. She suddenly changes her will and summons her great niece Annie to a meeting but is found dead before they have a chance to meet. It is then down to Annie to unravel the decades old mystery.

It is 1965 and Francis Adams is a teenager. She is at Castle Knoll Country Fair along with her best friends Emily and Rose. They convince Francis to have her fortune told which is the worst thing that can have happened as the fortune teller tells her that one day she will be murdered. Francis believes her and it affects the rest of her life. Not long afterwards Emily disappeared but no one did anything about it. Told from dual POV and in multiple timelines this was an excellent debut, with a lot of characters, and a good cozy read.

Briefly, 60 years later Annie, living in London with her mother, and a budding crime novelist, receives a letter inviting her to Castle Knoll where her Great Aunt Francis wants to talk to her about her estate. But she never gets to speak to her as Francis is dead - murdered. She has left instructions for a group of people, including Annie, to help solve her murder. No pressure though as they have only 7 days to solve the case otherwise the estate will be sold off.

I loved seeing how Annie tries to work her way through all the information that Francis accrued over the last 60 years and how they reveal secrets from the past which everyone is trying to cover up. Some good red herrings that kept me guessing and a very clever story. An engaging read.