Annie Adams is a modern day woman with an interest in crime fiction. She becomes embroiled in her great aunt Frances’ murder with an imperative to solve it.
But this murder has a twist: it was foretold by a fortune teller and Frances herself has spent her life trying to put the clues together to solve it.
It’s an intriguing premise, told there and back between Frances’ young life in the 1960s and today.
It makes for a novel that is an easy read but is a little over-plotted and under-charactered. I slightly struggled to care about some of the cast list or tell them apart.
But it’s also a good-hearted, light romp and will appeal to readers who like a quirky ‘small village’ crime novel with an original plot.

Sixty years ago Frances and two friends visited a local fair where they each had their fortune told thinking it would be fun. But Frances was told of her own murder. Her friends dismissed this, but Frances couldn’t help but become fixated by this dire warning.
Sixty years later her great-niece as well as another nephew were called to a meeting to discuss the wealth Frances now held with Frances herself and her lawyer. Annie had never met any of these people but was curious rather than keen to discover a potential fortune.
However, when at the legal offices the solicitor took a phone call from Frances saying she had car trouble and could they relocate to her house. They travel there only to discover a murder scene. Frances had also left instructions if upon her death that whoever of the two niece and nephew, along with the local detective could solve what she was convinced was her murder that they would inherit the whole estate. They are given a week and Frances has left a whole murder board with clues she’d gathered over 60 years.
At a disadvantage, because Annie knew neither Frances nor any of the complicated characters she subsequently met who could have been potential suspects, the trio pursued their own investigations ,aid with many red herrings, sometimes collaborating for gains they thought worthwhile trading.

This book is the first as a follow up is promised and will keep you guessing until the end.

I was excited about this one as the premise sounded promising and all the Agatha Christie vibes being mentioned but that was certainly not the case as fair as I could see, I got as far as 25% in and gave up. It really came across as Young Adult rather than a crime/thriller, perhaps written by someone quite young who hasn’t actually read much of the classic crime genre that they were clearly trying to evoke.

Have rated as 3 average as unfinished.

To be fair, I don’t quite remember how I came across this book, but the instant I saw the title, I knew I had to read it. It sounded intricate and fun. Just the right kind of mystery to weave your mind into a twist. So I went ahead and made a request, which Quercus Books and Netgalley were kind enough to grant. This is why I would like to start with a disclaimer and a thank you for the opportunity to read this in advance and express my thoughts on it freely.

Book Title and Cover

The title is definitely catchy and intriguing, setting the stage for a guidebook of sorts, however, please do not expect a story about a ghost going around and scaring the killer into revealing themselves. You may in turn, welcome an old lady’s attempts at finding out who her killer is and her plan to make two of her relatives discover the mystery behind her death, should she die first.

The cover for this edition (mind you, there is another one with lots of blues which got my attention originally), is also quick to garner attention through its simplicity, with the title nicely drawn out from top to bottom, showing a high contrast with the red background and emphasizing two keywords. The designer also chose to add a skull and a crow in the foreground, showing just how ominous the entire affair is. At the same time, it showcases one of the key elements and triggers of the story—bones.

The Characters and Plot

While attending a country fair, in 1965, a group of friends with Frances Adams at its center, get their fortunes read, however, none of them ever expect the warning Frances receives:

“Your future contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins right when you hold the queen in the palm of your hand. Beware the bird, for it will betray you. And, from that, there is no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point toward your murder.”

This, in turn, becomes the young girl’s obsession and, as each part of the prophecy slowly comes true, year after year, Frances becomes a pile of nerves and paranoia. Thus she puts up a murder board and begins to secretly investigate everyone around her, which, in the end, allows her to learn horrible truths about the Castle Knoll residents. Sixty years later, Frances dies, right after deciding to change her will, and it is now up to her niece, Annie, to solve the mystery of her death.

Thoughts

There are, in fact, two timelines we follow: the first one, which we learn about through Frances’ journal dating back from 1965, and the second one, taking place during our modern day times, where we follow Annie Adams, trying to make heads or tails of the aftereffects of the prophecy. Although the two never meet, Annie feels a deep affinity for Frances, so much so they seem quite similar to one another both in manner of speech and in the way they act. This is mostly obvious when the two perspectives, the journal and Annie’s point of view, are put side by side. Both voices sound rather similar. Sadly, for me, this was a bit of a downside. I wished they sounded and acted differently, as this would have created more tension and contrast. Done in this way, to me, the narration fell a little flat.

As you may expect with this sort of story, there are quite a few red herrings and a couple of twists which lead to the grand reveal, and I have to say, things are never what they seem to be with detective novels. You know how there are usually two to three suspects you have on your list from the very beginning, or right after the entire cast is revealed? I also had such a list in mind, and I am happy to say I got the catalyst right. I mean, I would have done the same thing, if I were in the writer’s shoes, I would have made that one person the killer, albeit a little differently. Still, the ending is satisfying to me, the reveal made sense, so I am definitely in favor of the author’s choice.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, although I wished some things were explored a little deeper. For example, I was quite curious about Ford and how he came to marry Frances (was it a game or did he really like her?), but this was not really shown. Instead, our attention was focused on a bunch of repetitive events, showcased both in the journal, and by Annie’s narration. Saxon was also a quite interesting character and I was sad to see he, too, was mostly present towards the end. There was a lot of potential with him, especially given his social awkwardness and mysterious charm paired with his sudden appearances and disappearances. I believe the author could have played his startling appearance more and made him more competitive or secretive. To me, he seemed more of an accessory, with little involvement in the inheritance games. Also, why did he choose to take part in such a grim contest in the first place? He was already rich, no? Did he not have more to lose than gain, considering his side gig?

Detective Crane also got my attention, together with Oliver, and I believe that if the author had decided to add a romantic subplot, instead of mashing too much information in and repeat some of it along the pages multiple times, the story would have had another gripping layer to it and made the character interactions more fun and transparent. At some point, it looked like Perrin wanted to include romance, but then changed her mind, and so we ended up with a rather confusing and superficial relationship between the rest of the characters.

Ah, and finally, there was one thing that bothered me big time (which is, in fact, my biggest pet peeve when it comes to literature): why, at all, mention what the character is wearing at random, if it is irrelevant to the plot? Writing such as “I was wearing a white T-shirt tucked in, and an old leather jacket. I called Jenny.” (not an actual quote) holds generally little to no value, however, pairing it with an action and making it accessory to the plot, is definitely a better choice. For example, the author could have tried for “he ended up stabbing my grey leather jacket” or “his eyes slid down to the quote on my white T-shirt and noted ‘your fashion sense is absolutely terrible'”.

There are definitely a lot of things to consider when writing a murder mystery, but overall, the story ticks most of them off. Sadly, though, I think this mystery fell a little short. Maybe I had a bit too high expectations for it going in. But I am curious how the author will evolve going forward.

This was such a captivating read - I was sucked into the life & death of Frances & had to know everything! I really enjoyed how the past and the present were woven together through Annie, and how the fortune telling that she received when she was 16 impacted her life. Frances’ paranoia means that Annie doesn’t know who is friend or foe, and it had me on the edge of my seat. There’s plenty of twists & reveals, and I genuinely had no idea who the villain was until it was revealed.

I did feel that it did get crowded at times, but I really enjoyed it & can’t wait to read the next in the series.

In general, I liked this book. It was interesting and a page turner.
Sometimes it was a little difficult to follow, with all the characters and relations over the time lines but I could just be tired!
Overall I would recommend this book.

As long as she can remember, Annie’s mum, Laura, has been the main beneficiary of Great Aunt Frances’ will. This is due to a fortune teller advising Frances, when she was a young woman, that she would be murdered and that daughters are the key to justice. Having no daughter of her own Frances intended to bequeath her fortune to Laura as she was the daughter of Frances’ brother. Now Annie has received a letter that implies that it’s all changed and requesting that she attends a meeting with Frances and her solicitor, Walt Gordon. On the due date, Frances is a no show. Obviously after almost sixty years the prediction has come true!

The blurb offered great things that sadly fell short of the premise.

I preferred the chapters with Frances telling her story in the 1960s, but the ones in present day were a bit heavy going. They were both written in the same style so helpful that one was in italics. Whilst Elva and Saxon were greedy and self indulgent, Annie was self righteous and gung-ho, a bit too much of a goody goody to be likeable. There were a lot of characters, some who were really quite unnecessary, they added nothing to the plot.

An easy read, that just stopped short of being too twee, though the ending was very close 😕 I think the book read like a foreigner’s impression of an ideal English village.

A daft plot, a ‘cosy’ crime book, very much of that style and will be loved by those who prefer their murders less gory! Not awful and I appreciate its appeal to others.

Thank you NetGalley and Quercia Books.

Annie lives with her artist mother Laura in the heart of London. The house belongs to an aunt of Laura’s who lives on a country estate. The aunt, Frances, has always been convinced that she will be murdered, ever since the 1960’s when she had her fortune told and couldn't let it go. She lived her life trying to solve the clues that were in the reading and doing her best to find out who it would be. When Annie is called to a will reading as things have been changed, there is rather a shock when Frances is found dead, seemingly her prediction has come true albeit sixty years later. Chapters alternate telling the story of around the fortune reading and then in present day when Annie goes to the will reading. The will has been left so that the estate and fortune go to who can solve the crime within the time limit. Can Annie find things out before it’s too late and save the estate from being flattened.

This is a wonderful premise and one I quickly got into. Annie is a likeable character and curious by nature which helps when sifting through the vast amounts of information her great aunt had amassed. It's a cozy type mystery and one I loved. I liked Annie, she came across as well rounded if a little daring at times. Its captivating and draws the reader into the fold of the country house and surroundings where both timelines play out. It's entertaining, it's intriguing and its brilliantly written. If you enjoy an enveloping crime read with wonderful characters and a plot to keep you thinking, this could be one for you. Loved it.
For more reviews please follow me on Twitter or Threads @nickisbookblog
-----------------------------------------------------------

How to solve your own murder is the first book in Castel Knoll Files one series. A cosy / Agatha Christie type mystery.
Sixteen-year-old Frances Adams attends a local country fair with her two friends where she is told that she is going to be murdered by a Fortune Teller. For the next sixty years she tries to prevent it.
Great niece Annie Adams is invited to see Great Aunt Frances to talk to her about what she will inherit after she dies. She has never met her as there is problems with the relationship with her mother. But tragedy strikes when Aunt Frances is discovered murdered in her home and she tells her remaining relatives in her will that whoever finds out who her murderer is, they will inherit the family home and the surrounding farm and estate. If No one does than the estate will be sold off.

Annie is a budding mystery writer and with her skills and the help of the murder boards and files that Great Aunt Frances has put together she put her hold heart into finding who killed her aunt so she can put her to rest. But she has competition from her other relatives and one of them could be the killer. Only time will tell.

This is an intriguing cozy locked room mystery and did remind me a bit of Agatha Christie and it being in a small quiet village setting. Told mainly by Annie’s POV and an eclectic group of characters. There is a lot of twists and turns that will keep you guessing. Which I enjoyed mostly but I was expecting a more impacted ending then it had. 4 stars from me

Thanks to Quercus and NetGalley for ARC.
This is such an intriguing premise - young woman summoned to country house of elderly relative due to a planned change in the will, only to discover that not only has the relative died, they have been trying to predict who will kill them. The terms of the will are very specific, so the race is on to find the murderer - if there is one.

For me, the characterisation was a bit hard to believe, and the plot moving through timelines stretched credulity. Perhaps its because I am unlikely to get even this close to imagining inherited wealth? However, the nods to the golden age mysteries were interesting, and I'm sure there will be a lot of love for this, especially for puzzle-solving mystery fans.

Annie is summoned to see her Great Aunt Frances, potentially for something to do with Frances's will. When Annie arrives at the house with the solicitor and other involved parties, they find Frances is dead - murdered. Which is exactly what Frances has been predicting for over 60 years, after a threatening fortune at the fair in the 1960s. Between current events and Frances's old diary, Annie has to work out who killed her great aunt and possibly inherit everything - or fail to find justice and lose it all (including the house she and her mother live in).

It's a very enjoyable read, and the concept is great. Frances has kept thorough notes on everyone and every event for years, partly to work out threats to herself, but also to try and solve the mystery of what happened to her friend Emily when she disappeared as a teenager in 1966. The story cuts between present day and the diary, giving clues as to how Frances's death relates back to her teenage years, and how Annie's own involvement has come to happen.

There are two slight downsides, one of which is that Castle Knoll doesn't quite work as a place - it's a bit too Agatha Christie in everyone knowing each other and being related for the 2020s. The other is that the epilogue really stretches the imagination too far, it's two weeks after the mystery is solved and people have already stood trial and been sentenced and everyone is getting on with their lives in the wake of other revelations. Two months might have been marginally more likely and not impacted the plot development hugely!

A really good book. Not quite a cosy murder mystery, but close. Great Aunt Francis has always suspected that she will be murdered. Just before her death she changes her will, so, depending on who solves her murder stands to inherit. The story moves along at a good pace and keeps you guessing. I couldn't stop reading; definitely unputdownable. I look forward to reading more by Perrin.

This book was ok. The premise of the story was good but morally it just didn’t sit right and meant I didn’t really connect with the characters as much as I would have liked.

The story is set over 2 timelines - the 1960s and present day. Both trying to figure out who the murderer is/was and in the past timeline when one of the murders would even take place and what happened to a missing friend.

I found there were too many characters and I couldn’t keep up with them all, especially as some characters were in both timelines and their children/ relatives were also in the present timeline.

I was expecting a bit of a twist but there wasn’t one, more of a trap to set up the killer(s) and then a half-hearted reveal.

There was enough intrigue to keep me half interested but I wasn’t rushing to get to the end as I just didn’t really care enough about the outcome.

Agatha Christie fans will love this. Solve a murder set in a country estate with plenty of red herrings and a huge cast of would be villains. An enjoyable light read.

Firstly, forget any comparisons to Richard Osman – I am unsure why publishers cling to this idea that a novel has to be like something else. This is not a humorous book and so reading this on that premise will lead to disappointment. This is, in fact, a slightly odd read, which is written partly in the present and relies on journals from one characters past but feels as though it is all set somewhat in a Golden Age mystery set. Which is not to say that I did not like it, so let me explain.

It begins with three friends, Frances, Emily and Rose, at a County Fair in 1965. Frances has her fortune told and the fortune teller helpfully foresees her murder: ‘Your future contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins right when you hold the queen in the palm of one hand. Beware the bird, for it will betray you. And, from that, there’s no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point towards your murder.’

Frances takes this seriously and fast forward sixty years, and she invites Annie Adans to visit her at Castle Knoll in Dorset where she is, you guessed it, murdered. Annie lives in London with her mum, Laura, an artist, and Frances has both given Laura an allowance and a house that she owns to live in. Frances has now upended Annie’s – an aspiring crime writer – life as well as the security of her and her mother. Her will stipulates that whoever solves her murder inherits, so the race is on between Annie and other characters involved.

Part of the story is told through Frances original journals and part from the present, as Annie attempts to discover why, of the three friends that day, one went missing and one lived her life in fear of a threat of murder. The whole of Castle Knoll and the characters that inhabit it have a slightly old world feel, but, overall, this was a good read. I wavered between a three and a four but have opted for four as I thought it was fun. It is likely to appeal to those who enjoy cosy mysteries with no real sense of violence or menace, as this focuses far more on the puzzle to be solved. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Told in two timelines this murder mystery had me guessing to the end. Annie Adams is summoned to Castle Knoll for what she believes to be a meeting with her great aunt Francis . Francis is an eccentric who in 1965 with two of her friends visits a fortuneteller who fortells a grim future including Frances’ murder. On her arrival Annie finds that the prediction has come true and Francis has in fact been murdered. Annie now has to find the culprit in order to protect her inheritance. The story is told through Frances’ diaries and Annie’s investigations and I had absolutely no idea who the murderer was, as there were numerous red herrings and suspects. This novel does have a golden age of mystery feeling to it and is all the better for it.I will be looking for more this series … maybe there is more to be found in Frances’ files! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to this novel in return for an honest review.

How To Solve Your Own Murder is supposed to be a double narrative mystery of amateur sleuths in the style of Agatha Christie or Richard Osman. Sadly, it is nothing like those authors mentioned.
At a fair in Dorset in 1965, a fortune teller predicts doom, gloom, and death to come in Frances Adam’s life. Frances then proceeds to live her life thinking she is going to be struck by an early demise. We then jump sixty years to the present day. Annie Adams who is France’s great niece has aspirations to become a mystery writer. She receives an invitation from solicitors to go to Dorset to discuss the future of Francis’s vast estate and what will happen in the event of her death. Once at Gravestone Estate, Annie and other future beneficiaries are shocked to find Francis’s dead body. Is it natural causes or something to do with the fortune teller’s prediction? The story then alternates between the present day and France’s diaries set in 1965 as Annie sets out to solve the mystery.

This has such a good premise and I was really looking forward to reading it, but ultimately it is very disappointing and falls short in every conceivable way. The diaries of 1965 and the present day are too similar in language and presentation so you don’t get a clear sense of life in 1965. There are far too many characters and a number of them have very clunky dialogue. One of the main issues is that it does not have that quintessential English mystery feeling and that may be because the author is not English. The plot suffers from being far too overly complicated when it really does not need to be.
In summary, the book suffers from trying to be too original and then falls short of being able to be put in any genre. This is despite that there is a reminder that we are in the midst of a murder mystery in literally every chapter.
My thanks to NetGalley, Quercus Books and Kristen Perrin for the much appreciated ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

The premise of this book immediately intrigued me and made this one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I am happy to report it did not disappoint.

Back in 1965, 16-years-old Frances Adams gets her future predicted by a fortune teller, only to be met with a prophecy that announces her future murder. Shaken by it, Frances spends the rest of her life trying to outsmart her fate and solve her own murder before it's too late. Sixty years later, her aspiring mystery writer great niece, Annabelle Adams, is summoned by Frances' lawyer to Castle Knoll to discuss her estate. However, by the time Annie gets there, Frances is already dead, and she gets caught up into figuring out what happened to her Great Aunt.

The story is told in two timelines: one set in the present, where Annie is working her way through different clues to piece together what has really happened to Frances; one set in the past, which is brought to life thanks to the pages of Frances' diary, which Annie uses to get information about her Great Aunt. I personally loved both timelines, and I had so much fun finding out things as Annie did, even though I feel like the book seamlessly worked moving the reader from being one step ahead to one step behind, which I found interesting.

There was a great number of characters, and I did struggle to keep up with all of them at first, but it got easier as I got more into the story. Not all of them were very interesting, but, again, as there was a great number of them, that was to be expected. Annie was a very enjoyable character to me, but there was something so fascinating about Frances' character to me, I really looked forward reading from her point of view and getting to know her more— and at times I even found myself questioning whether or not I could trust her.

Overall, this was such a fun read with a great Agatha Christie-esque feel to it. I genuinely couldn't put it down and I was so interested in figuring out how it all would unravel. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a smart, entertaining, small-town mystery, and I'm intrigued to see more of Annie's adventures in the future, I genuinely think it has the potential to be a great series to come back to.

Huge thanks to Quercus Books & Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review

Loved the unique perspectives in this wonderful mystery.

The flashbacks were stunning and I loved the performance of the narrator.

An intriguing and gripping story, I loved the characters and can't wait to read more by this author.