Thank you Netgalley and Kirsten Perrin for the audio ARC of How to Solve your own Murder.

I really enjoyed this cosy mystery/thriller narrated by Alexandra Dowling and Jaye Jacobs. Both have lovely voices in which fit the characters personalities which helped keep the 2 timelines distinguishable. So if you prefer an audio version then its also recommended.

The story is set in 2 different timelines with a murder in each time line and both are linked. The main characters were well described and had a good sense of the village where the story takes place. The narratives have some subtle twists and turns so you do have to pay attention to the foreshadowing. The main twist and pay off at the end of How to solve your own murder was clever. I do feel though that the other characters in the book could have been fleshed out a little more, although there is enough there to get your teeth into.

I enjoyed this book.
A murder long predicted has been committed and it’s up to her great niece to solve it.
I liked the period feel of the story and the story was very Christie in tone, found myself getting gripped by this style and a sensible but not really guessable plot really helped.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'll start by saying this book has all the best murder mystery vibes. So much mystery and intrigue, as well as some high stakes drama towards the end. I've heard it compared to Agatha Christie, The Thursday Murder Club, and Knives Out, and as a fan of all three, I knew would enjoy this story.

The narrative takes place on two different timelines: present day, and the 1960s (via journal entries from the present day murder victim herself). This meant there were basically two interlocking mysteries unfolding at once and as they both progress I found myself hooked!

The flashback journal entry chapters really helped to flesh out some of the older characters and gave a lot of insight into events from both timelines. I did get some of the characters mixed up in my head in the early chapters and keeping up with the familial relationships between the characters in 1965 and the present day was a little confusing, but if anything this reflected on the fact that the main character, Annie, doesn't really know these people.

As the story developed a lot of things started to slot into place and make a lot more sense to me (sometimes it takes me a while to remember who everyone is in a book 😅).

The ending was not too predictable, as murder mysteries often are, and I really enjoyed how the big reveal was done!

What a great story! Annie’s great aunt Frances is convinced that a fortune teller predicted her murder and spent years obsessing over it. When she dies, she sets the potential heirs to her estate the task of solving her murder. The story is set in the present day, and in the 1960’s, told through Frances’ diary.

Once I started reading, it was hard to put down. There were so many twists that every time a potential murderer was suggested, I was absolutely convinced that they had done it. There were no one-dimensional characters, no one was completely awful, morally questionable, or wonderful, which really helped to add depth to the story. It added to my conviction that everyone could have been Frances’ murderer.

Thanks go to #NetGalley and #QuercusBooks for the advance copy of the fantastic #HowToSolveYourOwnMurder, and the very satisfactory ending!

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the arc. A crime mystery set over two time lines, it started well but the lack of pace and too much time spent in the head of Annie the protagonist became irritating and I was happy to.finish. Fans of cosy crime drama like Midsomer Murders will enjoy it.

🐦‍⬛How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin 🐦‍⬛

Thank you #Netgalley for this ARC of #HowToSolveYourOwnMurder which will be published on the 26th March 2024.

“When you write it all down, you can go back and find meaning you’d never noticed was there all along.”
This was a great read, so fast and had me gripped to the kindle for two sittings.

France’s has had her fortune told and she’s convinced she’ll be murdered. While everyone else thinks she’s been fooled, Frances spends her life trying to figure out who will murder her and trying to solve the mystery surrounding her friend’s disappearance until she eventually does get murdered.

We follow Annie, France’s great niece as she tries to solve the murder and the many mysteries surrounding Frances and the people in her life.

This felt like a very modern Agatha Christie and I loved it. It was a quick, fast paced read with lots of fun little reveals. It had me trying to guess the culprit right till the end and then wrapped up in a really satisfying way. I can see this being a big one next year!

4.25*

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for a digital review copy of "How to Solve Your Own Murder" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This was my first read by Kristen Perrin and as soon as I'd seen the premise I knew I had to read it - A dual timeline murder mystery that urges us, the reader to work out the clues and try and solve the case, right up my alley!

Reminiscent of Agatha Christie and Knives Out this is a small-town mystery with a plot that immediately intrigues. Annie Adams is called to Castle Knoll for a meeting with her Great-Aunt Frances for a changing of her will terms. Great-Aunt Frances has spent her life, since receiving a fortune teller's prophecy in the sixties that predicts her murder, trying to get ahead of the game and figure out who will be her killer. The prophecy has proved to be eerily accurate including the aforementioned murder which happens on the day Annie arrives. It is up to her now to solve the case, claim her inheritance and also possibly solve a second mystery that remains open from 1966.

This overall was a clever and twist laden whodunnit that, much like the classic Golden Age era, has an enclosed circle of suspects, secrets galore and multiple mysteries to solve. I was left guessing right up to the end as to the answers and wasn't left disappointed in the end resolution. The characters were overall engaging and I really liked the switching between timelines and using diary entries for the 1960s was an effective way of taking us to the past without distracting from the present, in fact it enhanced the present storyline considerably.

Annie is an effective amateur detective, instantly likeable and with an appropriate amount of damsel in distress attributes to make us care for her and keep urging her on to success. She starts to build relationships with a number of characters (and it's a large group which may not work for everyone) but there are a few who feel a little under developed and underutilised, however ultimately most, if not all have their place in the story to make the red herrings work and keep us engaged.

As it stands this book could easily stay as a standalone but I'm hoping that based on how I felt at the end (it definitely felt like there was a whiff of unfinished business) that we'll get a few more in the future. Cosy mystery fans and golden age mystery fans should all really enjoy this book and it comes highly recommended.

An intriguing title and hook, that the book mostly lives up to.

1965: a 16-year-old Frances is given a fortune at the fair, which predicts her murder. Frances becomes obsessed with the fortune, and avoiding her fate.

Current day: Annie Adams, great niece of Frances, is called to her great aunt's country estate in the village of Castle Knoll, due to some changes in the older woman's will. However, Annie arrives to find Frances already dead. It seems her fate has caught up with her, and Annie sets out to solve the case Frances has been building all her life. However, in the course of her life Frances has also uncovered a lot of secrets about a lot of different people in the village, so almost anyone could potentially have a motive.

This was fun, easy and exciting, and reminiscent of golden era classic whodunnits, which are very much my thing. I actually had to put it down a few times at bedtime because I got over-excited.

It was at times a little hard to follow due to involving three generations of various families in the village, and I feel a little fuzzy on a few of the details. I would have also liked to have the character of Annie be a little more fleshed out - I didn't feel like I really got to know her.

Still very much enjoyable and would recommend for any classic crime and whodunnit fans.

This book moves between two timelines switching back and forth between the present day and the 1960s. It has a Christie-esque vibe to it. Probably a bit too over-charactered but overall a good cosy mystery

Thank you Quercus Books and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

A friend recommended this book to me since I’m looking for cozy mystery books. This book has the right vibes for it and I can see why people enjoy reading it.
I found it interesting to follow two different main characters through this story to find out with them who the murderer is.

I just couldn’t feel really involved in this book, I don’t know if it’s the writing style that feels a bit itchy by times or the main characters with whom I didn’t feel a real connection.

Overall, it was a fine debut with all the cozy mystery vibes for readers who are looking for that.

4.5 stars.
When I saw the description for this book, I was intrigued by the concept of someone predicting their own death via a fortune, so I was hooked into it straight away - and was not disappointed. Throughout the read, I was constantly trying to figure out the mystery and found the inclusion of the flashback diary entries a fun little addition to shed light on the situation. I liked the fact that there were two mysteries to solve in one which were linked, and I did not predict the ending!
I didn’t give it a full 5 starts as I felt like the characters were a little 2-dimensional, but it didn’t stop my enjoyment of the book overall.
Thank you Quercus Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

***advance review copy received from NetGalley in return for an honest review***

This is a pretty run of the mill cozy mystery; with some flashbacks to past events in the mix. It’s readable and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s not overly exciting or particularly original. Unfortunately the name suggested something deviating from the norm, which the narrative never really lives up to for me.

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

The only reason I eventually decided for a 4-star rating instead of a 5-star one is because this book tended to drag on in the last few chapters. I did enjoy the way the mystery was solved, although I found it more and more unlikely... I also didn't appreciate the fact that everything came together somewhat magically toward the end, something I have come to hate about mysteries.
HOWEVER, this book had a lot of positives, too. For one, I enjoyed the switch between the 60s action and current day. There was a significant difference in the tone of Frances and Annabelle, which made for an even more realistic experience. I loved Frances' journal the most as I felt that it perfectly conveyed that 60s atmosphere in the United Kingdom. Annie was a lot more modern by comparison, also because of her somewhat disjointed upbringing and the fact that her mother didn't tend to communicate her feelings properly.
The many quirky characters in this novel make it lovable, as well, from the veterinarian and her wife to whatever the gardener is planting on his farm.
In the end, this was a pretty good book and it very much exceeded my expectations.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for a review.

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.

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.

"How To Solve Your Own Murder" is an entertaining murder mystery, told via a dual timeline; 1966 when young Frances learns that she is likely to be murdered - information that will impact on her until the present day and Annie's story in the present day, as she delves into France's past.
There is quite a cast of characters and it did take me a while to settle into the storyline and keep track of everyone, but once I had worked that one, the story became enjoyable. And there were plenty of twists and fun to be had throughout the storyline.

How To Solve Your Own Murder is a double narrative tale of aspiring sleuths: tasked with the responsibility of solving her great aunt’s murder in order to inherit her entire estate (as well as the house her and her mother have always lived in), Annie Adams finds herself in the middle of a sixty year old story, in a village she’s never known, where secrets abound and an old woman’s grudge could very well destroy a whole community.

The book flies by really quickly, and the double narrative device, with Annie’s story in the foreground in contemporary times and her great aunt Frances’s diaries in the 1960s, helps in giving the sense of urgency thanks to well placed cliffhangers.

The premise sounded really fun, but right as the situation is established I found myself in disbelief: the humble and forgiving woman of the 1965 diaries has really become so jaded and secluded from her own community that she’s willing to let it die unless a niece she’s never even met solves her murder (which at the time of the will being written hadn’t even happened yet, of course)?

This same problem of unbelievable and barely consequential logic leaps reverberates throughout the novel, as clues fit together into a tapestry just as well as a forced jigsaw puzzle.

The writing is a bit clunky at times, the fortune the whole plot is driven by is a jumble of words - which would be fine when it comes to the realism of it, I guess, but for me and the people that have to read it countless times in the novel it becomes a bit of a mess. I suppose that should teach everyone a lesson in looking for signs anywhere just because they’re found in cryptic sentences.

The novel felt a bit too descriptive (I lost count of how many Get Ready With Mes we get), with the narrator of choice (either Annie or Frances) explicitly telling us what they were thinking at any single time in a way that felt a bit too fabricated, especially because you can tell when either of them is withholding information in order to create another end of chapter cliffhanger. Also the tongue-in-cheek joke of the murder mystery writer solving the murder mystery of someone obsessed with a murder mystery of her own while we are reading said murder mystery - with all the references to typical murder mystery novels and films: that’s too much, reel it back a little. Did you see how annoying it was to read the words “murder mystery” so many times in a row? At a certain point any attempt at metanarration becomes a sad cliché, and it happens soon.

Another final remark: Frances and Annie’s voices read exactly the same, they don’t feel like characters of their own (does any character, actually? they all feel pretty twodimesional to me), and even worse, the narration sixty years in the past could have very well been set in contemporary times and I would have barely noticed a difference - they speak in the exact same way as the people in 202x (whichever year this book is set in). Also it’s set in England but doesn’t feel British - a quick research told me the author is American, so keep that in mind - there is nothing particularly telling about it, but I did get an uncanny valley feeling about it and had to check.

The plot also reminds me of another recent murder mystery novel with a fortune teller and a surprise inheritance plot with the double narrative of hidden diaries, even though it’s a bit darker in tone: The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware.

I’m very sad I ended up giving this book a low rating, even though I came to it with an open mind. It still works for the very occasional crime reader or for someone in need of an airport book, but if you’re in search of the next Great Mystery Novel then I’d advise to look elsewhere.


Access to the ARC acquired thanks to NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this book is what caught my attention and after reading it, it's not what I expected at all.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of I thought I was going to need my own murder board at one point. The suspense is all the way through the book keeping you on a thread to see who the killer is/was. All in all it was a great murder mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the digital copy.

At the beginning of the story, we're introduced to Frances who s a teenager, visits a fortune-teller. Frances is told that she will be betrayed and murdered. A year later one of her friends goes missing and the case is unsolved.

Flash forward to the present, and we're introduced to Annie, an aspiring murder mystery writer who lives with her bohemian mother in London in a house owned by her Great Aunt Frances. She receives a letter inviting her to meet with her aunt to discuss her will. Except when she arrives to meet her Great Aunt, she discovers Frances' dead body and that her fortune has come true,

The story is told from dual narratives, with us learning about Frances in her younger years through her diary and Annie being the focal point of the present day as she tries solve the mystery of Frances' death. The revelations in the diary make you feel a part of the mystery as the past is unravelled.

There are plenty of people to suspect as Frances made a few enemies from her investigations as she was paranoid about her murder. She investigated everyone around her.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, it had me on the edge of my seat with each reveal. Loved the Christie-like feel the book has. Similar, to her books this one isn't just focused on the murder but also all the people around her and their motivations. The plot was gripping, the characters were fleshed out in to actual humans, and the conclusion was delicious and satisfying.