This book sits under the theme in my head of 'gentle crime'. This topic is saved for a slightly old-fashioned style of crime writing which is easy to read without too much explicit violence and description. A nice read for when you can't cope with anything too shocking, with a touch of the Agatha Christie about it. I would read another by the author

The mystery is simple but the story born from it is very interesting. The pacing is quite fast which I enjoyed as well. I loved the narration 9f the book

Interesting twist on the concept, the long-anticipated murder comes to fruition - so whodunnit?

3.5 stars.

Today, Annie Adams is attending a meeting at the request of the great aunt she's never met. Frances has money, but also a long-held paranoia that she'll be murdered, following a fortune-teller's prediction when she was 16.

And now it's finally come true and Annie never gets to meet Aunt Frances. She was right, but just couldn't prove it within her lifetime. Now she's tasked her great-niece and other potential beneficiaries with the job of finding her murderer and keeping their inheritance and her property as it is for all her tenants.

Aspiring writer Annie takes on the role of detective (with real ones also on the case), and both uncovering secrets and amassing her own potential allies and enemies.. not that she's sure who is who.

This started with potential, but I confess, the audio format I chose meant I found I'd lost concentration a few times and missed parts of scenes. I preferred the sections set with Annie, and found the past (as recounted in Frances' diaries) didn't hold my interest as much as they needed to.

Murder mystery isn't really my genre, I hoped the slightly different take on it might capture my mind more than it did, though I imagine many other readers will take delight in working out exactly how and by whom the unnatural death was perpetrated.

Easy enough as a listen, with clear distinctions between past and present voices.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

‘How to Solve Your Own Murder’ is a cross-generational mystery from debut author Kristen Perrin. Full of red herrings and a whole cast of likely suspects, this double murder mystery lays out a new clue in each chapter, with amateur sleuth, Annie Adams, deftly solving each one in turn using her great aunt’s 60-year-old diary as her faithful guide.

Through this diary, we become acquainted with Frances, who is just seventeen at the time of writing, and already obsessed with the fortune teller’s prophecy that will dominate the rest of her life. Frances is an interesting character and is unique in her eccentricity and paranoia. I enjoyed reading about her as a younger woman and her friendship with Rose and Emily. It is a bit of a shame that we have so few details of Frances’ life between 1965 and the present day, and I felt that a few more glimpses into her adult life would have created an even greater depth of character.

Convinced that she will be murdered, Frances kept a close eye, and detailed files of her suspiscions and collected evidence, on her family and neighbours. As Annie works her way through the diaries and files, she uncovers a series of clues about her great aunt’s murder, and discovers another mystery from Frances’ past. The diary’s revelations add a series of well-paced clues, although some of the chapter’s cliffhangers do feel a little forced.

I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which was voiced by Alexandra Dowling and Jaye Jacobs. The quality of the recording was excellent and the voices were both warm and friendly, adding to the ‘cozy’ feel to this murder mystery.

Overall, I enjoyed listening to this debut novel. I believe that ‘How to Solve Your Own Murder’’ will be a big hit in 2024. It’s an entertaining read, and I’d certainly read another book by Kristen Perrin. I look forward to seeing what she writes next.

With thanks to the publisher for early access to this novel. I had the audiobook of this novel and really enjoyed the narration. This was a fairly quick paced cosy mystery, with different points of view that took the reader from the 1960s to present day. A really lovely read would definitely recommend.

Told in dual narratives (young Frances and her present day great-niece Annie), this book tells its tale of mystery. Frances was given a prediction about her future, and spent her life trying to figure it out. In the present, Frances asks her relatives to solve her murder to win a sole inheritance.

The overall story was interesting, however I found this story dragged, particularly from around 30% onwards (I found myself checking my progress and groaning that the clock had barely moved when it felt like ages). There's quite a few characters, which initially felt like it would make things difficult to follow and whilst it was difficult to care about anyone, in reality, I think characters context was often re-explained when they turned up again. Throughout the book, we're also repeatedly told that time is running out! Annie needs to figure this out quickly! But there was no sense of urgency at all.

I felt on the whole, this was too slow and the mystery wasn't actually that captivating. The audiobook narration also seemed to suffer from the overall slow pace as well as odd pauses, like the narrator had forgotten their line or something. I feel my enjoyment would be increased if this was more concise and just got on with it. Even after it's revealed whodunnit, there's a few chapters afterwards and I was just so over it. I didn't care about the characters, and I feel it would be hard to care about anyone outside of the 2 narrating characters for anyone (even Annie's mum with a complex history felt 2D), even if I personally felt they were bland, and so the plot needed to carry the brunt of my interest. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

I have to admit, this book wasn't my cup of tea, its name fooled me. And honestly, the only good thing I found in about 20 percent that I read was the name, which I couldn't find any of its relation to the story.

At first, I thought it was a historical mystery, which is not!

In 1965, Frances at the age of 16, was told by a fortune teller that she would be murdered. Sixty years later, she actually gets killed.

Yeah

It was a little odd for me too.

Frances's niece, Annie, comes up to solve her murder till can take her millions inherited to continue her failed writing career.

Okay, I am a little tired of this subject!

Sorry, this wasn't the biggest debut of my year, and a hilarious mystery with a killer hook, I hope you enjoy it more...

Thank you Quercus Audio via NetGalley for giving me a chance to listen to How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin, Narrated by Alexandra Dowling and Jaye Jacobs. I have given my honest review.

Annie goes for the first time to the small village of Castle Knoll at her great-aunt Francesca’s invitation. The young woman has never met her great-aunt, a wealthy lady who allowed her and her mother to live in one of her houses in the city for years.
Annie and a small group of people (her great-aunt’s entourage) are all waiting for Francesca but the old lady doesn’t show. She will be found dead soon after.
Annie then learns that Francesca was known for being extremely paranoid; she was convinced that someone was going to kill her and spent decades trying to figure out who could be able to do such a thing. Francesca was so sure that someone was after her that she specified in her will, that the person who shall find her killer would be her sole inheritor. Drawn to this unique case and strangely moved by the story of the old relative that she will never get to know, Annie is set to find her great-aunt’s killer. She will soon find Francesca’s journals, written in the early 60’s, and the story that it tells has its own murder mystery, one that Francesca tried to solve for years. Could the two murders be related ?

I really enjoyed this book. The dual timeline was well executed and the both stories (Francesca’s and Annie’s) were compelling. Francesca was a particularly well written character, and though the others weren’t as nuanced, they were perfectly fine. I totally recommend this book !

🎧 Audiobook narration : 4/5 good. A better distinction between Annie’s and Francesca’s voices would’ve been perfect.

Thank you NetGalley and Quercus Audio for giving me access to this audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

17 year old frances was told by a fortune teller that she would be murdered. after 60 years of fear, the fortune comes true. frances had been collecting evidence on who could be her future murderer, and leaves her family members a game to solve the murder in order to win her inheritance. we follow annie and saxon racing against each other to solve a murder that everyone in the village has a motive for. lots of secrets are uncovered as both get closer to finding the killer and it was so fun to read! this book was nothing like anything I've ever read before and I sooo enjoyed unraveling it.


thanks to netgalley for an arc of this book which will be published march 26th<3

I loved everything about this - the premise, the plot, the characters, and it was so wonderfully executed! An excellent mystery.

This is one of those books I could have read in one sitting had time permitted. The story alternates between Frances’s youth in the 60’s
to the aftermath of her death. Based on a tarot reading as a teenager, Frances believes that she will be murdered. Her life from that point revolves around the wording of that reading. Others either attempt to protect or mock her paranoia. However, the reading comes true and in a last attempt to prove her sanity Frances has set the potential beneficiaries of her will the challenge of uncovering her murderer. I won’t give anything away regarding the plot but with a great story, plenty of twists and turns and well developed characters I would highly recommend this book. I personally found her great niece Annie highly relatable; a book loving, murder mystery writing independent female. I’m hopeful there will be more mysteries for this character in the future.
With thanks to netgalley, the publisher Quercus and the author Kristen Perrin for an advanced reader copy of this book, in return for my honest, personal opinion.

Loved this title.
Refreshing in that I don’t recall having read a similar plot line. An intriguing well paced plot, set over a split timeline with two murders to solve, one historic and the other present. I was enthralled and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. I’d say it’s quite a cozy mystery, because all of the characters have been written so immaculately that it was difficult to dislike them - even the less savoury characters.

A perfect fireside read and an easy 4 star 🌟 review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to listen to this audio book in return for an honest review.

3.75 / 5

Just because something is a murder mystery does not mean it's anything like Knives Out. Or Only Murders In The Building. As far as I can see, the only connection to OMITB is the use of a 'murder board'. Nevertheless, this is a strong debut mystery that has all the components to intrigue those who fare towards the slightly cosier side of this genre - small village setting, mysterious rich relative, a large cast of characters and an unlikely non-professional detective at the heart. Plus, a race against time.

'How To Solve Your Own Murder' is fast paced; I gobbled this one up in a handful of sittings and despite never quite feeling fully invested in the story, I kept wanting to pick it up and read on. The author does a great job of establishing the setting, of giving us a competent lead character who solves the mystery. Though I'm not sure Annie is the kind of person with enough personality to lead a detective series and she is woefully under-developed as a character, she didn't irritate me enough to put the book down, so that's a win. I will also give a thumbs up to the author (who is American) that the UK-isms were spot on and the dialogue felt very natural.

The primary problem with this novel is the characters - there's so many with very little differentiation and those who do stand out a bit more don't get much development at all. Even our heroine veers into the two dimensional at times because she's sharing her side of things with her great Aunt's diaries. Particularly the people unmasked as the criminals - there are 2 murders and 2 murderers - don't feature strongly enough in the story or leave enough of an impact on the reader for you to care when it's revealed who they are. This book is bloated with characters who aren't strong enough to be distinguishable and therefore, intriguing to a reader, and that lets the overall mystery down. We don't get those amazing moments of catharsis with those characters we suspect - they just kind of...disappear by the end and it all gets wrapped up very quickly.

I felt the ending wasn't necessary - after the announcement of who did it, things could've just ended there and it still would have been completely satisfying. It's an interesting book but despite its 'in-your-face' title, it offers little to nothing new to the genre.

'How To Solve Your Own Murder' by Kristen Perrin is available from March 26th.

This was fun.
I enjoyed the narration via dual timelines, which I usually am not a fan of, and even thought the twist was a bit predictable, I liked the plot overall.
The book did start to drag a little too much for my liking at some point, but it didn’t get too bad.
Overall a solid read, I’d rate it 3.5 stars.

This story was a delight to read! It's a duel narrative that shifts between Frances' life as a teenager when one of her best friends goes missing, to sixty years later when Frances is murdered and her great niece Annie attempts to solve the mystery. I loved the switches between POVs in each chapter, as it felt like I was learning about who Frances was as a person along with Annie. Each of the characters were well developed and interesting, with as many flaws as virtues, and each with their own secrets to hide - I especially loved seeing how Walter, John, Rose, and Saxon had changed over the previous six decades! The narrator did a wonderful job of capturing everyone's unique accents which only added to the enjoyment. My only criticism, if you could call it that, is that I figured out who the murderer was quite early on in the story - however, finding out the motive for doing so, as well as how the murderer managed to remain hidden for so long still kept me entertained until the end!

I loved this book. It was like I was there with them trying to solve this murder. I loved the twist that the characters didn’t really ‘solve your own murder’. I did enjoy the back story and the little clues along the way. Loved the narrator of this audio book and felt it was such an easy, and entertaining read.

This rather cleverly conceived murder mystery centres on a victim who had been expecting to be murdered ever since a fortune teller at a fete gave a cryptic prophecy to that effect. Annie Adams is called to an English village by the solicitor of her rich and eccentric great-aunt Frances, whom she has never met. Frances has lived her life trying to evade what she believes is her fate, and also trying to find out what happened to her best friend, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Before Annie can meet the reclusive Frances, the old woman is murdered, just as she always believed she would be. Now Annie has just one week to find out who did it, or see Frances' estate be given over to greedy developers.

Although it's set in modern times, there are clear Christie-esque overtones with the country setting, grand house, and skulduggery around wills. The idea of the solution lying in the past is also a well tested murder mystery trope. The storytelling alternates between Annie's perspective as she tries to unravel the mystery, and Frances' teenage diaries (which Annie reads as part of her investigations). There's clearly a link between the murder and what happened to Frances and her friends during the summer of the prophecy, but it takes a long while to work out what it is. I did manage to half-solve it myself, but not entirely, and it wasn't an obvious solution - but also not a totally obscure one. Just right in fact.

Annie is a likeable heroine and it was easy to want her to succeed, and Frances gradually develops into a loveable character too. Presented initially as a crank, through her diaries Annie - and the reader - come to know a kind hearted, sensitive and intelligent young woman who showed great loyalty to her friends. You come to want the mystery to be solved for her sake as much as anything. Often murder victims are two dimensional or even villainous, but I really felt for Frances and was sorry she'd been killed.

It works well as an audiobook - the story is easy to follow and I didn't lose track. There are two narrators, one for Frances' sections and one for Annie's, although they sound quite similar to each other. Both read well with good pacing and expression and are easy to understand.

I'd highly recommend this book to 'cosy crime' fans - it's well constructed and written. Yes, it's a bit far fetched and wouldn't happen this way in real life, but within the limits of what I consider acceptable in this genre. It moved me more than I expected, and the solution was cleverer than many. I'd certainly read another by the same author.

In the 60s, three teenage girls got their fortunes told. One of them, Francis, had murder in hers and became obsessed with it. In modern day, Annie, great-niece of Francis, is called to Francis’s estate. However, Francis does wind up murdered. And to inherit, Annie must solve her murder.

I enjoyed this one a lot! I thought there was good pacing and good clues. I think I might have enjoyed it more as a physical book rather than an audiobook. The narrator was good, but there were a few times I think that there were breaks in chapters (that denote time has passed) but that was not clear in the audio version. I also wished I could have flipped back at times to review clues. Overall though, a fun twist on the murder mystery that was successful!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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

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 nice 3.7 stars

3.5 🌟

There's a lot of people in this book, and a lot happens, so pay attention.
It ticks a lot of the boxes on what anyone could be looking for in a cozy crime book.
Fun at times, with some good surprises.
I enjoyed it.