How To Solve Your Own Murder

By Kristen Perrin

5/5

Synopsis

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.

Genre

Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Murder Mystery

Content Warning

Panic attacks, Murder

This is such a fun read, I absolutely loved it! I finished it and immediately checked to see if there were any sequels. Thankfully, there are two, so I immediately put holds on them at my library!

What I Liked

Setting

The setting was perfect for a cozy mystery. A small village and a mansion in rolling countryside? Yes please! Plus, I loved that Frances set up her murder board in the library, and I would have been more than happy to have the entire book take place in just that room. I also enjoyed that we had the past and present views of Castle Knoll and the Gravesdown Estate. It was fun to see it through Frances’s 17-year-old eyes, and then again through Annie’s view.

Characters

The characters were maybe a little less developed than in the books I usually read, but I enjoyed them so much! I do hope that Jenny and Detective Crane are in the sequels, because I really loved their chemistry with Annie. Annie, our MC, was so relatable that I wish she were real and we’d totally be friends. She is the perfect fit to solve this murder! Great Aunt Frances would be proud. 

“I exhale slowly as the realization hits me that I am, in fact, the right daughter.”

Plot

The plot was fast-moving and hard to put down. I would force myself to go to sleep, but that was only so I didn’t miss anything in my exhaustion. If I didn’t have any responsibilities, I probably would have finished it in one day. I really enjoyed reading Frances’s diary entries and trying to figure out which character was the murderer. It was clever to have Frances receive a fortune that pointed to her future demise as the jumping off point for the story. I also enjoyed the small bit of historical mystery that we got with it. (If you enjoy historical fiction, you can read my blog posts about The Quarry Girls and The Briar Club).

“Someone’s actually done it. Someone’s actually murdered her. After all these years she was right about her fortune.”

Themes

The themes of family and friendship, and not knowing who to trust, were pretty on par with most murder mysteries, but I’m not going to complain! The predictability of it is comforting, which I guess is why it’s called a cozy mystery. There also is the idea of people being mistreated for their beliefs, and I like that it was rectified in the end.

“For years I’ve been mistreated in this town, just for something I believe deeply. Everyone is so uneasy about the secrets they’ve been keeping, and my skill for finding them out, that they’ve worked hard to discredit be as a kook.”

What I Didn’t Like

Nothing! It was such a fun time reading this. I definitely am going to buy it so I have it to read whenever I need a comfort book.

It is so hard to write a spoiler-free blog, so I’m going to stop here before I spill anything that I shouldn’t!

If you enjoyed this review, check out my other ones here!

If you have a book you’d like to recommend, please leave a comment! Happy Reading!