How To Seal Your Own Fate

by Kristin Perrin

4/5

Synopsis

Welcome back to Castle Knoll, the idyllic English village home to a surprising number of murderers.

Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune-teller Peony Lane shares a cryptic message only hours before being found dead inside the locked Gravesdown estate. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of her new countryside home in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before her brand-new life comes crashing down around her.

1967: Teenage Frances Adams, Annie’s great aunt, finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a family known for its wealth and dubious uses of power. Archie Foyle is a local who can’t hold down a job and lives above the village pub. But when Frances teams up with Archie to investigate the car crash that killed most of Ford’s family, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident—hints of cover-ups, lies, and betrayals abound. The question is, just how far does the blackness creep through the heart of Castle Knoll? When Frances uncovers secrets kept by both Ford and Archie, she starts to wonder: What exactly has she gotten herself into?

As Annie and Frances investigate two new mysteries spanning decades, they’ll unlock the next level of secrets held in Castle Knoll’s dark heart.

Genre

Mystery, Cozy mystery,

Content Warning

Murder, death

I didn’t love this one as much as the first, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Kristin Perrin wrote in the acknowledgements: “Second books are notoriously tricky animals, and this one grew claws and fought me from start to finish.” I think second stories (books & movies) are always my least favorites in series, so I’m pretty certain I’ll enjoy the next book better. “How To Seal Your Own Fate” still followed the same dual timeline and continued the storyline for Annie and Frances, which I loved. I still will definitely buy the whole series one day!

What I Liked

Characters

The characters were great once again. I really enjoyed that Jenny had more book time this go around. She’s a good best friend, and I enjoyed seeing her character develop a bit more. I really liked that we saw more of Archie as a young man and his relationship with Frances. It was also enjoyable learning about Peony Lane and her fortune-telling. It was very realistic that Annie was struggling to settle into her life in a giant manor all alone. I like being alone, but even I would have a hard time there.

“I feel the air stream from my lungs as I realize who this is. This is Peony Lane. The famous fortune-teller, the person who set off a complicated chain of events in Great Aunt Frances’s life, and mine.”

Plot

The plot was exciting and cozy (of course). I spent so much of the book bouncing back and forth between suspects. In some chapters, I’d be convinced it was one person, and then the next completely changed my mind! I liked that it drew on unsolved mysteries from the ‘60’s and tied them into the present. At one point, I was convinced I had missed something huge; I even reread one of Frances’s chapters three times. But then the big reveal showed that Frances just purposefully left it out of her diary. Very clever!

What I Didn’t Like

I was disappointed that things didn’t really progress anyway with Detective Crane and Annie. He was in it plenty, and the chemistry between him and Annie is still there, but it’s kind of stalled, which was a bummer.

That’s my only complaint. I thought it was another well-done story by Kristin Perrin, and I already have the third one ready to read! You can also read my review on Kristin Perrin’s “How to Solve Your Own Murder.”

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