#how to solve your own murder

[maddiesbookshelves]

London book haul ✨

I had a list of books I wanted to buy and only 3 of those were on it, haha. It was Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Jasmine Throne and I Wish You All the Best. I had spotted quite a few other books that sounded really good, but Where the Dark Stands Still, The Briar Book of the Dead and How to Solve Your Own Murder just stood out above the others

I've read I Wish You All the Best in the past (several times actually) and have a post about it, but I really wanted to own a physical copy because I love it so much. And I've also read The Briar Book of the Dead since I came back and loved it! I'm currently on How to Solve Your Own Murder, which is pretty intriguing so far

[fandomhype]

Forgot I pre-ordered this! Got here right in time for my holidays :)

[bibliophilecats]

Read recently: How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kirsten Perrin, read by Jaye Jacobs and Alexandra Dowling

What I was looking for: A funny, cozy mystery.

What I liked: I liked that the main character was actually genre savy and not stupid. She noticed the things I noticed too and often also remarked on them, asked questions, followed up. I like it when they are not stupid or totally unobservant just to get them in trouble. The parallel stories, present and past, worked well together.

What I did not like: For one, the characters were not particularly deep or difficult. The developer, the rich snob, the strange rich kid, the steadfast lawyer. You do not need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out these characters.

This very likely can be attributed to the format, i.e. audiobook but there were just so many characters and family members/descendants of important characters from the past, I really had trouble keeping them straight (which removed a little drama from the reveal because I was confused).

Narrator: I liked the narration. It was a good decision choosing two different narrators for the two timelines.

Conclusion: I enjoyed myself and recommend the book if you are looking for a fun, entertaining mystery. However, I only recently learned that this is going to be a series and at the moment, I do not feel any need to read on. To me, this felt like a completed story.

[my-52-weeks-with-christie]

Mystery Review: How To Solve Your Own Murder

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin “….All signs point toward your murder.”  Typically, the cryptic words from a fortuneteller at a village fete would rapidly evaporate from the mind, supplanted by the heat of the summer’s day, hanging with your best friends, and the laughter that inevitably follows such an overly dramatic reading. Yet, despite her friend’s teasing, sixteen-year-old…

[cattatonically]

How to Solve Your Own Murder - Kristen Perrin (Castle Knoll Files, book 1)

Synopsis

For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate… Now it’s up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

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.

My Thoughts

This book sucked me in from the get-go. There is certainly no skimping on the drama, and definitely no skimping on all the great cozy mystery tropes. Even setting the scene and establishing the cast of characters sucked me in. Ideas were already swirling around in my head, and we hadn’t even arrived at the murder yet. And to me, those are signs that this book is about to grab me heart and soul, and be very reluctant to let go.

I love the past meeting the present in this book. Seeing things play out from both Annie’s and her great aunt Frances’ perspectives is a nice little thrill, honestly. Especially in the beginning, having some pieces – especially characters – click together with Annie’s present adds a really lovely element of everything coming together. And I have no doubt that everything is playing out – both in the past, and the present – exactly as it should.

It really didn’t take long to realize that we would be solving two mysteries in this book – one past, and one present. And let me just say, the ante has been ramped all the way up. Just as I begin to think there really can’t be any more twists or turns, we get whomped with all things twisty and turny (and a little timey wimey). And of course, Annie’s right in the middle of all of it.

Annie not only is left responsible for solving a murder, but she also feels responsible for solving a cold case, and the mystery that was the life of her Great Aunt Frances. And the more she gets invested, the more everyone around her in the little village of Castle Knoll is a suspect in some way, shape, or form. (And the easy on the eyes detective she comes across is also a pretty nice bonus to the whole thing.)

It was really easy to get wrapped up in the mysteries, and to follow along with Annie as she put the pieces together and worked out not only who killed Great Aunt Frances, but who killed one of her best friends, too, Emily Sparrow. At one point, I stopped trying to solve the murder along with Annie, and just rode the ride. And what a ride it was!!

The more time Annie spends in Castle Knoll, the more she comes to feel like she belongs. She’s getting to know the town, and its residents, bit by bit, and she can’t help but feel drawn to the town – to a part of her family history. (And again, Mr. Handsome Detective Crane definitely adds to the appeal).

I really was thrown for a loop when Annie solved Great Aunt Frances’ murder. I absolutely hadn’t pegged the killer as the killer, but when the pieces all fell into place, it made a lot of sense. And getting to the conclusion was a very twisty, very pleasant surprise!

I absolutely loved this book. I adored it. This is the kind of book I would re-read over and over again, simply because of how much I love this setting, and these characters. There’s a small, selfish part of me hoping this is the beginning of some kind of series.

But even if this is a standalone, I will be keeping an eye on Kristen Perrin, and I plan on devouring every book she puts out. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned recently, it’s that life is way too short not to indulge in great books, and great authors.

[anamariamauricia]

Finished listening to How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. Read by Alexandra Dowling and Jaye Jacobs

[masodemic]

Aight since none of you are gonna do it, I guess it falls onto me to compile all the times Rutherford Gravesdown (How to Solve Your Own Murder) was exceedingly charming and swoon-worthy.

So here we go Part I of___

Rutherford "Ford" Gravesdown being a smooth mofo for a whole book straight

Page 46

"I'm not afraid of you Saxon," I said calmly. "And I don't care if you tell your uncle we sneaked onto your land. That was our choice, it's got nothing to do with you." "That," said a smooth baritone voice, "is a refreshing thing to hear." And out of the depth of the woods, as if he's been an actor waiting in the wings for the right moment, stepped Rutherford Gravesdown.

Iconic from the get go

Page 75

His expression changed, and his smile became cavalier - the kind of smile that comes from someone who knows just how much power they have, and how to use it. He crooked a finger at me, beckoning me closer. [...] Suddenly everything felt like a trap, but I walked closer to Lord Gravesdown anyway. "Frances," he said, more quietly this time. "Do you like riddles?"

I'd walk straight into that honey trap gurl 😗

Page 76

His smile broadened and straight white teeth gleamed in the moonlight. "Please, call me Ford." He looked at me so steadily that for a moment I half-believed Emily's stories about a ruby knife and the River Dimber. It was just a look, but I felt hunted.

need I say more? 😩😩😩

Page 93

Saxon led me into the library, where his uncle was sitting in a leather arm chair with a book in his lap. He had one foot resting across his knee, and his chin balanced on a fist, as if the book was terribly boring but he had to read it anyway. It made him look even younger, which I admit caught me off guard. His expression brightened when he saw me, and it was so different from the long, unsettling glances he'd given me earlier that I wondered if I was just being skittish when we first met.

two-faced or just layered 😔 i don't care gimme him

I was led to an armchair that was across from Saxon rather than next to his uncle. "Do you play?" Saxon asked me, without looking up from the pieces. "I'm afraid not," I said. Ford left my side for a moment and appeared a few seconds later with a small wooden chair he must have brought from a hallway or kitchen. [...] He sat on the chair backwards, up against the side of the small table between me and Saxon. It made him seem like just another boy I'd met at the dance. [...] I could see his profile in the firelight, his dark hair slicked back in that old-fashioned way, like they did ten years ago. [...] He was clean-shaven and his hard jawline softened a bit as he rubbed it, thinking.

She down so bad (me too) but the way he let her sit on the armchair and he himself go fetch a wooden chair WHICH HE SITS BACKWARDS EVEN THOUGH HE'S THE ONE PLAYING HE JUST WANTS HER TO BE COMFORTABLE AS A SPECTATOR 💖😭💖

ALSO THIS MAN DEFINITELY KNOWS HIS GOOD ANGLES

Page 99

"Here," Ford said, and handed me a chess piece with friendly laughter in his eyes. "You hold the queen." He grinned at me as though he'd put a crown on my head.

Am I screaming or are you screaming? Or is Frances screaming on the inside?

[mthollowell-writes]

"'Your future contains dry bones." Madame Peony Lane looks somber as she delivers the opening line of a fortune that will dictate the rest of Frances Adams's life.'"

Kristen Perrin, How To Solve Your Own Murder

[radedneko]

I'd been trying to write books about murder while there was an actual dead body in my basement.

~How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

[nats-reads-reviews]

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin 3/5 ⭐️

This book was cute - I would put in the category of a cozy, feel-good murder mystery. I like that the main character is reading through her great aunt’s notebooks from when she was a teenager, and the reader gets to read them as well, to give background knowledge. However, this was one of those murder mysteries with a lot of characters who get introduced in a short time. I tried my best to follow along and I was able to keep, but there were some moments where I was a little lost on which character was who in the story. Sometimes that happens with murder mysteries - maybe it’s par for the course for the genre but I feel characters can be better introduced. It wasn’t a great read but altogether entertaining and cozy!

[bloodmaarked]

➸ reading list

just added:

home fire, kamila shamsie

hits different, tasha ghouri + lizzie huxley-jones

someone who will love you in all your damaged glory, raphael bob-waksberg

how to solve your own murder, kristen perrin

the octopus man, jasper gibson

kim jiyoung, born 1982, cho nam-joo

brotherless night, v.v. ganeshananthan

gold rush, olivia petter

bittersweet, susan cain

beyond the door of no return, david diop

[fandomhype]

T’was fully influenced by @thesefilespod to get this!

… I did not solve it! 😂

A really enjoyable crime/mystery book. Can't wait for the second book to come out next year!

[bargainsleuthbooks]

How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files #1) by Kristen Perrin #BookReview #ARCReview #NetGalley #Dutton #CozyMystery

For fans of #ThursdayMurderClub, there's a new mystery series that you have to check out! #HowToSolveYourOwnMurder is a great dual timeline murder mystery set at a country manor in a small town. #duttonbooks #bookreview #bookstagram #cozymystery

For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club , an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate… Now it’s up to her great-niece to catch the killer.  It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best…

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files #1) by Kristen Perrin

A young mystery writer named Annie Adams finds herself in Castle Knoll, a small English village, in a competition to solve her estranged great aunt's murder. The catch? It must be solved within the week. The conflict? There are many people involved in the game with their own stakes, their own schemes, and their own secrets. The intrigue? Frances was told nearly 60 years ago by a fortune teller that she would be murdered, causing her to become reclusive and suspicious of everyone in town for the rest of her life. She had also been trying to solve the disappearance of her friend Emily for years and years. The fun? There's a double murder plot to unravel! One set in the past, in the 1960's; the other set in the present day.

The question is: can Annie solve them both?

If you're a fan of cozy mysteries with an Agatha-like pace, then you'll find this one enticing. While the plot did feel overly crowded at times, with the lies and betrayals of less important characters taking up too much space, I enjoyed the small town antics, the inheritance questions, as well as the false leads and numerous suspects. Annie is a likable, enthusiastic character. She may not be the best at following clues or sussing out people, but she makes up for it with her inquisitive charm and her mystery writer turn of mind.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for the ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5/5 stars

**Follow me on Goodreads

[thereadingcafe]

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEW:

HOW TO SOLVE YOUR OWN MURDER (Castle Knoll Files 1) by Kristen Perrin at The Reading Cafe:

'a wild gripping ride that will have you unable to put the book down'

@DuttonBooks