How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin Narrator: Alexandra Dowling, Jaye Jacobs
Series: Castle Knoll Files #1
Published by Penguin Audio on March 26, 2024
Source: Purchased
Genres: Mystery
Length: 10 hrs 51 mins
Pages: 368
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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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.
I enjoyed How to Solve Your Own Murder, but it does strain belief a bit. When Frances was a teenager, she receives a bone-chilling fortune that she’ll be murdered one day. She then spends the rest of her life trying to both prevent it and figure out who her potential killer is. Of course, 60 years later, she is killed in her own home. Now it’s up to her great-niece Annie to find the killer and earn her inheritance. According to Frances’ will, the fate of her entire estate depends on who uncovers the truth: Annie, Saxon, Annie’s uncle (?) who believes it is rightfully his, or Detective Crane, who would really rather not have amateurs messing around with his case.
Annie does have Frances’ diary from when she was a teenager, detailing the time of the fortune-telling and her friend, Emily’s disappearance. How much is the current mystery rooted in the past? The diary entries were revealing and it was neat to see how some of the teenagers turned out as adults.
Annie is a good character. She never knew her great-aunt Frances, but comes to care about her nonetheless and wants justice. She also wants to keep the properties safe, something she isn’t sure the others will do. She is out of her depth, but keeps going nonetheless.
The setup is great and the characters are interesting. There are plenty of secrets in the small town that the investigation uncovers. Some of the dialogue is a bit stilted and I don’t know why Annie continued to stay in the house with Saxon, who may actually be the murderer, and his wife. Or why the cops let them stay there at all. Of course, we’ve got some sparks between Annie and Crane, so maybe that will turn into something if she decides to stay in town. And she probably will, since the second book in the series is scheduled to release next year.
About Kristen Perrin
Kristen Perrin is originally from Seattle, Washington, where she spent several years working as a bookseller before immigrating to the UK to do a Masters and PhD.
She loves working on projects that have a mystery at their heart, and splits her time writing cosy crime for adults and working on middle grade books that mix magic and adventure. Her children’s series, Attie and the Worldbreakers, is currently available in Dutch, German, and Polish.
She lives with her family in Surrey, where she can be found stomping in the mud with her two kids, collecting too many plants, and painting and sketching in her spare time.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
You definitely liked this more than I did! But I am glad you agree that staying alone in the house with possible murderers (not to mention the police failing to secure items in the house that might be evidence) was not very logical. In a world full of books waiting to be read, this is not a series I would pursue if she writes more.