How to Solve Your Own Murder

A Novel

By: Kristen Perrin

Narrated by: Alexandra Dowling, Jaye Jacobs

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Jimmy Fallon’s Book Club Finalist for 2024 | A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist | A GMA Buzz Pick | A USA Today Bestseller

One of Jimmy Fallon's favorite books for Spring 2024, The Top LibraryReads pick for March 2024, A Publishers Marketplace 2024 BuzzBook, One of NPR's Books We Love

Frances Adams always said she’d be murdered. She was right.

In 1965, Frances Adams is at an English country fair where a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. It is a prediction that sparks her life’s work—trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet.

Nearly sixty years later, Annie Adams is 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 found murdered, just like she always said she would be. 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 danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.

Super-clever page-turner

Loved both story & narration. The premise is a smartly executed twist on the classic, British country estate cozy mystery with modern updates, the addition of a “ticking clock” element (a common writing device used to create or augment a story’s suspense) with an inheritance/ fortune at riding on it and the original “twist” of a character attempting to solve their own murder before it happens.
It’s the kind of story that could have been a disaster if done poorly, but —as seen here—is fantastic when done well.

It’s a great listen and I highly recommend it, especially for Agatha Christie/golden age/British country estate mystery type fans.

Clever, well written

I found the narrators to be fantastic, and this story to be really enjoyable and well written. I feel every mystery gets SO ridiculously hyped or hated now. Was this the most explosive mystery ever? No. Was I bored and not enjoy it? No way. I agree with an earlier review that the characters can get a bit confusing at first, but I wouls still highly recommend this book.

I like the back in time/present time jumps

It was interesting and the protagonist wasn’t annoying. When she was doing something stupid she knew it was, but couldn’t think of anything else. Although the detective was described as handsome the writer did not go on about his build, or eyes or whatever every time he was with the protagonist.

Wonderful book, couldn’t put it down

This was a wonderful book, a surprise finding of a new author I did not know before. The story and mystery masterfully developed. I like audio books but I think I will get a hard copy of this book as well. Looking forward to reading the author’s other books.

Lots of characters

The story got bogged down with so many characters. I don’t mind the 2 time eras although it did add to the confusion.