How to Solve Your Own Murder Is a Well-Written, Straightforward Mystery

Can you solve your own murder before it has even happened? That is what Frances Gravesdown attempts to do after receiving a mysterious fortune predicting her inevitable demise at the hand of another in How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. Just two chapters of this skillfully written novel will have you completely gripped, both by the mysteries presented and the utterly intriguing character of Frances.

This story has quite a unique hook. For sixty years, Frances devoted herself to journaling the events of her life, particularly in connection with the disappearance of local girl Emily Sparrow, who also happened to be one of her two best friends throughout childhood. She collected information on the other residents in the village of Castle Knoll, most of whom had lived there throughout their entire lives, to try to solve Emily’s disappearance and her own inevitable murder. 

However, expecting the absolute worst of anyone she crossed paths with gave her an interesting outlook on life and left behind quite a legacy for our protagonist Annie, Frances’ great-niece, to step into. When Frances’ death finally arrives, aspiring mystery novelist Annie, whom Frances never met, is tasked with digging through Frances’ life and relationships to find her killer, forced into a game to compete with others to discover the answers first or lose Frances’ inheritance. In a way, it feels akin to The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

How to Solve Your Own Murder is a very well-written story. It follows a very logical and knowledge-oriented path from beginning to end, hitting the right beats along the way to up the stakes and keep the reader hooked. Seeds are planted and later harvested, providing perfect clues that build to the many twists and reveals throughout the story. The beginning is a little slow but is ultimately incredibly important to build this detailed world and introduce the many characters that come into play throughout Annie’s investigation. Altogether, this is certainly an interesting mystery to solve with a very capable sleuth in the driver’s seat.

That said, the star of the book, despite her death, is Frances. In the several diary entry chapters throughout the story, we are taken back roughly sixty years to Frances’ life before Emily disappeared and after she received the fortune that would shape the rest of her life and her relationships moving forward. Unlike we see with Annie, Frances’ emotional connection to the people in her life, no matter how rough those relationships may have gotten, allows for the story in the present day to work as Annie learns everything she can about the residents of Castle Knoll.

From Annie’s perspective, the story is missing quite a bit of emotion to tug at the reader’s heartstrings. Given the heavy subject matter and the connections that Annie finds that disrupt her own life, the way the story progresses feels a bit cold and causes difficulty for the reader to form an emotional bond with Annie (as we can quite easily with Frances). 

There are many opportunities to dig into and explore the heartbreaking details Annie discovers as she searches for answers, but these are glossed over or a stronger reaction down the line is intimated (after she solves Frances’ murder) but never delivered on. This could have been solved by increasing the presence of her best friend Jenny and mother Laura, who are the only two Annie finds she can trust along the way. Instead, both are hardly included, unfortunately missing prime opportunities to explore Annie’s emotional state as the heat on her intensifies. At the end of the day, Annie has more of an emotional reaction to needles and blood than to life-altering revelations that shape her investigation and add untold complexities to her life. 

It creates an interesting distinction between the women, as they handle their respective searches for clues and answers so extremely differently, but doesn’t do much to boost the story as a whole. In fact, as detailed before, it kind of drags down the present-day narrative as Annie’s reaction to everything occurring is so unsettling tempered. As someone looking for the emotion behind the supremely personal mystery that Annie is investigating, How to Solve Your Own Murder is sorely lacking. It makes for an interesting, to-the-point story, sure, but it could have been more powerful.

Interestingly, How to Solve Your Own Murder leaves off with the potential for more explorations of this world, through both Annie and Frances’ eyes once more. Maybe not in the exact same way, but it’s exciting nonetheless. Given the straightforward success of this mystery and the satisfaction felt reading through, it would be fantastic to return to the world of Castle Knoll for more adventures. 

How to Solve Your Own Murder is available now wherever books are sold.

Jay Snow is a freelance writer. He has published many places on the internet. For more of his thoughts on television and to see his other work (or to simply watch him gush again and again over his love for the original Charmed) follow him @snowyjay.