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 Frances Adams can’t shake the feeling there’s something to this prophesy.
A feeling which solidifies into certainty a year later when one of her best friends goes missing. Whereupon a barb of fear plants itself in Frances’ heart. Where it remains there for nearly six decades, breeding fear, paranoia, and a plan — a plan to solve her own murder with a bit of help from her family.
A blend of Agatha Christie’s Murder In Retrospect and Dead Man’s Folly, with elements of a classic English village murder mystery — How To Solve Your Own Murder is a fantastic book. Not only because it flips seamlessly between 1965 and today but because Perrin does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere of distrust and tension amongst the characters, as well as seamlessly planting clues, red herrings, and McGuffins that, when seen in hindsight, feel obvious but seem utterly innocuous while reading. Moreover, the penultimate clue (which I can’t say because I don’t want to spoil the book for you) isn’t one I recall reading before — which is a delight for someone who devours mysteries the way I do!
Seriously, this is a great book I would happily recommend to anyone who enjoys classic-ish style mysteries. It starts off a tad slow, as there are several people to meet and places to see. But soon enough, if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself unable to put it down until the last page is devoured whole.
BTW: How To Solve Your Own Murder is not a Young Adult mystery. Just in case you are wondering.
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2024
My 52 Weeks With Christie 