How to Solve Your Own Murder

• Read: 26 Mar 2026 - 29 Mar 2026

• Author: Kristen Perrin

• Year: 2024

• Pages: 370

• Remarks: Castle Knoll Files Series Book 1

• Synopsis:

  • In 1965, Frances Adams received a chilling fortune predicting her murder, prompting her to spend sixty years obsessively gathering her neighbours' darkest secrets. Decades later, aspiring author Annie Adams was summoned to Frances's country estate, only to find that her great-aunt had indeed been murdered. Frances's unorthodox will dictated that her vast fortune would go to whoever could successfully solve the crime within a single week. Pitted against scheming relatives, Annie had to decipher the clues left behind in Frances's teenage diaries and elaborate murder boards. As she delved into the village's history, Annie had to race to catch the killer before the estate was sold off to property developers, or before she met the same fate as Frances.

[29 Mar 2026] ‘How to Solve Your Own Murder’ (2024), by Kristen Perrin.

-

Reading Background:

• This was my second read of this book, the first being in Jul 2025, following recommendations by Isa and Ange!

• Was surprised to have finished the book within a few days, because I took at least half a month the previous time. I didn't really read hastily, nor did I have prolonged periods of free time to read. I did read a little during lunch at the pantry on one of the weekdays, but, as usual, I mostly read on the journeys to work and back home, and before I slept. Yesterday was busy with chores, and cutie Baby Cleo's 1st birthday party at night!

• I actually tried to time my reading of this book and its successor 'How to Seal Your Own Fate', such that I would finish them right before the third book 'How to Cheat Your Own Death' came out in late Apr 2026, but now I would have to decide on another series to read to fill the time until then lol.

What I enjoyed about the book:

• The sweet balance that the book achieved. 

  • The book length wasn't overly long, such that a huge amount of reading stamina was required, but it wasn't overly short such that the plot and character development were compromised. For me, the length was just right.

  • The writing style was neither overly complex nor overly simplistic. I had to look up a few words in the dictionary, but overall the vocabulary used and the sentence structures were straightforward enough for a smooth read.

  • The tone of the book also hit the right balance. It wasn't too heavy and dark, nor too childish. It was comfortably nice.

• The mystery was engaging, and the conclusion was satisfying. 

  • The book was a page-turner. The story was a charming one, and this made the mystery something that I wanted to get to the bottom of.

  • There was enough misdirection for readers to suspect all the characters, one after another, and sometimes back and forth. The journey was a fun one, and it made me want to get to the revelation even more eagerly.

  • The reveal itself was unexpected, and the book concluded by tying up everything satisfyingly.

• The fusing of dual timelines into one story.

  • It felt like the book was fusing two narratives into one: one taking place in the 1960s told through Frances's journal entries, and one in the present told through Annie's first-person narrative. 

  • I felt that they were woven together very nicely. The transitions between chapters detailing the past and present didn't feel jarring. Instead, they often left cliffhangers, and provided clues and plot points that allowed readers to make sense of what was happening in the present or what had happened in the past. 

• The world of Castle Knoll and its people.

  • It was obvious from the book that Perrin had intended for more stories to be told about Castle Knoll (or rather, that the village of Castle Knoll had more stories and mysteries to be uncovered). 

  • The Castle Knoll setting and history, as well as the backstories of the families and other inhabitants were all well thought-out.

  • Underneath the obvious mystery genre, the story was also about love and tragedy amongst family and friends. It made the story feel heart-warming, the flawed characters feel real, and their actions feel empathisable.   

  • I found it impressive that Perrin had managed to present how much her world of Castle Knoll could be explored, and was worth exploring, in just a seemingly simple book. It reminded me of J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. 

What I found less enjoyable about the book:

• The "procedural inaccuracies" and creative liberties taken in the book.

  • I was quite shocked that the characters were still allowed to live in the manor after Frances was murdered in it. Wouldn't the police have cordoned off the entire place after such a serious crime?!

  • Halfway through reading the book, I asked Gemini what Lord Gravesdown's rank of peerage was, and why, after he died, his next closest male relative wasn't called Lord Gravesdown as well. It turned out that Perrin didn't even address this! 

    • I asked myself whether I was being pedantic, but I was reminded that Perrin based this story in Britain, where addressing peers and their titles, and how peerages and titles are passed down or inherited, are accorded significant importance. 

    • If Lord Gravesdown were an earl or a baron, his peerage would be inherited by his male relative automatically and immediately upon his death. If Gravesdown were just a "Lord of the Manor", he would be called "Mr Gravesdown". 

    • I felt that this was such an easy issue to address and edit, and I couldn't wrap my head around why it wasn't. Did Perrin intentionally ignore the technicalities and dumb down the story to make it more palatable to certain parts of her audience? Or was she genuinely ignorant about the technicalities, and just threw in "lords" and such solely for the sake of a posh/classic English vibe without doing basic research?

    • Anyhow, it just felt highly sloppy, especially for a series that relies so heavily on world-building. 

My overall thoughts:

• Once I accepted or ignored some of the mildly annoying technical inaccuracies in the book, I found that I really enjoyed it a lot. The book found the right balance in its length, style and tone, and the mystery and thrill were compelling. After finishing the book, I was left with a mix of heart-warming and bittersweet feelings, and I couldn't wait to find out more about the stories in charming Castle Knoll!

-

• Castle Knoll Country Fair, 1965

  • Frances Adams, along with her friends Emily Sparrow and Rose Forrester, visited a country fair where a fortune-teller gave Frances a grim prediction. The psychic claimed Frances would be murdered, stating her demise would begin when she held a queen in her hand, that a bird would betray her, and that she needed to find the "right daughter" for justice. 

• Chapter 1

  • In the present day, aspiring author Annie Adams lived in London with her mother, Laura, a struggling artist. Annie was summoned to the countryside village of Castle Knoll to attend a meeting regarding the estate of her Great Aunt Frances. Laura had been Frances's sole beneficiary, but Frances recently decided to disinherit her.

• Chapter 2

  • In a diary entry from 1966, Frances recorded that she had received a written threat promising to put her bones in a box. She linked this to her fortune and noted that Emily had vanished. 

• Chapter 3

  • Annie travelled to Castle Knoll and met Walter Gordon, the elderly solicitor, alongside his property-developer grandson, Oliver. Elva Gravesdown, the haughty wife of Frances's nephew Saxon, also arrived, eager to claim Frances's estate. The group headed to Frances's sprawling home, Gravesdown Hall.

• Chapter 4

  • Frances’s 1966 diary detailed how the River Dimber was dredged, and noted the birth of her niece, Laura. 

• Chapter 5

  • Oliver drove Annie to Gravesdown Hall, where they met the estate's meticulous gardener, Archie Foyle. The group gathered outside the grand, locked house until Mr Gordon produced a key to let them inside.

• Chapter 6

  • In her 1966 diary, Frances recounted a night when she, John, Emily, Walt, and Rose trespassed onto the Gravesdown estate to drink and smoke. After discovering young Saxon spying on them, they were caught by Saxon’s guardian and uncle, Lord Rutherford "Ford" Gravesdown.

• Chapter 7

  • Inside the library of Gravesdown Hall, Annie and the others discovered Frances dead on the floor. Her hands were punctured and bleeding from clutching roses studded with needles. Annie discovered a secret room where Frances had constructed elaborate 'murder boards' detailing her decades-long obsession with her own predicted death and Emily Sparrow's 1966 disappearance.

• Chapter 8

  • Annie brought the needle-studded roses to the local police station to show Detective Rowan Crane. Crane recognised that the bouquet contained hemlock, which caused a nasty rash on Annie's hands. He took her to Dr Esi Owusu for treatment, where Annie secretly spotted an appointment book indicating Frances had a scheduled visit on the morning of her death. 

• Chapter 9

  • In 1966, Ford Gravesdown allowed the trespassing teenagers to stay in the estate's woods. Frances and John sneaked off to be intimate but were interrupted by Saxon. Saxon then led Frances to the house to speak with his uncle.

• Chapter 10

  • Dr Owusu treated Annie's hands and explained that hemlock was only lethal if it entered the bloodstream. Annie deduced that the poisoned bouquet was likely a deliberate attempt to kill Frances by causing her to prick her hands on the needles, suggesting the killer was a close acquaintance.

• Chapter 11

  • In 1966, Ford invited Frances into his library, warned her that her friends were lying to her, and challenged her to a game of chess. When Ford handed her the queen chess piece, Frances realised a line from her terrifying fortune had just come true.

• Chapter 12

  • Mr Gordon informed Annie that Frances requested the potential beneficiaries stay at Gravesdown Hall before the will reading. Annie phoned her mother, who asked her to retrieve a specific file from Frances's cabinets about Sam Arlington, Annie's absent father. Annie’s taxi driver, Reggie Crane, revealed he was Detective Crane’s father and an ex-boyfriend of Laura's. 

• Chapter 13

  • At the estate, Annie met Beth Takaga-Foyle, Archie's granddaughter who occasionally cooked for Frances. Annie also encountered Rose (Joe Leroy's mother), who grieved heavily for Frances. In the library's antechamber, Annie found Frances's filing cabinets, discovering her great aunt had catalogued the villagers' darkest secrets.

• Chapter 14

  • Mr Gordon read Frances's will to Annie, Saxon, Oliver, and Elva. The will stipulated that her entire fortune and estate would go to either Annie or Saxon - whoever could successfully solve her murder within a week. If both failed, Oliver would sell the estate to property developers. Detective Crane revealed the autopsy proved Frances was murdered via a lethal injection of iron, which Saxon noted could only have come from a veterinary clinic.

• Chapter 15

  • Frances's 1966 diary detailed the shifting dynamics of her friend group, noting John's sudden distance and Rose's romance with Teddy Crane. Emily shocked everyone by producing a stolen revolver. 

• Chapter 16

  • Annie and Saxon processed the rules of the will. Annie realised she needed to investigate everyone, acknowledging that Oliver and Detective Crane had professional stakes in seeing her fail. 

• Chapter 17

  • In 1966, Emily led the group to an abandoned farmhouse on the Gravesdown estate, claiming Ford had murdered his wife there. Saxon appeared and told Frances a secret to provoke her: Emily was pregnant with John's baby. 

• Chapter 18

  • Annie discussed her suspects over the phone with her best friend, Jenny. She examined a file indicating Frances had investigated the Crane family for infidelity, finding an aggressive Cease and Desist letter from Detective Crane. Annie added the local vicar, John Oxley, to her suspect list.

• Chapter 19

  • In the 1966 diary, Frances confronted Emily and John about the pregnancy. Walt grew violent, hitting Emily in the face. In the chaos, Frances grabbed the revolver from her coat pocket and accidentally fired a shot into the wall, before fleeing in tears to Ford Gravesdown. Ford comforted Frances, but Emily arrived shortly after and brazenly requested Ford drive her home.

• Chapter 20

  • Detective Crane phoned Annie, warning her to lock her door because Saxon had lied about his alibi for the time of the murder. Annie returned to the file room to find Saxon attempting to guess the combination of a locked drawer. 

• Chapter 21

  • While exploring the boot room, Annie opened an old trunk she had shipped from her London basement to Frances. Inside, she found a skeletal corpse wearing a coat with stag buttons. Saxon identified the body as Emily Sparrow, pointing out a gunshot wound to the skull. Later, Annie overheard Oliver blackmailing Archie Foyle. 

• Chapter 22

  • Detective Crane comforted a traumatised Annie. He clarified that the Cease and Desist letter was sent to stop Frances from outing his father, Reggie, who was secretly gay, rather than to cover up an affair. Annie traded Frances's 1966 diary to Crane in exchange for him confirming that Walter Gordon had been the prime suspect in Emily's disappearance.

• Chapter 23

  • Annie found her bed neatly made and a vintage, typewritten death threat placed under her pillow. Using directional clues hidden in Frances's fortune, Annie cracked the rotary lock on Frances's secret drawer. She uncovered surveillance photos proving Saxon and the paramedic, Magda, were dealing stolen veterinary drugs. Annie returned to her bedroom to find her laptop smashed and her notebooks shredded, before realising she was locked inside with an intruder.

• Chapter 24

  • Frances wrote in 1966 about Emily climbing into her bedroom window to apologise. Emily outlined a plan to hide her pregnancy by staying at Ford's London townhouse in Chelsea, intending to secretly give the baby to Frances's brother, Peter, and his wife, Tansy. 

• Chapter 25

  • The intruder in Annie's room was Saxon, who had hidden in her wardrobe. He proposed a truce, offering to help Annie prove Walter Gordon killed Frances. Saxon claimed Walter had been defrauding Frances of her money. 

• Chapter 26

  • The 1966 diary detailed Frances sneaking to Gravesdown Hall to see Ford. Ford confessed he had slept with Emily out of boredom, but expressed genuine affection for Frances. Frances's mother caught her sneaking home and grounded her for the rest of the summer. 

• Chapter 27

  • Annie visited the Castle House Hotel to check on Rose, who had suffered a panic attack. A grieving Rose gifted Annie a photograph album from 1966 containing pictures of her, Emily, and Frances. 

• Chapter 28

  • In the diary, John visited a grounded Frances to warn her that Emily planned to betray Peter and Tansy by using the baby to trap Ford into marriage. Frances, Walt, and John sped toward Chelsea to stop her, but Frances stayed behind at Peter's house, discovering her brother had already paid Emily off to keep the baby, whom they named Laura.

• Chapter 29

  • Detective Crane informed Annie that someone had vandalised the library, scratching Frances's face out of all the photos. He confirmed the body was Emily's and that she was found with envelopes of cash. Annie found a second old threat left in her bedroom. 

• Chapter 30

  • Saxon pressured Annie into acting as a decoy to buy ketamine from Magda. His plan was to steal Magda's drug lockbox while she was distracted, hoping to find Walter's fingerprints on it. 

• Chapter 31

  • Annie phoned Jenny to categorise their suspects by motive. They theorised that Walter Gordon killed Emily in 1966, and when Frances finally discovered the body and confronted him, he murdered Frances to protect his secret. 

• Chapter 32

  • At the Dead Witch pub, Annie agreed to Saxon's dangerous bait operation. Suspecting Saxon's true motives, she secretly planned to use a burner phone to record him. 

• Chapter 33

  • Annie realised the typewritten threats had originally been meant for Emily, as Emily frequently wore Frances's clothes. Investigating a false bottom in her wardrobe that Saxon had pointed out, Annie found stolen heirloom items. She received the 1966 diary back from the police and read the final pages. 

• Chapter 34

  • Frances's final 1966 entries detailed the town's cruel gossip following Emily's disappearance. Frances resolved to sever ties with Ford, deciding to dedicate herself entirely to uncovering the truth about what happened to Emily. 

• Chapter 35

  • Annie confronted Beth about the stolen heirlooms, and Beth confessed she had hidden them to ease Frances's worsening paranoia. Annie phoned Dr Owusu, asking her to spread a rumour to Magda that Annie had successfully solved the murder. 

• Chapter 36

  • Annie visited the village church and spoke with the vicar, John Oxley. He confirmed he was Laura's biological father, revealing he had secretly kept in touch with Frances for decades to hear updates about his daughter and granddaughter. 

• Chapter 37

  • Annie called Laura, who confirmed that Walter Gordon had started secretly sending her maintenance cheques right around the time Frances would have found Emily's body and disinherited her. Later, Annie met Saxon to execute the bait operation, slipping a recording phone into her jacket.

• Chapter 38

  • Frances wrote about attending a Christmas party at Gravesdown Hall in 1966. Ford presented her with a beautiful green coat to replace the stag-buttoned coat she had lost.

• Chapter 39

  • Inside the ambulance, Joe Leroy - Rose's son - attempted to murder Annie with a lethal injection. He revealed he had killed Frances to protect his mother, Rose, who had been tormented by Frances's endless investigation into Emily's death. Annie fought back, kicking Joe over before losing consciousness.

• Chapter 40

  • Walt, Beth, and Crane rescued Annie from the ambulance. Once recovered, Annie explained to the group that Rose had murdered Emily in the Chelsea basement in 1966 using Frances's coat and gun. Joe murdered Frances decades later to cover up his mother's crime after Frances deduced the truth. Mr Gordon officially declared Annie the winner of the inheritance.

• Chapter 41

  • Weeks later, Annie and Laura stood on the lawns of Gravesdown Hall, discussing the estate's future. Annie visited Rose in a secure facility with Detective Crane, confirming that Rose felt no remorse for murdering Emily. 

• Chapter 42

  • During Frances's funeral wake, Oliver confessed he had planted the old threats in Annie's room, hoping to push her to solve the murder so he could avoid his miserable job. Annie embraced her new life, deciding to use Frances's blank journals to write her own stories.