How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

How to Solve Your Own Murder - 358 pages

Kristen Perrin

Summary (From Goodreads)

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.

Review

I read this one for the Anything Goes Book Club.  The pacing was decent enough, and though this mystery was definitely of the cozier variety, it still managed some more gripping, suspenseful moments.  

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Finlay Donovan #4) by Elle Cosimano, 320 p.

"Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are in sore need of a girls’ weekend away. They plan a trip to Atlantic City, but odds are―seeing as it’s actually a cover story to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero’s childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car―it won’t be all fun and games. When Finlay’s ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on tagging along too, Finlay and Vero suddenly have a few too many meddlesome passengers along for the ride.

Within hours of arriving in their seedy casino hotel, it becomes clear their rescue mission is going to be a bust. Javi’s kidnapper, Marco, refuses to negotiate, demanding payment in full in exchange for Javi’s life. But that’s not all―he insists on knowing the whereabouts of his missing nephew, Ike, who mysteriously disappeared. Unable to confess what really happened to Ike, Finlay and Vero are forced to come up with a new plan: sleuth out the location of Javi and the Aston Martin, then steal them both back.

But when they sneak into the loan shark’s suite to search for clues, they find more than they bargained for―Marco's already dead. They don’t have a clue who murdered him, only that they themselves have a very convincing motive. Then four members of the police department unexpectedly show up in town, also looking for Ike―and after Finlay's night with hot cop Nick at the police academy, he’s a little too eager to keep her close to his side.

If Finlay can juggle a jealous ex-husband, two precocious kids, her mother’s marital issues, a decomposing loan shark, and find Vero’s missing boyfriend, she might get out of Atlantic City in one piece. But will she fold under the pressure and come clean about the things she’s done, or be forced to double down?" --Amazon blurb

 

Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry

Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry - 303 pages ⭐⭐✫✫✫

Young defense attorney Daniel Pitt has twenty-one days to prove his client's innocence, else his client will be executed for murdering his wife.  

Have you ever watched a two-hour episode of Dateline that didn't need to be two hours long?  Upon returning from each commercial break, you get to hear The Facts Thus Far summed up over and over, while the detectives continue to be stymied by the case that's rapidly growing cold.  It's not until hour two that things start to get interesting.  By the end, you find out that the murderer is whoever you thought it was all along, and you think of all the much more worthwhile things you could've done with your time. 

Twenty-One Days is like one of those two-hour Dateline episodes.  Most of the book consists of Daniel either filling in his acquaintances on The Facts Thus Far, or debating whether his client is guilty.  These conversations and musings are almost always repeats of each other, adding little or nothing to what the characters had previously talked or thought about.  I was only about 80 pages in when I began to doubt that Anne Perry had enough story for a 300 page novel.  

To make matters worse, there is very little description of the setting or the characters.  This is historical fiction, set in the Edwardian period, but it lacks atmosphere that would give it a real sense of time and place.  Mentions of women's suffrage and Daniel's amazement at an X-ray machine are the only elements that establish the setting.  Perry's descriptions of rooms are decent, but her descriptions of London are minimal at best and nonexistent at worst.  Character descriptions are equally lacking, often so ambiguous as to be useless.  Perry repeatedly describes one character as having an "odd face."  What is that supposed to mean?  "Odd" is so vague and subjective that it remains a mystery what Perry meant this character to look like.  Instead of springing to life, the characters and setting remained indistinct in my mind, mere words on the page rather than real people in a real city.

This is not to say that Twenty-One Days has no redeeming qualities.  Daniel Pitt is a likeable character, reminiscent of Phoenix Wright in that he is an inexperienced and rather naïve attorney with a detective's instinct.  The plot does become more interesting towards the second half of the book, with a few twists I didn't see coming.  For the most part, however, Twenty-One Days offers all of the repetition of a too-long Dateline episode without Keith Morrison's chilling narration -- and I would rather watch one of those episodes than read this book again.  Unfortunately, this book is the pit(t)s.  

Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #1) by Tirzah Price, 368 p.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman who desires a law career must be in want of a case. So when sixteen year old Lizzie Bennet hears about a scandalous society murder, she sees an opportunity to prove herself as a solicitor by solving the case and ensuring justice is served.

Except the man accused of the crime already has a lawyer on his side: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates law firm. Lizzie is determined to solve the murder before Darcy can so that she can show the world that a woman can be just as good as a man. (The fact that Darcy is an infuriating snob doesn’t help.) But there’s still a killer on the loose, and as the case gets more complicated, Lizzie and Darcy may have to start working together to avoid becoming the next victims themselves."--Goodreads blurb

Always love me a good female lead, and Lizzie puts everything on the line to prove herself to her father and all the other men in her life, as well as a lot of the women! The setting of this being so parallel to P&P (intentionally, I know) was really fun and brought familiarity to the characters. Fighting against Victorian society as a woman is never fun, but Lizzie gets her hands dirty and doesn't back down. I didn't want to put this one down and am happy there are more in this fun series! 

 

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

 Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, 285 pages

When the cantankerous Colonel Protheroe is found murdered in the Vicar's study, the sleepy village of St. Mary Mead is thrown into a hotbed of suspicion, gossip, and mystery. Despite the involvement of the police, the village doctor, and the vicar himself, the murder is solved by none other than Miss Marple, the old maid across the lane. 

A Meditation On Murder by Robert Thorogood

 A Meditation On Murder by Robert Thorogood, 356 pages

When spiritual guru Aslan Kennedy is murdered in a locked room with paper walls, the Saint Marie police are given the impossible task of investigating. Because as he bakes under the hot Caribbean sun, DCI Richard Poole is sure of only one thing: the one person who has confessed to Aslan's murder is the only person that could not have possibly done it. 

This novel does not contain any spoilers for any season of the show. 

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

 The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet, 201 pages.

Former detective Nick Charles is in New York for Christmas with his charming wife, Nora, and their darling pup Asta. Despite his claims to be an ex-detective, Nick quickly finds himself embroiled in murder and mystery. A missing millionaire inventor, a murdered secretary with a criminal past, and a family steeped in secrets and lies: these are but a few of the challenges Nick Charles faces, but at least he won't have to face them sober! 

The Killing of Polly Carter

 The Killing of Polly Carter by Robert Thorogood, 333 pages

When Polly Carter, a famous model with an infamous heroin habit, is found dead at the base of a cliff near her Sainte Marie home, DCI Richard Poole realizes her suicide is actually murder. As Poole and his team dig into the case, there is no shortage of reasons why everyone in her life wanted her dead. To make matters worse, DCI Poole's mother has come holidaying on Sainte Marie--alone. Now he must solve two mysteries: who killed Polly Carter, and can he possibly salvage the shipwreck of his parent's marriage?

The Killing of Polly Carter was a lovely return to the Honore and the original team. This novel does not contain any spoilers for any season of the show.

Off the Grid by PJ Tracy

Off the Grid by P.J. Tracy, 305 pages

Three months after she literally sailed off into the sunset with former FBI agent John Smith, Grace McBride has carved a new kind of life for herself, one that doesn't involve knee high riding boots. Grace's serene new existence shatters when two men board their boat with guns. Grace is forced to flee back to the States, where Monkeewrench and the Minneapolis PD are trying to figure out why terrorists around the world have called a jihad on John Smith. 

Off the Grid is the sixth novel in the Monkeewrench series.  Having read the books (mostly) as they came out, with years in between, rereading the Monkeewrench novels in such close proximity has drawn attention to PJ. Tracy's fascination with the morally gray. The idea of good people doing terrible things for the "right" reasons adds different facets to the story. Unfortunately, despite the interest that fascination brought to the narrative, this is probably the weakest book in the series. It lumbered and labored but never really got anywhere.

Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy

 Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy, 311 pages

After two police officers' corpses are discovered inside a couple of snowmen, the Minneapolis PD begins to wonder if another serial killer has found a killing ground in Minnesota. As Leo Magozzi and Gino Rosleth investigate the murders, they uncover some bitter truths and unearth dark secrets that have been buried for decades. 

Snow Blind is the fourth Monkeewrench novel. While not the strongest book in the series, the twist at the ending was unexpected. It's definitely worth a read, and like all the Monkeewrench novels, you don't have to have read the previous novels to enjoy it. 

Dead Run by P.J. Tracy

 Dead Run by P.J. Tracy, 326 pages

Grace McBride, Annie Belinski, and Sharon Mueller stumble right into the middle of a deadly secret after the little town of Four Corners meets with an unexpected disaster. As the three women struggle to survive, the rest of the Monkeewrench crew and their law enforcement friends search desperately for a way to find them before it's too late.

Dead Run is the third Monkeewrench novel and well-named: it hits the ground running and doesn't stop until the last page. This book rivals the first, although I might be biased, since this novel spends a lot of time with Annie Belinski and Sharon Mueller, two of my favorite characters. 

Live Bait by P.J. Tracy

 Live Bait by P.J. Tracy, 340 pages

After the bloody "Monkeewrench Murders," Minneapolis has had months for life to go back to normal. But the normal is shattered as elderly members of the community--all Halocaust survivors--are brutally executed. Leo Magozzi and Gino Rosleth, homicide detectives, are desperate enough to seek help from Grace McBride and the Monkeewrench crew, who have been busy trying to atone for the murders bearing their names by creating software meant to aid law enforcement in spotting patterns in seemingly unreleated cases.  Beneath every question answered is another mystery as Magozzi and Rosleth dig for the truth in a case that increasingly blurs the line between good and evil. 

Live Bait is the second novel of the Monkeewrench series. The mystery unwinds in a layered, satisfying way, and overall is nearly as good as the first novel. 

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

 

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves, 376 pages

Raven Black is Ann Cleeves' debut novel and first installment of the Shetland Island Mystery series. DI Jimmy Perez must solve the murder of a young woman in a small, isolated community in the northernmost part of the UK. Perez must battle small-town small mindedness in his dogged pursuit of the truth. The deeper Perez digs into the investigation, the more community ghosts he unearths. 

The mystery is knitted together neatly like a familiar Fair Isle sweater. The pacing is consistent, the ending is satisfying and masterfully seeded, and the characters are ordinary , flawed people. The stylized speech is mostly slang and local colloquialisms instead of written phonetically, which is a score for readability.  

Death Knocks Twice by Robort Thorogood

 Death Knocks Twice by Robert Thorogood, 377 pages

If you, too, are impatiently waiting for season 11 of BBC's Death in Paradise, this novel might help tide you over. Written by Robert Thorogood, the series creator, Death Knocks Twice revisits the  tenure of OG Saint Marie DI, Richard Poole. 

A historic coffee plantation with a dark history, a dysfunctional family, a man murdered in a locked room with no way out, the distinct lack of proper tea: these are the difficulties facing DI Poole and his team. The Honore police department must cut through the web of lies carefully spun by the Beaumonts to discover the grim skeletons in the family's closet to discover not only who has been killing off Beaumonts but also the haunting why.

Death Knocks Twice was a wonderful foray back to the early seasons. As much as I can appreciate the new faces and growth of the team over the years, it was good to spend some time with Camille, Dwyane, and Fidel. And because the novel was written by Robert Thorogood the characters read spot-on and genuine, almost like visiting with friends you haven't seen in awhile. This novel is a wonderfully cozy murder mystery for a cold winter's day, where you can spend an afternoon dreaming of the sand and sun of Saint Marie.

This novel does not contain spoilers for any seasons of the show. 

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus -- 360 pages

One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them. 

The Mother In Law

The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth

352 pages

Everything isn't what it seems in this exquisite story.

Did you ever want to see someone else's side of view of a situation? This book takes place in the present and the past taking turns seeing the different points of view between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Add in murder and the mystery of 'who did it?' and it's the perfect book!

I really enjoyed reading this book and trying to solve the mystery. At the end of the book I was not only surprised, but I felt a connection to both characters. I will be looking forward to reading more from this author.

A Better Man by Louise Penny

A Better Man: A Novel by Louise Penny --- 437 pages including Acknowledgements. #15 in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series.

The air is thick with anxiety as Sûreté du Québec agents gather in the conference room for the Monday morning meeting of the homicide department.

Today is Armand Gamache’s first day back since his suspension and then demotion from Chief Superintendent of the entire force, to his former  position as head of homicide. Complicating matters, he will be temporarily sharing the duties with his former second-in-command and current son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who will shortly be leaving to take up a new job in private industry in Paris. And taking Gamache's daughter Annie, and his grandson Honoré, with him.

Making matters worse, a storm of toxic social media attacks is being orchestrated against Gamache by his political enemies as he faces his first assignment – to find a missing woman, whose abusive husband is the immediate suspect in Vivienne Godin's disappearance.

The search for Vivienne is complicated by catastrophic spring flooding throughout Quebec. Ice jams are threatening the bridges, and the pressure of the water is threatening dams.  Gamache's own village of Three Pines is at risk, as the usually sleepy Rivière Bella Bella breaks its banks. A general emergency is declared and desperate efforts are underway to save towns and cities, dams and bridges and power plants from destruction..

As Gamache and Beauvoir lead the search for Vivienne, they develops a profound empathy for her distraught father. Vivienne makes them think of Annie. Suddenly the case becomes personal. Each is haunted by the terrible question, how would you feel, if it was your daughter, your wife?

As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught rages, Gamache finds a body in the Bella Bella, just upriver from Three Pines. That close to home. The victim's father, overwhelmed with grief and guilt, becomes obsessed with vengeance.

Now the question nagging Gamache and Beauvoir shifts.

What would you do, to prevent your loved one's killer from getting away with it?

With each novel in the series, Penny just gets better and better. 

Click HERE to read the * review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from the Christian Science Monitor.

Click HERE to read the review from the San Diego Union Tribune.

Click HERE for the review from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.

Click HERE to read the review from criminalelement.com

Treacherous Strand by Andrea Carter

Treacherous Strand: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter --- 312 pages including Acknowledgements. 

The second book is a new mystery series set on the remote Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland, and featuring Benedicta O'Keefe, a solicitor and amateur sleuth.

Ben fled a promising career in Dublin in the aftermath of a family tragedy that left her wracked with guilt, and seems to be seeking some kind of redemption by championing the lost and lonely in the small town of Glendara,where she is accepted professionally but still an outsider personally.

Melodramatic and impetuous, Ben is supposedly a sensitive soul, but can be obtuse to the point of rudeness in her interactions with friends and suspects. This time out Ben is championing the cause of a fragile Frenchwoman who washed up like so much debris on the shores of the Isle of Doagh. Marguerite Etienne was a mystery in a small town suspicious of outsiders. The local garda investigation concludes that Marguerite committed suicide, but Ben refuses to believe it. When the police close the case, Ben sets out to prove them wrong.

A sequel to Death at Whitewater Church, and to be followed by a third book, The Well of Ice, and a fourth, Murder at Greysbridge.  Having once visited Inishowen Peninsula, I can attest to Carter's accuracy in capturing the wild solitude of the place.

Click HERE to read Andrea Carter on establishing the location for a story in writing.ie

Click HERE to red a review from the Irish Times.

Click HERE to read a review from Crime Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Death in the Covenant by D.A. Bartley

Death in the Covenant: An Abish Taylor Mystery by D.A. Bartley --- 310 pages

The Mormon Church is experiencing a demographic crisis in this second book featuring Detective Abish Taylor of the Pleasant View, Utah Police Department.  Disillusioned young men are abandoning the Church and leaving young Mormon women unable to fulfill their sacred obligation to marry and bear children to strengthen the Church for the final Battle. The Apostles, twelve men who advise the Prophet and form the governing Council of the Church, disagree on how to fix this problem. Some urge a return to the polygamy once practiced in the Church's early years, despite laws and public  opprobrium that brought the Church into disrepute then.

Detective Abish “Abbie” Taylor, a lapsed member of the Church, returned home after the premature death of her husband, hoping for a quiet life and a chance to start over. Instead she finds herself drawn into a clash of wills with the secretive, male hierarchy that dominates the Church and demands absolute, unthinking obedience from church members. One night she is called out to the scene of a fatal car accident, where she discovers the victim is one of the Apostles and an old friend of her father's --- Heber Bentsen.

Abbie is skeptical at first when her father, a respected LDS historian, mentions that Bentsen was recently inquiring about the whereabouts of a number of young women who abruptly dropped out of their graduate studies program to undertake special "missions" for the Church.  Following a hunch, she tracks the women and finds they have all recently crossed into Mexico not far from an old established LDS colony. Abbie takes a few days off from her job and heads to the Colonia Juárez, where she uncovers a plan to “seal” young women to church leaders in temple ceremonies. The children born of these "marriages" are then adopted by Mormon families in the United States.

Now Abbie possesses dangerous knowledge that poses a challenge to these men and their plans, and soon the threats begin. Abbie realizes her investigation could cost her father his job and his good standing in the Church.  It could cost her her own job.  It could even cost her her life.

This book is better written than Bentley's debut novel, Blessed Be the Wicked. It makes for a more compelling read. A significant amount of the plot however, still turns on Bentley's allegations about the beliefs and credulity of  ordinary Mormons and accusations about the Church's leadership. It's not the first time that a religious sect has been portrayed in lurid colors and won't be the last.

Click HERE to read the * review in Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the  review and author profile from MysterySuspenseReviews.com

A Justified Murder

A Justified Murder by Jude Deveraux 330 Pages

After Sara, Jack, and Kate solved the Morris murders last year, they promised each other to leave investigating to the professionals. That is until neighborhood old lady sweetheart, Janet Beeson is brutally murdered. They still try to stay out of everything, but the townspeople begin to overwhelm them trying to clear their names. Even the town sheriff is hoping for their help. Once the town gets worked up and talking, the murder solving trio sees that there are more secrets hidden in Lachlan than anyone could have imagined.
I am loving this series so far. The characters are very well developed.