Winter Reading 2024 How to Solve Your Own Murder

Great-aunt Frances received a frightening prediction at the fortune teller's booth back in 1965 when she and her friends were at the fair. "Your future contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins right when you hold the queen in the palm of one hand. Beware the bird, for it will betray you. And from that, there's no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point to your murder." Right, then. Anyone for a spot of tiffin?

Determined to outwit fortune, or at least make sure justice is served if it comes true, Frances spends the rest of her life compiling files on everyone she knows, recording secrets and indiscretions. The entire village knows about her obsession and there must be many who resent the carefully maintained dossiers on all their actions. Frances has no daughter of her own, so she names her niece Laura as heir to the estate, then changes her will and lists her great-niece Annie as heir without an explanation. 

As Annie's friend Jenny comments, "an estranged aunt in a sleepy countryside village? A mysterious inheritance? Annie, your life is turning into a novel." And that is the story we are presented with - Annie arrives at her great-aunt's house to learn she has indeed been murdered and the filing cabinets are full of names that may have had a motive for the deed. Can Annie survive long enough to figure out who the culprit is and claim her inheritance?

The blurb says this book is a good match for fans of "Knives Out" and The Thursday Murder Club. I think those are good recommendations. Annie and readers must deal with the twists and turns of relationships in a family over generations added to those in a small English village, other claimants who would like to be the heir, always looking over one shoulder for a possible murderer, all while trying to piece together clues from the past and the present. 

This book is intriguing and will pull you in as you follow one clue after another. Reaching the end is a relief after all the tension, but then you will be sad that it is over. A bright spot is that the book is listed as Castle Knoll Files #1, so now we just need to wait for the next mystery to present itself.

I read an advance copy, but the book comes out March 26 - so be ready to do some sleuthing.