Book Review:How To Solve Your Own Murder

I do love a whodunnit, and I also love magic and mysticism. So essentially, when you have a heroine whose fortune tells her she will be murdered and then spends the next 50 years getting dirt on everyone around her so she can figure out who will kill her is kind of the perfect storm for me. This is the first in a series of books, but as always, I needed to read the first instalment before I decided to invest in the rest of the books. Who’s to say I even like the writing or author? Spoiler: I do.

In the 1960s village of Castle Knoll, Francis and her two friends Rose and Emily attend the summer fair where they have their fortunes told. Francis hears that she is to be murdered and takes it seriously, much to the amusement of her two friends. 50 years later, Annie Francis’s great-niece is summoned to Castle Knoll by her mysterious great-aunt as she is set to inherit Francis’s estate and all her millions. But before Annie can meet her, Francis is found dead in the library.

There are a lot of things I really love about this book; firstly, that it is very reminiscent of the ‘cosy crime dramas’ we all grew up with, with characters such as Poirot and Miss Marple. Naturally, this book has a 21st-century twist to it with CCTV and better forensics. But the ‘cosiness’ of it remains. This is shown in the setting of the story, a remote English village where everyone knows everybody (and their business too) and in the way the narrative of the novel lends a lot not just from Annie’s perspective and a fresh take on Francis’s fortune, but we also get into Francis’s head as well through her diary, which offers up some vital clues to solving her murder.  I like that we get into Francis’s head; I like that we get to see into her world, but obviously we have to take it all with a massive pinch of salt and ask the question: Is Francis a reliable narrator?

I think some of the novel's main strengths lie in its character construction. Francis, for example, is very much a ghost figure, and while Annie never meets her, only reads and hears about her, she is such an imposing figure that her identity goes far beyond that of a ‘murder victim’, but leaves the door open for her character to continue in successive books. Well, Francis did dig up dirt and mysteries on everyone she knew… There will be more dark and dirty village secrets to uncover. She is clearly the type of person the village both loved for her money but despised for her ability to sniff out a scandal.

I did enjoy this book; it wasn’t really the litfic book I thought it was. It leaned more toward a ‘fun read ’, but that is fine. I did get the second book in the series, and I look forward to diving into the next Castle Knoll misery then.