How to seal your own fate A novel

Annie Adams is living full-time in Gravesdown Hall now and still discovering new things about her family, present and past. The village is equally challenging, not being overly welcoming to the newest Gravesdown resident with access to secrets gathered over the lifetime of a previous tenant. When a local legend is found dead in the Hall's solarium, and all signs point to Annie as a prime suspect, she knows what she has to do. Annie needs to revisit the past to find the killer in the present, but will she be quick enough to stay alive and out of jail? Returning fans of Perrin's How to Solve Your Own Murder (2023) will appreciate the author's ability to offer subtle reminders of what happened while cleverly building on events from the first book and ensuring that new readers will have the requisite information to sleuth with Annie. Along with strong emotional connections between characters on the page and with readers, the mystery is complex, and the clues plentiful, while the charming location and tight-knit community will encourage a cozy reread. The end is satisfying on multiple levels, including the promise of more mysteries to come. A perfect choice for readers of Agatha Christie and Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series.

Perrin's atmospheric if overstuffed sequel to How to Solve Your Own Murder finds heiress Annie Adams settling into her new life as owner of the Gravesdown Estate near the English village of Castle Knoll. The grounds, along with a vast 17-bedroom country house, were left to Annie by her great-aunt Frances, who spent her life cataloging the transgressions of her friends and neighbors in a series of personal diaries. Past and present collide when Peony Lane--a local fortune teller who, back in 1965, predicted Frances's murder--suddenly arrives at the estate. She tells Annie that she needs to investigate the life and death of Olivia Gravesdown, a member of the family that once owned Annie's estate who died under suspicious circumstances many years earlier. A few hours later, Penny is found dead in Annie's solarium, an ornate knife protruding from her back. Chapters following Annie's investigation and detailing her complicated love life alternate with excerpts from Frances's 1967 diaries, which illuminate Frances's own romantic entanglements and touch on a horrific car accident that claimed the lives of three members of the Gravesdown family. Perrin mixes gothic and cozy tropes with a steady hand, and Annie is a suitably plucky heroine, but a few too many red herrings muck up the plot. Still, it's an entertaining ride. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Apr.)