How to Solve Your Own Murder

 

How to Solve Your Own Murder- Kristen Perrin

Release Date: March 26, 2024

Publisher: Dutton

Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis: 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.

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I found this a mildly entertaining murder mystery for a plane ride across the Atlantic, but can't say I found myself hugely invested in it. 

The book is written in alternating parts between 1966 diary entries of Frances who, having received a message from a fortune-teller at a fair that she will be murdered is now writing down everything that happens to her in case it turns out to be important in solving her eventual murder, and present day Annie. A hopeful mystery writer, Annie is summoned to the little village of Castle Knoll to meet her Great-Aunt Frances only to find her dead. Frances has finally been murdered and she turned her will into a race to solve her murder. Annie and another relative have a week to solve the case or everything goes to out-of-town investors who will end up destroying the cute little village and everyone's livelihoods.

I really liked the premise of the story, but the characters remained flat charicatures more than anything else, which made it hard for me to invest in them at all. Even Annie, and her sections are told from her point of view. There were also far too many similies and metaphors in describing everything for me, but that's just my personal taste.

Overall, don't believe and comparisons to 'Knives Out' or Agatha Christie that you see, but if you just want a fast read on a plane or for a rainy afternoon, this isn't bad, though I'm not sure I'd read another by the same author.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Of Starlight and Midnight

 

Of Starlight and Midnight- Amy Kuivalainen

BHC Press

Release Date: March 19, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Of Starlight and Midnight combines adventure, romance, magic, and Norse myth and shows that some Fates are worth fighting for, especially when the Norns get involved. It’s been two years since light-elf brothers Aramis and Søren fought beside Anya in Russia. The Álfr mountain city of Svetilo is safe once more, but their books and relics are still scattered on the supernatural black market. When Aramis gets a lead on a book of magic, he and Søren decide to investigate and find more than they bargained for.Librarian Asta is still grieving over the death of her mother. All she wants to do is hide at the University of Oslo, unravel the mysteries of the strange book she inherited, and hang out with Tyra—the cool Norwegian cousin she never knew she had. The last thing she wants is to help arrogant Dr. Søren Madsen work on his book, no matter how good-looking he is, but she doesn’t want to get fired so she reluctantly agrees.Søren knows Asta is hiding something and when they are attacked by dark elves, he and Aramis will stop at nothing to learn the truth about the two mysterious women. But Tyra has a past of her own, and she’ll do anything to protect Asta’s secrets, even if it means siding with the dangerous light-elf brothers in a deadly war of dark and light.

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I loved this book so much! The flirty fun and banter between Tyra and Aramis made this book absolutey one of my instant all time favorites.

Of Starlight and Midnight is in the same world as Kuivalainen's Tales of the Firebird series, and takes place a few years later. Unlike The Exorcist and the Demon Hunter, I don't think you necessarily have to read the original series to read Starlight, although it helps. Starlight follows light-elf brothers Aramis and Søren (a favorite of mine in the Firebird series), now reconnected and searching for artifacts stolen from their magical site of Svetilo. They've tracked one to Oslo and librarian Asta seems to hold the key to finding it. Asta is greiving for her mother and would rather spend time figuring out her own life and her mother's secrets than helping arrogant Søren- but a magical attack by dark elves throws everyone's plans into chaos. 

Asta is kind of the stock character in some ways: she has magic and sercrets surrounding her, but she doesn't know it. I liked her because she stood up to Søren and his arrogant attitude from the beginning and completely knocked him off his game. He didn't know what he was doing when it came to Asta and it was fun watching this complete badass from the Firebird series be a confused wreck, and a total sweet guy with Asta as he helps her sort out her life once he's accidentally blown it up.

But it was Tyra who really stole the show for me. Asta's long-lost 'cousin', she is a dark elf. And just like Aramis and Søren are protectors of their people, Tyra is a next level protector. She's more likely to be saving Aramis than need saving, is as lethal with her sarcasm as her blades, and obsessed with modern Marvel and Lord of the Rings movies. Possibly for all the things they got wrong about the mythologies, but she still loves them. Like Søren and Aramis, Tyra has a dark past and plenty of broken pieces to her. But she rarely allows her past to control her present mood and to say she's perfect for lightening up the brothers is an understatement. She literally runs rings around Aramis, yet he's just what she needs in her own moments of doubt.

I wish the book  had been longer, and the ending was a bit rushed. But to me the story was really about the four main characters and their growth, their journey to discovering how their broken peices could fit together and how they didn't have to be perfect themselves to be perfect for someone else. Learning to trust someone and lean on them when they needed to, and giving Søren and Aramis the happiness they deserved, made a great story for me. I have to say I enjoyed it more than The Exorcist and the Demon Hunter. This was a fun, light-hearted, fantasy with entertaining characters. Tyra alone made this one that kept me smiling all the way.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and BHC Press in exchange for an honest review