Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - How to Solve Your Own Murder

Really wanted to love it, but my interest kept wandering, which made it difficult to keep a large cast of characters in two different timelines straight. Great premise, but maybe a tighter edit would've been more to my tastes. I was unexpectedly bored and annoyed by the 1960s bright young things timeline — teen drama often affects me that way. And the present-day story managed to be both packed with clues and yet lacking a sense of urgency to drive it. I did enjoy that it felt like a fair, classical mystery, though — I had half of it figured out before the reveal.

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mreads's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Thank you to Netgalley, and Dutton Publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Truly, I was expecting to enjoy myself but opted to stay completely in the dark when it came to anything beyond a brief glance at the title and cover, both of which are fantastic. The character work was fun, and more classic whodunnit mystery was a great change of pace among most of the murder mysteries currently at the forefront of publishing.

The good:
Truly for a small town murder mystery it was incredibly engaging. Every time I ended my reading session I found myself still lingering on what the solution could be. The cast of characters, while in some instances fitting some predetermined roles, were much really what kept me coming back. It wasn't so much the answer to the mysteries but how Annie and Frances each saw them. Hearing from Frances as a teenager was something I wanted more of the entire way through. It was compelling, particularly in contrast to a whodunnit that felt like more of a backdrop than what kept me coming back.

The eh:
The casual display of a relationship between an adult and a minor, regardless of the time period a narrative is set in, is enough to make me cautious. While it was (eventually) called into question by a parent the entire scenario was just weird, for lack of a better word. It's definitely something that I would take a moment to give a heads up to a friend while recommending. My vetmed career may be showing but

it felt entirely sloppy to not look into just how tightly regulated controlled substances are in the field. While I am an American based reader I hardly imagine that it's so different in the UK. The lack of care by the owner of the practice alone had me stopping in my tracks to put down the book in a total "why would you ever" moment.

These sort of small details really brought the experience down for me, in the end.

The bad:
As I mentioned at the top the title was the impulse for picking up the title, and had I not been approved I had every intention of finding a copy after the release. There was however, a disconnect in the tone of the title and the actual text. The title had be ready for a thriller that was at it's core a satire, or a comedy. It was a twinge of disappointment that carried throughout the novel that I had hoped would fade but never truly did.

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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