Reviews tagging 'Violence'

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

23 reviews

alisonvh's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A murder mystery within a murder mystery? What more could a girl want?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

vyhurz's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I don't think I've ever read a "cozy" mystery, but that's what I'd call this. I felt excited and, well, cozy reading it. It reminded me of Miss Marple or Sherlock, but in a different way. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got it from Libby, and slowly read it over two weeks. That's actually fast for me. In the last four days, I've been speed-reading because the book was going to be returned and I couldn't renew it. I just had to know the ending!

How to Solve Your Own Murder follows Annie in the present day when she seemingly and suddenly becomes the heir to her elderly Great Aunt Frances' fortune, so she travels from her home in London to pleasant Castle Knoll. Annie has never met Frances, so this was a surprise. More of a surprise is that the day Annie is going to meet Frances, she is found murdered. All her life, Frances was obsessed with a fortune she was told as a teenager that she would be murdered, so she acted rather paranoid and rooted out secrets. Annie's involvement in solving the mystery is interspersed with entries from Frances' diary as a teenager in the 1960s, which sheds light on the mystery as well. 

The story is entertaining and pulls you along. There are many characters, and I was only slightly unsure of who some were, but those were very minor ones. I think the book does a good job of swirling all these different egos, histories, motives, and fears together. The setting is enjoyable as well, and as this is becoming a series with a second book on the way, I can see many things happening in this small town.

I had two main issues with the book. One was that something would happen on the page, and then we would receive Annie's inner narrative describing what just happened. Many times it didn't elaborate or cause revelations for Annie. It was just a description, more-or-less. Obviously, it happened enough times for me to notice it. Secondly, Annie's character is fun, but she felt a little one dimensional. It felt like she was a mirror for all the interesting characters in the story even though she's the main character. She was excited right from the beginning to learn about Frances and Castle Knoll, even before the murder. Often in books, this type of setup creates an unwilling main character, so it is refreshing that Annie wanted to be there. But she had so little depth. All I really know about her is that she wants to be a writer. 

I recommend this book if you like mysteries of any kind, especially if you just want a rather lighthearted read. (Well, considering it's a murder mystery...) I will read the second book as this one was so enjoyable.

tinyleafbooks.wordpress.com

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gun violence

Nothing explicit happens on the page, but someone shoots a gun and someone gets punched in the face. Two dead bodies are found. The most explicit scene is a physical attack to try to overdose someone with a syringe. They do not succeed.

rach_murph17's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Great mystery that had me questioning everything for most of the book. I should have trusted my gut from the beginning about Emily’s murder but it was nice to have my mind work to deduct how and why. The growth of Annie and her confidence was great to read. Very well done and not a very simple culprit to figure out compared to other mystery novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Violence

lrenkate's review

mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this cozy, small town mystery. I liked the main character, the chapters from her great aunt’s diary, and the historic mystery component. Exactly what I wanted as a palate cleanser.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Toxic friendship

Minor: Violence and Pregnancy

fkshg8465's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

Really needed to DNF this book, but it was so easy to read that I decided to finish it for the sake if finishing it. It tried too hard to be like Agatha Christie, and I was bored from start to finish. The story was weak and so was the storytelling. The plot would’ve had more draw for me if there focus had been on Rose and Emily’s psychological makeups, but rather, the emphasis was on the parallel competition the characters all had of trying to solve the mystery while many of them also were trying to misdirect their own guilt/perception of guilt. Snooze.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

    The book was enjoyable, however, I enjoyed the flashbacks/diary entries more than the present-day portions of the book. I felt like the things that happened in the 1960s were more interesting and easier to get into than what was otherwise happening.

     Frances was much more interesting than Annie who was a bit boring, and whose story you didn't get into as much. I hope in future books we learn more about Annie and I start to care more about her & her character. Laura, Annie's mom just seemed awful for most of the book. 

    The characters were a mix of likable and unlikable. Not just the villains were unlikable, it was more like a 30/70 split of likable and unlikable for me. 

   I wasn't able to easily figure out the mystery. I do look forward to the next book.

Narrators' Rating: 4 stars

    I'd give Annie's narrator about 2.75 stars and Frances' narrator a 4-star rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Dementia

lauramcc7's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism

finnc's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Vomit

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Sexual content

Needles

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sabrinaleaf's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I don’t think there was that much investigating in this book. And yet I still felt myself enthralled seeing the mystery unravel, I love family secrets mystery novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Death of parent