How to seal your own fate by Kristen Perrin

This sequel to How to solve your own murder assumes knowledge of the first book, with references to some previous characters that are completely unexplained. However if the enthusiastic reader is prepared to skip over these bits, it is possible to enjoy the novel as a stand-alone. It repeats the structure of the first book with two intertwining timelines, one in the present, and one in the late 1960s. Annie is the present day heroine, inheritor of her great-aunt Frances’s mansion and fortune. Excerpts from Frances’s diary add essential information to Annie’s investigation of the murder of fortune-teller Peony Lane, a murder linked to past secrets.

It is a very convoluted plot and no doubt will defy even the most experienced reader of detective mysteries. However, if at the end you can actually work out what really happened, I am sure that a close examination of all the previous chapters would not reveal any flaw in Perrin’s craft. The result is a very meticulously constructed puzzle, with the final jigsaw pieces only able to be put in place by the outstanding sleuth-like skills of the intrepid Annie.

There is a little suggestion of romance that might keep readers wanting more, and no doubt there will be another adventure to follow, for the die is cast as Annie holds in her hands a little piece of paper predicting her own fortune, an opportunity for another twist in the story.

Themes: Murder, Mystery, Detective, Fortune, Deception.

Helen Eddy