How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

 

Synopsis From The Dust Jacket:

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.

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.

A small part of the reason I was interested in starting up this blog again was to get myself out of my current reading pattern. My first reading love was mysteries, and that started at a young age. I devoured every Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown book I could as a kid. By the time I was in the 5th grade, I was reading Agatha Christie books and anything else I could get my adolescent hands on. As I've gotten older, I've found myself slipping into other reading obsessions over the years, but I've always gone back to devouring every twisted murder mystery I could get my hands on. For the past few years, the only mysteries I've read are those marketed in the romance genre. Now, don't get me wrong—there are some fabulous authors in the field writing mysteries within the romance genre, and I've loved several books and series—but I feel myself getting stuck in a rut, and I want out of it.

I didn't have any particular reasoning in selecting How to Solve Your Own Murder as my first foray back into the "traditional" mystery experience. In reality, I simply picked a random one off my shelves. No matter how this book landed in my hands, I'm so ridiculously glad I started here. From almost the first page, I felt the same thrill I experienced with the first Agatha Christie novel I picked up, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. It's this buzz that settles beneath my skin, burrowing its way into every brain synapse, demanding I get lost within the puzzle unfolding on the page. I last felt this with Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, and I'm so relieved to feel this way again.

Frances and Annie are two characters I simply enjoyed spending time with. Their voices are uniquely their own, but I could tell that these were two women who would have immensely enjoyed each other's company. In Frances, I found someone I need to know more about—I want to know how her brain works. In Annie, I found someone I want to spend more time with. I found her to be engaging in a way that kept me from wanting to put this book down. I can't wait to see more of both of them.

The mystery itself is as twisty as they come, and I loved every damn word of it. It was challenging enough that it kept me from figuring it out until the conclusion played out on the page, but as I look back at it, it's a fair mystery—I do think there are enough clues sprinkled about for some readers to figure it out on their own. Would it be hard? Absolutely. But I don't enjoy books that make it too easy. Unless it's a revisit with my favorite childhood detectives.

Binge Watch --- Supernatural

I probably watch too much TV. Actually, I know I watch too much TV. I've been this way since I was a kid, sitting on the living room floor glued to Saturday morning cartoons. Believe it or not, there was a few years where I stopped watching TV, cold turkey. I was religiously watching Grimm, Supernatural and a few other shows at the time and for whatever reason, I just stopped. I never saw Doctor McDreamy die. I never saw Rick and company leave the prison. And I damn well never saw Crowley sacrifice himself.

This year has been a year for binging, getting caught up on the shows I never finished. I've already knocked out Grimm and Bones, because that was another show I never finished, and I just finished Supernatural on my birthday, this past Friday. For those not familiar with the show, Supernatural lasted for 15 season. That means I just finished binging 327 episodes of one of the greatest TV shows of all time. 

My favorite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I will be binging before the new Hulu series starts, so it should come as no surprise that I loved Supernatural from the moment it hit our television screens in 2005 on what was the WB Network. From the moment Dean showed up on Sam's doorstep telling him that their father was MIA on a hunting trip, I was hooked. Here was a show that had two hot guys fighting monsters, this was tailor-made for me to love it. Now, if that was all the show was about, I probably would have gotten bored at some point. Instead, this is a show about family and what a family does to support each other, no matter what that family looks like. It's a show about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who would literally die for the other. Most of all, it's a show that transcended genres. 

This time around, I found myself siding with Dean more than I did my first time. Honestly, Sam could be fricking whiny and annoying at times, the way a younger brother should be. I also remembered how much I wanted "Bloodlines" to have worked as a spinoff, which never happened. And speaking of spinoffs, the fact that "Wayward Sisters" never happened has me seeing red. I want more Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex, and Patience. I feel robbed now. 

As I was watching, I wanted to live in the Men of Letters Bunker, I wanted to hang out with Rowena (my favorite character from the show), I wanted to drive Baby, and I wanted to eat pie with Dean. I wanted to go out on hunts with them. Most of all, I want to see Dean and Castiel reunited. I want that confession to mean something. 

If you've never watched the show, you should. If it's been a while, give it a rewatch. I promise you won't be disappointed. 

Favorite Fictional Character --- Gilligan

 

Sharing my favorite fictional characters with everyone used to be one of my favorite aspects of this blog, so there was no way I was going to resurrect Wordsmithonia without bringing back this weekly feature. 

August 16th, 2017 was the last time I posted a Favorite Fictional Character post, and it just so happened to be on Inspector Gadget, the fumbling cartoon(ish) secret agent many of us grew up with. It's fitting that today I'm going to feature another fumbling character, the always clumsily adorable Gilligan from a show I'm sure we are all familiar with, Gilligan's Island. 

Growing up, I remember laying on my stomach, head in my hands in front of TV watching Gilligan's Island and loving every minute of it. At first in black & white and then in color, as both the show and our TV upgraded, I loved Gilligan's antics as he bumbled across my screen, somehow both annoying and endearing himself to his fellow castaways. 

He always tried to do the right thing and to be as helpful as possible. He put his whole heart into everything he did, but like Inspector Gadget, he fumbled it 98% of the time. His antics are both hilarious and loveable, but it's his heart that I absolutely love about him. He didn't quit or give up when he failed at something. He didn't stop pouring his heart into everything he did, just because his friends got frustrated with him. He kept true to himself, and in my opinion, that is just about the most important thing anyone can do. It's one of those life lessons I think most of us would be good to hold onto with both hands. 

Wordsmithonia Has A Facebook Page

When I made the painful, final decision to shutter the blog a few years ago, I started a Facebook page mainly because I wanted to keep some semblance of it still alive. While my brain was telling me it was time to let go, my heart wouldn't let me. At least not fully. 

Now, while we all post our thoughts about books, music, TV shows, and movies, we also  play a lot of tournaments. We've done tournaments covering the greatest screen villains of all time, favorite children's characters, the most annoying characters, favorite reads, favorite soundtracks, and quite a few more. 

Right now we are getting ready to start one on our favorite musicals. I would invite you all to join us, which you can do by clicking the link above our banner photo beneath here. You could play by entering your own favorites, or vote once the tournament starts, or even just to lurk around the page. We're a friendly group. 

Join Us!

Lured (1947)

If you know me, even a little bit, you know that not only am I a sucker for classic movies, but I'm a fiend for those that just so happen to fall into the classic mystery/noir genre. I'm by no means an expert on the subject as I know there are hundreds of really good movies I've never even heard of, let alone watched. What I am, is a lover of these films. I've been know to binge 4-6 new to me movies in a day; I get so entranced by them. Thank everything holy for the streaming services that have brought so many of them back into the light of day. Kanopy, which I have through my public library membership, has an abundant catalog of them. If you have a library card, I would implore you to see if your public library partners with them. If you like movies, you will love this service. 

I was browsing in Kanopy the other day and came across a movie with the general description of a serial killer stalking the streets of London, luring and killing women through the use of personal ads. When an American dance hall girl figures out her friend is missing, she takes her concerns to Scotland Yard, and is quickly roped into going  undercover to catch the man who has already claimed the lives of too many innocent women. 

That description alone sold me on giving it a go. The fact that Lucille Ball plays the aforementioned dance hall girl and George Sanders is a nightclub owner who she gets involved with, was just icing on the proverbial cake. I don't need to state how brilliant Lucille Ball was in this, because that should be obvious. It actually makes me wish she had done more of this type of movie. Yeah, she was a born comedian but she had the chops for tense drama as well, and that shines in Lured. George Sanders was not a typical Hollywood heartthrob with the looks of a Cary Grant, but that man's screen presence and his voice more than made up for that. It was impossible not to fall for him, even when you know all along there's a chance he's the killer. 

I'm not going to spoil anything about the story's twists and turns, but I would strongly recommend you discover them for yourselves. This was a delightful caper that's guaranteed to thrill even the most die hard mystery fans. For an extra treat, be on the lookout for a deliciously over the top performance by Boris Karloff.

Strange Houses by Uketsu

Unatural layouts, trap doors, and windowless rooms - a sinister conspiracy is concealed within a house's warped and unsettling floor plans. 

I'm an impulse buyer. When I go grocery shopping, I'll end up with fifteen things I never planned on getting. I've tried an abundant amount of chip and Oreo flavors this way. As I've aged, I've tried to get those impulses under control to limited success. With bigger items, say a coat that looks like a watercolor of a birch forest, I'll walk away to ponder things over for a day or two. For the record, I wear that coat a lot. 

It should come as no surprise that my lack of impulse control isn't constrained to the grocery store, put me in a

book store and all the samplings start looking like the newest flavor of Lays. It's why I'm trying my damndest to stay out book stores as much as I can. Long story short, I saw Strange Houses by Uketsu on a cute little side table in the east side Barnes & Noble and knew instantly that I needed to take it home. 

Don't get me wrong, when I see a blurb touting how sensational a book is, I'm always a little skeptical. Nevertheless this little guy came home with me and I loved every second of it. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was a fiendishly clever murder mystery that had me second guessing myself a couple of times. 

Our narrator is approached by a friend who while shopping for a new home for his young family comes across a house that despite its attributes, left him feeling off. With the help of a draftsman friend, our narrator dives into the mystery of the house and the sinister reason behind its design. 

There isn't a lot I want to divulge regarding the nature of the mystery or the way it plays out, mainly because I think it's best for readers to discover it for themselves. What I will say is I enjoyed the heck out of the journey and I'm really looking forward to reading more of this author. 

Hello

 

A few years ago I made a decision to let this blog die. I made up a lot of excuses in my head about why that was a good idea. I told myself I didn't have the time. I convinced myself that nobody was really reading it anyway. I lied to myself that I wouldn't miss it. Even when I knew I would miss the people I met and grew close to over the years. I even started a FB page that I planned to use as an extension of the blog, and in many ways it's worked out for me. But it's not the same. 

I miss sitting down and really putting my thoughts down on paper, typos and all, or in this case on screen. I miss the interactions and the discovery of books I never would have heard about, let alone read without the blogging community. I know blogs aren't the "cool" thing anymore. I know Instagram and TikTok have taken up a lot of the space that blogs used to dominate. And there again, all I can say it's not the same. I've seen some great content creators in those spaces, and I applaud them. Yet, I miss curling up in bed, going through my blog roll, and catching up with my favorite bloggers. I miss the interaction that always felt personal and connecting. 

Now, I'm not saying I'm coming back to blogging full time, or that I even expect anybody to read a single post I put out there. I may be sporadic in posting. I may even decide that I have nothing to say. But, I feel that it's time to reclaim my voice and space. I hope to see you around, even if it's just me bopping in and out, catching up on my favorite bloggers.