ARC Review: How to's Cheat You Own Death by Kristen Perrin

How to Cheat Your Own Death
Author: Kristen Perrin
Series: Castle Knoll Files (Book 3)
Publication: Dutton (April 28, 2026)

Description: From the gritty streets of 1960s Soho to the lofty galleries of present-day West London, two interlocking mysteries decades apart unfold in this latest instalment in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Castle Knoll Murder Mystery series

Some secrets are deadlier than others

1968: Frances Adams is loving her new London life, and she’s stepped into a world of glamour thanks to her new friend, Vera Huntington--a magnetic socialite as mysterious as she is provocative. Vera dances around London like she owns it, taking Frances with her.

Present day: When Annie Adams heads to London to visit her famous artist mother, Laura, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body. Least of all for it to be Laura’s new protégée, left in an alley with her heart surgically removed from her chest.

Annie is no stranger to murder--after all, she’s solved a few already. And something about this case feels familiar. She’s read about one just like it in the journals of her late great aunt Frances, whose friend Vera was killed in the 1960s in the exact same way.

As Annie investigates, threats pile up on Laura’s doorstep, and it soon becomes clear that she’s next. With her mother’s life on the line, can Annie find the killer before it’s too late?

My Thoughts: The third Castle Knoll mystery takes Annie to London. She gets a call from her mother about a new protegee which makes Annie suspicious. Her mother Laura has never taken a protegee before and this new one has ties to Castle Knoll. Annie arrives in London to find the body of the protegee Felicity in a nearby dumpster. She's had her heart surgically removed and she's lying on a stack of Laura's paintings. 

The body reminds Annie of something she read in Frances Adams' diaries. Frances had moved to London in 1968 to attend university and finds herself swept into the fast, rich crowd as a new friend of Vera Huntington. Vera is the sister of one of Frances's academic rivals. Vera is also exciting and troubled and needy. When she is murdered with her heart cut out, her surgeon husband is quickly convicted of the crime. 

But now there are ties between the two different murders. Laura has made her name for paintings that were likely stolen from Vera's estate by her ex-husband. She has been dealing with threats and blackmail for years and Annie never knew. 

Old crimes meet new ones in this episode. I liked the way the two timelines of the story were interwoven. I liked Annie's growing relationship with Rowan Crane who also had a past relationship with Felicity. I liked the way the mysteries in each timeline were interwoven too. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.