How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files)
How to Seal Your Own Fate is the second novel in Perrin’s cleverly conceived series about Annie Adams, a mystery writer who inherits a web of secret files from her paranoid great-aunt Frances. In this latest installment, Annie is confronted by Peony Lane, the fortune teller who once predicted Aunt Frances would be murdered. Aunt Frances devoted her adult life to assembling the files to solve her own murder, and, when she is accused of Peony’s murder, Annie uses the files to solve the case, just as she did in the series’ first novel.
Annie soon discovers that the key to Peony’s murder lies in a fatal car crash that took place in 1967. Frances’ interpolated diary entries detail her own search for the truth about that crash, as well as fleshing out several secondary characters who also appeared in the first book.
Annie’s predicament in the present can feel perfunctory in comparison to the richly described mystery in the past. Readers seeking a historical novel steeped in the atmosphere of 1960s Britain are likely to find themselves disappointed, for the crime and characters in the past could have existed equally easily in a score of other decades. Still, mystery readers who are new to this series are sure to enjoy this book. However, the high-concept premise threatens to wear thin for readers who are returning to the series a second time.
