She Treads Softly: How to Cheat Your Own Death

Saturday, April 4, 2026

How to Cheat Your Own Death

How to Cheat Your Own Death Book Cover

How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin
4/28/26; 336 pages
Dutton
Castle Knoll Files #3

How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin is a highly recommended mystery and the third novel in the Castle Knoll files cozy mysteries. Annie Adams is back in a dual-timeline, dual-mystery story, that shifts between the 1960s and the present day. I would definitely recommend reading this series in order.

In 1968, Frances Adams has moved to London and is enrolled in the University College London. With her new wealthy, socialite friend, Vera Huntington, she's introduced to a new world. At school, Frances develops a knack for amateur detective work, and she puts that knowledge to work along with her friend Ford when Vera is murdered.

Annie Adams heads to London to visit her famous artist mother, Laura, after a heart is found on her doorstep. Annie discovers the body of her mother’s new apprentice, Felicity Rowe, in a nearby garbage bin, lying on top of some paintings by Annie’s mother. Annie also recognizes the murder as resembling one described in the journals of her late great aunt Frances. Her friend Vera was killed in the same way in the 1960s. Annie investigates with her friend, police detective Rowen Crane.

How to Cheat Your Own Death is well-written and contains two detailed and eerily similar murders in the two timelines. The investigations are interesting to follow and clues are provided, but instincts and intelligence are vital skills utilized in both the past and the present investigations. There is a sense of an impending threat in both mysteries. This is definitely a novel for those who don't mind following two murders in two timelines via two story lines.

While I enjoyed the dual-mysteries, please allow me to repeat that this is a book where reading the series in order matters. There were several times I knew I was missing connections and vital background information while reading. This did lessen my enjoyment of the novel as my brain scrambled to make connections. Some of this background information was included, but it wasn't as clear and concise as it would be if I had started the series at the beginning.

How to Cheat Your Own Death is a great choice for everyone following the series and those who enjoy dual timelines in a novel. Thanks to Dutton for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.