54 pages • 1 hour read
Kristen PerrinHow to Solve Your Own Murder
Kristen PerrinFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Power of the Written Word
Content Warning: This novel contains minor violence and depictions of death.
How To Solve Your Own Murder is a celebration of The Power of the Written Word in many different forms. Frances’s first words in the novel are “I’m writing this all here because I just know there will be things I’ve seen that might matter further down the road,” a prediction that will prove correct (15). It is also a sentiment that could easily be expressed by Annie, who similarly jots down the evidence she’s gathered to make sense of what she sees. Processing through their writing unites the characters. Both protagonists’ journals are at some point confiscated or destroyed, an acknowledgment that there is something threatening or important about their writing. For Frances’s journals, the writing powerfully alters how people see her but also provides information that helps Annie solve both crimes. Without their writing, there would be no solution and no story.
While the journals help inform the characters and solve the crimes, the written threats both receive are powerful in that they show the danger of misinterpretation of the written word. The impact of the small notes Frances finds in her coat pockets is so strong that they send her down a path of suspicion and obsession that might not have occurred otherwise. They feed into her paranoia about her fortune and blind her to the fact that the nature of the accusations doesn’t apply to her. Annie, not being in the same obsessive state as Frances, is able to see the accusations for what they are and doesn’t spiral down into fear when she finds them on her bed. She bluntly sums up the power of the threatening words to Rose, however, when she says Frances “ended up living with a fear that you helped cultivate” (347).
The frame ending of the novel and the final image of the blank journals are a last plug for The Power of the Written Word. The trunk containing Frances’s empty notebooks are a metaphorical handing of the torch to Annie, encouraging her to write more stories and showing the importance of writing being passed to the next generation. Both characters get what they want through the power of writing, Frances her wish for justice and Annie her desire to be a mystery author. The frame ending implies the novel is Annie’s literary effort and the power of writing has expanded past the protagonists’ journals to include whoever reads the novel How To Solve Your Own Murder.
From the very beginning of the novel to the last image, writing has been the essential link between the characters and the dual narrations and has provided most of the clues as well as the form of the book itself. Perrin’s theme shows that without the written word, How To Solve Your Own Murder wouldn’t exist both inside and outside the world of the novel.
The Warping Nature of Obsession
In How to Solve Your Own Murder, the characters who die or commit murder share a similar trait: They allow their obsessions to consume them and warp their senses of reality. Because all of them live miserable lives and come to bad ends, the theme of The Warping Nature of Obsession is the darkest of the novel. Obsession reveals the darkest behaviors in Perrin’s characters. Perrin creates a world where no action is off-limits, as many of the characters are desperate for resolution.
The opening chapter of How to Solve Your Own Murder reveals the fortune Frances received alongside her friends, immediately introducing the nature of obsession through the three friends’ reaction to the dooming words of the prediction. This fortune is at the heart of the story and is ultimately responsible for all of the conflicts that follow. Perrin shows that obsession will warp a person’s life as well as their end. For example, Frances’s obsession alienates people, and she lives in suspicion for decades. She no longer cares about others, and her self-absorption takes over what was originally her good qualities. Joe and Rose become increasingly bitter when their behavior isn’t appreciated, obsessed with receiving adoration and hypervigilant about any lack of attention or response to their actions. Emily’s misery intensifies with every betraying and unsuccessful decision until she is killed.
Perrin extends the theme by showing how good intentions can create some of the worst consequences when taken to an obsessive level. Rose and her son share the same obsession, which at first appears wholesome and virtuous—the love of another. Frances also falls victim to her obsession based on the seemingly positive idea of finding justice for Emily’s disappearance and her own killer. Even Emily’s obsessive and twisted behavior in trying to trap Ford stems from a need to better herself, a desire that in itself isn’t bad. Because the characters’ original intentions are rooted in virtue, they feel justified in taking their obsession to an extreme. However, the good intentions of all four characters become lost and obsession becomes the dark cause of violence and misery that underlies the cheerful environment of the book.
Appearance Versus Reality in Small Towns
The small town of Castle Knoll provides the backdrop for Perrin’s story, and this setting creates immediate tension between appearances and reality. While the “cozy” aspect of this mystery is in part derived from the close-knit community of characters and places in How to Solve Your Own Murder, this same detail creates mystery and drama unique to such a setting. This theme is explored through Annie and Frances as each character dives into the inner lives of the townspeople and their pasts and connections.
Despite the cozy, friendly façade of Castle Knoll, Frances’s character highlights the mystery plot device of the English village being a seething, barely concealed mass of human darkness under a veneer or idyllic beauty. The proximity and familiarity of a village enables Frances to know the indiscretions of those around her. This colors her outlook on her town. She begins to do what John Oxley cautions her against in Chapter 34: “Be careful this doesn’t eat up your ability to have faith in people” (34). After Emily disappears, Frances chooses to see only “the vile” in Castle Knoll (290). She keeps evidence of this darkness in multiple file cabinets of evidence against her friends and neighbors. Her snooping and judgment make her unpopular, which feeds into her already growing dislike and mistrust of people. Because she thinks everyone is out to get her, the sins of the people around her make them seem more likely suspects. It isn’t long before everyone forgets that Frances was once forgiving and gracious and sees her as a nuisance who treats good families like the Cranes badly. The authority that comes with owning the manor makes the power dynamics between Frances and the town extreme, the result being that she is alienated further than she would have been for her abrasive behavior alone. Feeling she can’t trust anyone for multiple reasons makes living in her village a suspicious, unhappy existence. The tension Frances feels from the community that stems from their closeness, the power dynamics, and the fact that she knows everything about others’ indiscretions makes Castle Knoll seem anything but a charming place to live despite the idyllic scenery.
Annie, however, comes to the same town as an outsider, focused on the charm and appearances until she uncovers a deeper truth. Annie is cautious but is careful not to judge too quickly. She imitates what she sees in Detective Crane in that he assesses first and judges later (61). People who tried to help Frances but were held at arm’s length are allowed in by Annie. Beth, Mr. Gordon, Dr. Owusu, and Detective Crane all are in Frances’s files, but Annie chooses to trust and appreciate them as neighbors and humans instead of threats. Where Frances’s intimate knowledge of the people around her makes her feel threatened, Annie finds the intimacy helpful. Free of obsessive paranoia, Annie can function in Castle Knoll comfortably. Rather than alienating herself with her snooping, Annie brings people in to help such as when she calls Dr. Owusu to help trap Magda or has Beth deliver information to Mr. Gordon. While Frances doesn’t care if she destroys the community, Annie doubles down on it, choosing to stay and make it her home even before she’s won the inheritance. This shows her faith in the town and gives her a strong motive to succeed. Her unification of the community at the memorial in the final chapters shows the generosity Frances was originally rumored to have and creates a healthy atmosphere of acceptance and friendliness that matches the beauty of the small town.
In having the protagonists function in opposite ways during their time in Castle Knoll, Perrin makes a theme of the dual nature of living in a small town. She uses each character to point out that it is different attitudes and traits, and often a decision to think a certain way, that lead one to have a positive or negative experience in the exact same place.
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