[Review] How to Get Away with Murder - Rebecca Philipson

Summary: Detective Inspector Samantha Hansen has been on leave for six months, recovering from a breakdown she suffered at work, but when a fourteen-year-old girl is murdered in a local park, Sam jumps at the chance to return to the job and prove that she's still got what it takes to be the Yard's most successful homicide detective. One of the cases only leads is a copy of a self-help book found in the victim's backpack called How To Get Away With Murder by a man named Denver Brady.

Brady claims to be the most successful serial killer of our time, which is why no one's ever heard of him. Chapter by chapter, he details his methodology and his past victims, and as Sam's investigation progresses and the details of the book go viral, Sam begins to suspect that there’s more to the author than what he’s revealed. But in order to find a killer and get justice for young Charlotte, Sam must learn to trust her instincts once again, before Denver Brady--or someone else--really does get away with murder. (Pub Date: Feb 24 2026)

When a teenager is killed in the same way the book left in the scene, a manual for getting away with murders, Sam decides it's time to face her trauma and go back to work—as a homicide detective, she believes she can untangle the puzzle.

The mystery, the who, how, why, that's the best part of the book. It was also incredible to see how brave Sam was, overcoming all her issues to help the girl finally rest. The funny thing was that what really told this book apart from your usual thriller ended up its weakness—the book, the one inside the book, wasn't all that. Now I've finished, I even wonder if I couldn't have just skipped it all. But don't get me wrong, the research to compile all those tips for murderers to get away was good. Not a big novelty, but if you exclude the tales of how he murdered people and stuck to how he prepared and cleaned after himself, that was a little interesting. Just not enough, especially not when you have an actual murder to solve (well, an actual murder in this fictional world). It was all distracting.

I also think there were some bits that ended up as loose ends. I wonder if the author had had other plans and changed them along the way. You could call them red herrings, because it felt like they were leading us somewhere, but I suspect otherwise. What I can call them is disappointing, because it made me hope for a bigger solution.

This was entertaining and the end is actually great, I wasn't expecting that, but I secretly hoped for it. Too bad the main idea didn't work well with me.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.