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Happiness, a Mystery: And 66 Attempts to Solve It
Happiness is one of life's greatest mysteries. But what even is happiness? Why does it mean so many different things to different people? And how can we actually be happier?
Drawing on decades of experience in crime writing, self-help and intensely curious observation of other people, Sophie Hannah sets out to solve the mystery. She lines up her cast of suspects and expert witnesses from ancient philosophers to modern self-help gurus, scientists to ordinary people from all walks of life. Leaving no stone unturned, she scrutinises the clues, evidence, and even the red herrings that unexpectedly lead to happiness. And she uncovers answers - from the secrets of a fulfilling relationship to the joys of boredom, or of the bliss of a cancelled meeting.
Weaving in much-loved poems and hilarious observations from Sophie's own life, this is the ultimate guide to happiness - and the clues that can lead us there.
Drawing on decades of experience in crime writing, self-help and intensely curious observation of other people, Sophie Hannah sets out to solve the mystery. She lines up her cast of suspects and expert witnesses from ancient philosophers to modern self-help gurus, scientists to ordinary people from all walks of life. Leaving no stone unturned, she scrutinises the clues, evidence, and even the red herrings that unexpectedly lead to happiness. And she uncovers answers - from the secrets of a fulfilling relationship to the joys of boredom, or of the bliss of a cancelled meeting.
Weaving in much-loved poems and hilarious observations from Sophie's own life, this is the ultimate guide to happiness - and the clues that can lead us there.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2020
33 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Sophie Hannah
111 books4,626 followersSophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.
Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is forty-one and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.
Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is forty-one and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
March 31, 2025
1 Star = I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading it.
I just couldn't generate any enthusiasm for this book. I found it to be totally chaotic. It was stream of consciousness that was not pleasant. Thankfully, it was fairly short at 192 pages. I'm at a loss for words to describe my reaction, without stooping to comments that might be seen as insults, so, I'll just leave it at this.
I just couldn't generate any enthusiasm for this book. I found it to be totally chaotic. It was stream of consciousness that was not pleasant. Thankfully, it was fairly short at 192 pages. I'm at a loss for words to describe my reaction, without stooping to comments that might be seen as insults, so, I'll just leave it at this.
May 11, 2021
Boy, this lady seems very full on. This book made me feel an intense dislike and towards life coaches and their disciples
June 12, 2021
This was a surprisingly enjoyable read. I thought the author was pretty funny and her chaotic nature was really funny to learn about. This was quite different from typical self-help books in that it showed someone in the process of using other books to help themselves and the ending wasn't what I was expecting. Its not too long either so you dont need to commit 100 . Would recommend
August 24, 2023
An interesting look into happiness from a secular standpoint… makes me relieved I have Jesus hahaha
October 16, 2022
My Gran always used to say “Happiness is an emotion and, like all emotions, it comes and goes. You can’t make yourself happy, but you can make choices that will lead to contentment.”
After reading Sophie Hannah’s exploration of happiness and whether we can achieve it by controlling our emotions about things that happen, I’m not persuaded by her decision that trying to solve the mystery of happiness is what leads to happiness. I still agree with my Gran’s view.
However, I did enjoy what she shared of her exploration in this book. As usual, she gave us lots of other books to read if we want to pursue our own investigation into the topic, and she does not force us to come to the same conclusion she does herself.
The writing-style is engaging and as well-crafted as you might expect from one of the leading crime writers of her generation and the leader of Cambridge’s MA in Crime Writing.
All in all, a good, quick read on a topic that concerns many people today. As our Austerity era progresses, more and more people will find themselves in circumstances they would never choose and will be looking for ways to maintain cheerful spirits in the face of external factors that are challenging and upsetting. This book doesn’t contain all the answers, but it does give you some questions that may help you clarify your own opinions and techniques.
Three Word Review: Keep on seeking.
After reading Sophie Hannah’s exploration of happiness and whether we can achieve it by controlling our emotions about things that happen, I’m not persuaded by her decision that trying to solve the mystery of happiness is what leads to happiness. I still agree with my Gran’s view.
However, I did enjoy what she shared of her exploration in this book. As usual, she gave us lots of other books to read if we want to pursue our own investigation into the topic, and she does not force us to come to the same conclusion she does herself.
The writing-style is engaging and as well-crafted as you might expect from one of the leading crime writers of her generation and the leader of Cambridge’s MA in Crime Writing.
All in all, a good, quick read on a topic that concerns many people today. As our Austerity era progresses, more and more people will find themselves in circumstances they would never choose and will be looking for ways to maintain cheerful spirits in the face of external factors that are challenging and upsetting. This book doesn’t contain all the answers, but it does give you some questions that may help you clarify your own opinions and techniques.
Three Word Review: Keep on seeking.
Did Not Finish
May 2, 2026NO, NO, NO… 5 minutes in I could see the problem. Here is a woman who lives the sound of her own voice…..NO!!!
Read
November 2, 2020A fun easy read that I breezed through.
The combination of happiness and the mystery genre coming together in this self help book is such a clever idea, and Sophie Hannah delivered it so wonderfully – I felt like I was conversing with a friend the whole time.
Great little read.
The combination of happiness and the mystery genre coming together in this self help book is such a clever idea, and Sophie Hannah delivered it so wonderfully – I felt like I was conversing with a friend the whole time.
Great little read.
September 30, 2022
I have absolutely no idea how I managed to finish this book and what it is all about. I don't think the issue is me.
June 26, 2023
A book review of a literary tome entitled Happiness A Mystery, by Sophie Hannah an author that I am not at at familiar with. The book was given to me as a present by my son Jamie, who thought it may be of some interest to me. I have only just completed reading it, and I simply had to at least commence writing, this while my considerations are still fresh in my mind.
The author is apparently a crime writer though I must confess, I didn't know that nor have I seen let alone read any of her books, either these or any other that she has penned.
She is a fan of the English author Agatha Christie, and of this authors famous creation Hercule Poirot, who even Christie herself had apparently little time for. To such an extent that this author Sophie Hannah, has even ventured to continue the Poirot literary canon, beyond those that Christie herself had decided to call it a day.
Happiness A Mystery was conceived and, written in the manner of a detective mystery, it's ending was decided to be in the form, of the atypical 'Reveal' where the eponymous Sleuth, reveals Who actually done it.
Honestly I somewhat desperately continued reading the book, not in any sense of wanting to actually see if there, actually is a 'Solution' to this authors own conundrum, no to really see if there really was any, actual point to the authors literary perambulations.
So very much against what I perpetually felt was my own best interests, I decided to stick with it to her own Denouement, her actual Reveal of the 'Answer'.
In what Hannah herself described as the gathering in the Drawing Room, her TV room before the assembled gathering of her own family and dog.
Hannah had managed to stretch the literary proceedings, right down to the books 13th chapter, entitled The Twist at the End.
Sophie Hannah has her own specific Twist to End her own Mystery, and loathed as I am to give away the books Ending. I personally feel more than somewhat cheated, specifically by her Ending but in reality by, Sophie Hannah's entire book.
I have already mentioned my thoughts on the author Sophie Hannah, and after finally finishing her book Happiness A Mystery, I can firmly set those in virtual concrete I will tell, my son Jamie to please not buy me any more of her books.
I can't put this book Review to bed without giving, a more thorough interpretation of the books subject matter. Sophie Hannah's literary perambulations, throughout the book, are a catalogue or at least a preamble, of the authors own tortuous journey of self discovery.
This is certainly how the book reads to me, we have her own self confessed virtual obsession with ‘Therapy and Coaching’. Such that the litany of Life Coach Names, proved to say the least irksome, to this particular English reader.
As a resident this side of the pond I retain, what I consider to be a healthy disdain for these American ephemera, I also come from a generation for whom life was straightforward, here it is now get on with it.
I was born in 1948 three years after the end of the second world war, my brother Murray was born in 1944, the last year of that war. My parents had been born around the end of the first world war, and were surviving the second raising a young family.
How different is the world that the author, Sophie Hannah has become enmeshed in, reading through the early part I mentioned to my son Jamie, that I could have told her how she could be better off, without recourse to ‘Life Coaches’.
It was to me common sense, she was simply taking on far too much work, and needed to rationalise it to make her life more bearable.
According to the author her hectic daily schedule, left her scarcely able to draw breath yet she, still knew the ins and outs of American Life Style Coaches.
Her journey through them merely serves to confirm my own particular aversions, and I am left to wonder about Sophie Hannah, is all this merely a preamble into a Sequel, certainly her Solution to her very own Mystery would indicate that to be the case?
The author is apparently a crime writer though I must confess, I didn't know that nor have I seen let alone read any of her books, either these or any other that she has penned.
She is a fan of the English author Agatha Christie, and of this authors famous creation Hercule Poirot, who even Christie herself had apparently little time for. To such an extent that this author Sophie Hannah, has even ventured to continue the Poirot literary canon, beyond those that Christie herself had decided to call it a day.
Happiness A Mystery was conceived and, written in the manner of a detective mystery, it's ending was decided to be in the form, of the atypical 'Reveal' where the eponymous Sleuth, reveals Who actually done it.
Honestly I somewhat desperately continued reading the book, not in any sense of wanting to actually see if there, actually is a 'Solution' to this authors own conundrum, no to really see if there really was any, actual point to the authors literary perambulations.
So very much against what I perpetually felt was my own best interests, I decided to stick with it to her own Denouement, her actual Reveal of the 'Answer'.
In what Hannah herself described as the gathering in the Drawing Room, her TV room before the assembled gathering of her own family and dog.
Hannah had managed to stretch the literary proceedings, right down to the books 13th chapter, entitled The Twist at the End.
Sophie Hannah has her own specific Twist to End her own Mystery, and loathed as I am to give away the books Ending. I personally feel more than somewhat cheated, specifically by her Ending but in reality by, Sophie Hannah's entire book.
I have already mentioned my thoughts on the author Sophie Hannah, and after finally finishing her book Happiness A Mystery, I can firmly set those in virtual concrete I will tell, my son Jamie to please not buy me any more of her books.
I can't put this book Review to bed without giving, a more thorough interpretation of the books subject matter. Sophie Hannah's literary perambulations, throughout the book, are a catalogue or at least a preamble, of the authors own tortuous journey of self discovery.
This is certainly how the book reads to me, we have her own self confessed virtual obsession with ‘Therapy and Coaching’. Such that the litany of Life Coach Names, proved to say the least irksome, to this particular English reader.
As a resident this side of the pond I retain, what I consider to be a healthy disdain for these American ephemera, I also come from a generation for whom life was straightforward, here it is now get on with it.
I was born in 1948 three years after the end of the second world war, my brother Murray was born in 1944, the last year of that war. My parents had been born around the end of the first world war, and were surviving the second raising a young family.
How different is the world that the author, Sophie Hannah has become enmeshed in, reading through the early part I mentioned to my son Jamie, that I could have told her how she could be better off, without recourse to ‘Life Coaches’.
It was to me common sense, she was simply taking on far too much work, and needed to rationalise it to make her life more bearable.
According to the author her hectic daily schedule, left her scarcely able to draw breath yet she, still knew the ins and outs of American Life Style Coaches.
Her journey through them merely serves to confirm my own particular aversions, and I am left to wonder about Sophie Hannah, is all this merely a preamble into a Sequel, certainly her Solution to her very own Mystery would indicate that to be the case?
September 12, 2022
"SHE'S TALKING ABOUT ME!"
This woman could write even the grocery list and I'd still go mad for it. She has an unbeatable sense of irony (see her poems, which I am going to review very soon) and a knack for making even a work of non-fiction as pleasurable and engaging as a novel. Someone may object she exposes her ideas in a very intricate way, but actually I feel this was the only possible way to reflect upon such complex matters.
Either way, a lot of her opinions resonated with mine, a lot of situations she experienced reminded me of my life and how I react to what happens to me every day. Many a time I thought: "Wait! She's talking about me!", for example when she writes about the over-achieving outlook (which is typical of perfectionists like me) or the masochistic attitude to tolerate our friends' mistakes so that this could prove us our belief that everyone will disappoint us in the end.
On the other hand, I found the innovative approaches she presents very interesting and shareable (I am referring to Seligman's PERMA or her own's 65 days method), but I also loved how she questioned the idea this book basically revolves around: that you just need to change your thoughts about awful things or people in order to reach happiness. This can't be true because, as the conclusion of "Happiness, a mystery" clearly states,
This woman could write even the grocery list and I'd still go mad for it. She has an unbeatable sense of irony (see her poems, which I am going to review very soon) and a knack for making even a work of non-fiction as pleasurable and engaging as a novel. Someone may object she exposes her ideas in a very intricate way, but actually I feel this was the only possible way to reflect upon such complex matters.
Either way, a lot of her opinions resonated with mine, a lot of situations she experienced reminded me of my life and how I react to what happens to me every day. Many a time I thought: "Wait! She's talking about me!", for example when she writes about the over-achieving outlook (which is typical of perfectionists like me) or the masochistic attitude to tolerate our friends' mistakes so that this could prove us our belief that everyone will disappoint us in the end.
On the other hand, I found the innovative approaches she presents very interesting and shareable (I am referring to Seligman's PERMA or her own's 65 days method), but I also loved how she questioned the idea this book basically revolves around: that you just need to change your thoughts about awful things or people in order to reach happiness. This can't be true because, as the conclusion of "Happiness, a mystery" clearly states,
September 8, 2023
This was a difficult book to give a rating for. I swayed between being completed absorbed and committed to skimming chunks.
The parts I loved were the reviews of philosophers and their beliefs on happiness and of course Brooke Castillo”s take on happiness.
Anything to do with Life Coaching and I am all in. loved Sophie’s breakdown of Brookes CFTAR method and some of the references however this is also where I also began to drift.
Parts of the book had me engrossed with well defined concepts of happiness but I felt the philosophical ponderings with different life coaches detracted from the overall flow of the book. The 65 days was referred to lots but in the end it all seemed a bit hurried and almost like it faded into the background from a lack of steam.
Overall I enjoyed the book, it’s a quick read so we’ll worth exploring.
The parts I loved were the reviews of philosophers and their beliefs on happiness and of course Brooke Castillo”s take on happiness.
Anything to do with Life Coaching and I am all in. loved Sophie’s breakdown of Brookes CFTAR method and some of the references however this is also where I also began to drift.
Parts of the book had me engrossed with well defined concepts of happiness but I felt the philosophical ponderings with different life coaches detracted from the overall flow of the book. The 65 days was referred to lots but in the end it all seemed a bit hurried and almost like it faded into the background from a lack of steam.
Overall I enjoyed the book, it’s a quick read so we’ll worth exploring.
September 30, 2024
Sophie Hannah's books were recommended to me over a decade ago. I've read most of them and a new release is my book Christmas.
I've tried to write novels. They were bloody awful. I have particular trouble with plotting. Sophie Hannah's plotting is a thing of astounding craftsmanship, every time.
I enjoyed this peek into Sophie's I am too happy because I love my work life. She loves her work so much that she takes on way too much, using life hacks of varying success. Wearing mismatched and shrunken clothes because there is no time to sort out the pile downstairs, Sophie seeks help. This takes the reader on a trawl through history to contemporary life coaches.
I'll always love your work Sophie but we have different opinions on Brooke Castillo. The joy is in the seeking, and the writing about it.
I've tried to write novels. They were bloody awful. I have particular trouble with plotting. Sophie Hannah's plotting is a thing of astounding craftsmanship, every time.
I enjoyed this peek into Sophie's I am too happy because I love my work life. She loves her work so much that she takes on way too much, using life hacks of varying success. Wearing mismatched and shrunken clothes because there is no time to sort out the pile downstairs, Sophie seeks help. This takes the reader on a trawl through history to contemporary life coaches.
I'll always love your work Sophie but we have different opinions on Brooke Castillo. The joy is in the seeking, and the writing about it.
March 19, 2023
The premise of this book was more interesting than the execution: a mystery writer exploring the meaning of happiness like it's a murder mystery. It sounds good but the book didn't deliver on its promise. I found tone of the book to be quite grating, it's got a Radio-4-like comedy style of humour, which some people might enjoy but I find a bit like the author isn't taking herself or the book seriously, so it all felt like a waste of time. The exploration of ideas was so flimsy that it was pointless and devoid of insight. I was also quite bored by the way the she kept circling back to life coaches and her own busy work schedule. Not a book I'd recommend unless you already know and like the author's work.
June 3, 2025
Cute li'l book about a crime fiction author's personal recount of her search for the definition of happiness.
While some of the thoughts she described did really resonate with thoughts I'd had myself, ultimately I was happy to take the book as a recount of another's journey from which the reader can potentially glean some interesting insights, rather than a prescription.
In general, the book exuded the ego of the author quite strongly, with clear autobiographical elements. This doesn't necessarily disqualify its being viable self-help content, but to me it is worth mentioning.
While some of the thoughts she described did really resonate with thoughts I'd had myself, ultimately I was happy to take the book as a recount of another's journey from which the reader can potentially glean some interesting insights, rather than a prescription.
In general, the book exuded the ego of the author quite strongly, with clear autobiographical elements. This doesn't necessarily disqualify its being viable self-help content, but to me it is worth mentioning.
August 10, 2024
Don't be fooled... This is not your regular self help book. Although parts of it could be. No Bit confusing? Well, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was fun. Sophie Hannah is not a newbie to writing, but this is a bit outside her regular genre of mystery books. She writes well, it's a very personal book, much direct engagement of the reader. She ploughs her way, via research and experimental visits to a number of life coaches, through many theories of how to achieve happiness. It certainly had me off doing my own research, trying out podcasts, reading, etc. Which was great. She covers quite a few well known approaches and philosophies.
The ending is a bit weird, I think it caught her by surprise too, but overall a fun and thought provoking read.
The ending is a bit weird, I think it caught her by surprise too, but overall a fun and thought provoking read.
April 23, 2025
Love the writing style, friendly and breaking the fourth wall by including us into the mystery.
To me it felt like a quick and easy to understand summary of multiple different theories about Happiness, already out there. And how the author felt about them and what she preferred. Questioning everything and trying to build a new answer to ‘What is happiness and how to achieve it’.
To me it felt like a quick and easy to understand summary of multiple different theories about Happiness, already out there. And how the author felt about them and what she preferred. Questioning everything and trying to build a new answer to ‘What is happiness and how to achieve it’.
April 24, 2026
I had the audio version of this book and I think that may have been the problem; the reading of it sounded like I was listening to a laundry list.
A shame, because I usually enjoy books by Sophie Hannah, now I will be thwarted in that enjoyment by hearing it in my head as a monotone, as this was read. Sophie - write. Please don't read them out, at least not without some theatrical training.
A shame, because I usually enjoy books by Sophie Hannah, now I will be thwarted in that enjoyment by hearing it in my head as a monotone, as this was read. Sophie - write. Please don't read them out, at least not without some theatrical training.
January 8, 2021
3.5*
As a story it was quite interesting and quirky. Can't say I know many people who complain about being too happy. I also think the 66 days of meaningful actions is a good way to improve mindfulness. But I am not quite sure of the great reveal in the end 😅
As a story it was quite interesting and quirky. Can't say I know many people who complain about being too happy. I also think the 66 days of meaningful actions is a good way to improve mindfulness. But I am not quite sure of the great reveal in the end 😅
November 21, 2021
I really enjoyed this Miranda esc summary of happiness. Being a professional in the field I an incredibly skeptical of this genre but it is staying in my reading list to re listen to. Recommend the audio book version read by the author.
June 4, 2023
I found some of the life coach stuff a bit difficult to get on board with, but (as in any good crime novel) the solution is worth waiting for - and for me it’s as good a definition of happiness as I’ve seen
December 3, 2024
I found this book disappointing. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know. It was probably better read then on audio. It also felt like a bit of a sales exercise. I considered DNFing and I never DNF a book. But it was my bookclub book and I’d like to read more non-fiction.
April 10, 2026
This felt like somebody just rambling their way through everything on their mind with little structure and less purpose. The only clear content was the regurgitations of others theories.
Sorry but I gained not a thing from this.
Sorry but I gained not a thing from this.
October 27, 2020
Slow to enjoy, lapsed a bit in the middle but liked the conclusion. Anyway I have restarted it to read more slowly and to fill in this week before holiday and new book
January 19, 2021
This wasn't for me. I enjoy Sophie Hannah's Poirot books but this just didn't work for at all.
February 5, 2021
3.5 stars rounded up
April 14, 2021
Ganz nett. Erfrischend anderer Schreibstil. Das Ende / Die Auflösung ist bissl enttäuschend
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2021
Didn't learn very much. Now realise why I don't like her novels.
October 25, 2021
I’m a big fan of Sophie Hannah’s mystery writing and enjoy the How to Hold a Grudge podcast, so this was a fun few hours listening to Sophie talk about happiness.
January 3, 2022
I found this book amusing and enjoyed it's nontraditional format
March 26, 2023
I really enjoyed this
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews