A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Summary from Goodreads:

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

Review:

This is one of the books I purchased in Paris (on my honeymoon in 2019), and it took me way too long to get to it! I’m kind of glad I read it now though because if I read it then, I would have had to wait forever for book 2. And now, it’s already out! Any way, I had a feeling I’d really like this one. I had no idea I’d become obsessed with it. I was up to 2am one night reading it….I haven’t done that in a while.

If you’re a fan of the series, Truly Devious or the murder mystery show, Broadchurch, this is the book for you. I could not put it down. I loved the main character. She’s a true detective in the making, though it doesn’t actually seem like that’s the career she’s leaning towards…It’s a YA murder mystery that will have you up late at night needing answers.

90% of the time in books, movies, and tv shows I will correctly guess who the murderer is. This is not because I’m a good detective. It’s because I’ve read so many books and watched so many TV shows. I only had part of it right in this book. This book’s mystery is layered, complex, and dark. Topics of rape, racism, drugs, murder (obviously), kidnapping, blackmail, and pornography come up.

In between solving this 5-year-old case, Pippa is also going to school and being a normal teenager. There’s humor, friendship stories, family noise, and a little bit of romance too to lighten it up a bit. I guess the romance was the one thing I wasn’t really feeling. It felt a little forced. I did like Pippa’s friend circle. It’s nice seeing a young detective not be a total loner. She has a core group of friends, and a supporting family. She goes on camping trips, binges movies with her friends, and studies for exams.

I was reading a British copy of the book, so it was also possibly a little different from the American version. But, it was interesting seeing how different the British school system works from the American one. Also, a little different was the formatting. Some of the book is made up of production logs, transcripts of interviews, and text conversations because Pippa is putting it all together for a report. This definitely speeds along the reading of it.

All in all, I could not stop reading this. I was up way too late with too many questions –the best kind of mystery. Pippa is a wonderful main character. I didn’t love the romance, but I loved the other side characters and elements to the story. The mystery is solved at the end. So, I’m curious as to what will happen in book 2, which I’ve of course already ordered….I give this a 9/10.