Review | A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Five years ago, Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. Everyone knew he did it. The case is closed. But Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t certain. She decides to choose the Bell murder case as the topic for her final year school project. Soon, she starts to discover new information that never came to light, and secrets that other people are trying hard to protect. She wonders if the police had caught the wrong man after all. Which means the real killer is still out there.

Pip had always wondered why they didn’t move. Not that they had to; they hadn’t done anything wrong. But she didn’t know how they lived like that.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a Young Adult mystery where a high school senior named Pip decides to look into the old murder case of Andie Bell. She believes the suspected killer, Sal Singh, was actually innocent and she sets out to prove it.

This is a pretty fun read! I thought the investigation scenes are entertaining. The book is formatted to include emails, letters, and transcripts of Pip’s interviews with other people involved in the case so it keeps the story interesting. There’s some suspenseful moments and Pip has to resort to dirty tricks to find the truth. Some of the things Pip does are admittedly unethical/implausible. But I didn’t go in expecting realism so I was happy to go along with it. I really liked her family too, they provide a welcome relief from all the tension. The ending wraps up everything nicely.

However, I had a problem with a decision Pip makes towards the end of the book and it soured my view of her. It doesn’t align with her desire for justice that has been mentioned many times throughout. The book touches on how racism and prejudice play a part in the other characters’ treatment of Sal, but it is ultimately brushed aside which was disappointing. There’s a whiff of white saviourism in the storyline, and I wish it’s handled better. Also, there’s an animal death for no reason and I’m not a fan of that. It feels like a cheap way to provide an emotional turn for the characters.

Overall, I wish I loved this more but if you’re a fan of YA mysteries you will enjoy A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I will still check out the sequel!

CW: sexual assault, statutory rape, drug use, animal death

About the author: Holly Jackson

Photo by Felipe Furtado