A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – Book Review

Title: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Author: Holly Jackson

Number of Pages: 433 pages

Publisher: Electric Monkey

Publication Date: May 2, 2019

Purchase: Thriftbooks//Amazon//Book Depository

My Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis 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?

My Thoughts:

I loved the concept and how it was written. I loved that it was a mix of her narration and her log for school. It was an interesting combination that worked really well together. I would love to see more mystery type books like this.

I had a few problems with this story.

Pippa committed so many ethical violations throughout her investigation.She broke into someone’s house! Seriously, what the hell? I understand she was looking for evidence but breaking and entering usually isn’t allowed and she should have been shut down for that if anything.

She blackmailed people. That’s how she got quite a few people to talk to her. If she was trying to prove anything and clear someone’s name, this was the wrong way to do it. Any evidence she gives the police would not have been usable.

Also, who the hell allows someone to do this as an end of year project? Wasn’t she also not suppose to have contact with the families?

This town is also extremely racist. That seemed to be an underlining theme throughout this story but it never fully gets addressed.

It is a great debut and perfect for someone still in high school or has recently graduated. It is sometimes hard for me to relate to people in YA because high school was 5 years ago for me. This time, I do remember the end of year project but it was nothing like this.

Have you read this? If so, what were your thoughts?

Lets talk about it in the comments.