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?
For readers of Kara Thomas and Karen McManus, an addictive, twisty crime thriller with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about a closed local murder case that doesn’t add up, and a girl who’s determined to find the real killer—but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
I’m usually not one for crime or mystery because I tend to figure everything out before the end, but Jackson kept me with Pip the whole time. I did have a few side thoughts on who I thought it would be and my on internal spider diagram, but I’ll admit I was wrong. I wasn’t way off, but I didn’t get it either. Which is an achievement because I’ve usually called it very early. Jackson made the plot quite complex and had many different suspects with different motives, but she never tripped over herself or confused me as the reader. They all had legitimate reason and it made for an impeccably interesting read.
I adored Pip as a lead. She’s very normal and likeable. It would be very hard to not like her. Ravi was also interesting and likeable. They make good partners in crime and their banter added a little humour and light. It almost made you forget the seriousness of what they were doing. I do sometimes think Pip made some poor and quick decisions that could have been dangerous. She didn’t seem to quite grasp the severity of some of the questions she was asking given the situation. I’m surprised some of the people she interviewed didn’t snap at her or tell her where to go, if you know what I mean. The format was very nice. It was a mix of the regular novel style and Pip’s production log, interviews and notes. I was concerned at the beginning that it would be mostly told in the form of Pip’s log in an Illuminae way, but thankfully as the book progressed the log’s became more spaced out and helped the narrative rather than overwhelming it.
Overall, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was an interesting and twisty YA thriller with intent and surprises in abundance. Even if crime or thriller isn’t your genre I think you’ll find this book enjoyable. It isn’t over complicated, it’s just complex enough to make a compelling mystery without being too much or predictable.
★★★★★/5 :)
