Deemed as a very popular and very well-received book on Tik Tok’s reader community called “Book Tok,” “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” by Holly Jackson met every high expectation a reader could have going into it.
Five years ago, a murder took place in the protagonist Pippa’s hometown. Everyone knows what happened; Andie Bell’s boyfriend Sal Singh murdered her and then killed himself. The police are sure he did it, and so is everyone in town. So why does Pippa feel as though there is more to the story? Seemingly the perfect person for the job, Pippa chooses to investigate the cold case as her senior year project; she begins to believe that no one really knows the truth about what happened on that tragic night so many years ago.
However, there is someone out there who clearly thinks Pippa is getting a little too close, and there are very few lengths they will not go to in order to keep her away. Is her safety worth revealing the truth, or has the truth been out all along?
The plot of this book was extremely unpredictable and fast-paced, allowing the reader to be hooked from the very beginning. It’s a classic “whodunnit” with a little bit of romance mixed in as well, making it a very appealing and rewarding read. Jackson does a fantastic job of convincing the reader that they are sure of who the murderer is, then completely throwing them off in the next chapter.
One of the best aspects of this particular book is the inability to set it down. With each and every page, a new element or component is added to the story, making it harder and harder to take a break. While some mysteries can be too predictable or unrealistic, this one is the perfect mesh of surprising and practical, earning a well-deserved 5/5 stars.
This book is the first of a trilogy, the next book being “Good Girl, Bad Blood.”