Review – A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: February 4, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1984896360
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

“Everyone in Fairview knows the story.

Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.

This is the story of an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you’ll never expect.”

Series Info/Source: I got this book through Amazon Vine to review. This is the first book in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

Story (4/5): This was fine, I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. It’s a good mystery and I liked how the story was presented both as a selection of interviews and a story. I was kind of disappointed that the mystery ended up kind of how I expected it would; I expected it to be a bit harder to guess what was going to happen.

Characters (3/5): I liked Pip, she is intelligent and determined to solve a puzzle that has long haunted her small town. However, her behavior gets increasingly reckless throughout the story and it conflicted with her intelligent persona. I also really thought she should have trusted her parents more and gotten their help early on; she has a great family life and some of her reckless actions really hurt her family. The rest of the characters are so-so, I didn’t really engage with any of them that well. I did get a bit tired of the constant..”Oh, look at what dark secret this character has now!!!” vibe. Especially when all the “dark secrets” were pretty predictable.

Setting (3/5): This takes place in a fairly typical small town setting which I enjoyed. The setting wasn’t really a big driver for the story, aside from the fact that it was “small town”.

Writing Style (4/5): This book alternates between the story with Pip trying to figure things out and entries in her Capstone journal where she dictates interviews. It was fine but I have read a lot of books done in an interview style format that were done a lot better than this one. It’s well written and easy to follow. I was disappointed that my initial guess about who the culprits involved were was completely right. This is one of those mysteries where there is a “who dunnit” list. I always feel like these get very slow in the middle when the protagonist is going back and forth and reviewing the facts over and over….this book was no exception to that “middle drag” syndrome.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall this was a fine read but I didn’t love it. I don’t plan on reading the second book since I just didn’t enjoy the characters or writing style enough to continue with the series. It is decently written though, so if you really enjoy murder mysteries I would recommend giving this a try.