Book 19 A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson fulfilled the category “A BookTok Recommendation” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. I don’t remember where I viewed the recommendation, but it’s absolutely on BookTok.

Here is another category where I shifted books around to fit prompts. I think I originally chose Circe for this prompt. After reading two witch books I did not enjoy, I moved Circe to another category and re-choose for this one. So again, I read multiple books for one prompt. (Do we see a terrible pattern in this blog? Yes, yes, we do. Sigh.)

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a YA mystery/thriller. A high schooler, Pippa Fitz-Amobi, must create a senior capstone project. She chooses to write about the press impact on a five-year-old murder in her town. Well, that’s what she tells her teacher. In reality, Pippa plans to solve the mystery and redeem the person accused. The crime involved the death of a young woman by her boyfriend, who committed suicide shortly after the murder. Allegedly. Pippa doesn’t believe it and sets out with the accused man’s brother to find the true killer.

The junior detective in the book discovered many things the police did not. I think using race as a barrier worked in the novel. A few times, the author hinted the authorities and the town found it easier to blame the “brown” people for the problems and closed the case. Pippa’s unique heritage and family added to the atmosphere, showing the reader how important it was to not judge people by their skin color.

The story reminded me of Truly Devious, another book where a high schooler solves a cold case as their senior project. There are many similarities. The books were published about the same time. I wondered if one influenced the other. (Truly Devious was published a year before A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.) Or is this a new trend in YA mysteries? Either way, I like it.

This was a debut novel for author Holly Jackson. For a first book, she hit a home run. The twists and turns were well-executed, though the novel’s pacing felt off. With a tiny romantic subplot and teenage issues, the story dragged in a few spots. And a horrific event occurred towards the end of the book. I won’t say what it was, but it could trigger some people. The ending was written beautifully and kept me on my toes.

I listened to the audio, but the paper and digital have more details with maps, written-out text messages, and pictures. The reader was amazing. Maybe grab both formats.

I give A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson Five Smart and Determined Female Teens.