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Suspense. Thriller. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML:THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES WITH OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD�?� Everyone is talking about this addictive must-read mystery with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you'll never expect. 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. And don't miss the sequel, Good Girl, Bad Blood! "The perfect nail-biting mystery." �??Natasha Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling autho… (more)
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Everyone, that is, except Pippa. Though a few years younger than them, she knew both Sal and Andie, and refuses to believe that Sal might have been responsible. This prompts her to undertake an investigation, reviewing the available evidence and going through all the available facts with a fine toothcomb, helped by some of her schoolfriends, and Ravi, Sal’s brother.
I found it a very appealing book. Although it is apparently aimed primarily at a young adult audience, I felt it stood up in its own right, and didn’t hold back from addressing serious issues, including drug abuse and the use of Rohypnol. While reading it I was struck several times by echoes of the first ‘Serial’ podcast, and found the format very engaging, with its mix of straight narrative and extracts from Pippa’s notes and transcripts of her interviews.
There is always a risk with this sort of book that the protagonist comes across as too self-righteous and always correct. Ms Jackson deftly dodges that bullet: Pip is a highly engaging, character, but far from faultless.
All in all, I found this very entertaining, and I am looking forward to reading the other books in the series.
Pippa is in high school and she has to do a project for her final year. She decides to investigate a murder case from five years
Apparently the version I listened to was Americanized from the original which was set in England near London. I really wish publishers wouldn't do that. Surely readers are astute enough to figure out any British sayings that might pop up.
Andie's body has never been found and Sal wasn't the kind of young man you'd think of as a murderer. Pip knew
She goes to interview Sal's younger brother Ravi who is completely convinced that his brother wasn't a killer and he becomes her partner in the investigation. She doesn't have as much luck when she tries to interview Andie's younger sister.
The investigation becomes something of an obsession for Pip as she uncovers more and more and keeps finding new suspects and new avenues to investigate. But the investigation gets really close to home and someone desperately wants Pip to stop investigating.
This was an excellent, fast-paced story filled with twists and turns. The characters, especially Pip, were well-drawn and interesting people. The plot kept up a fast pace and the ending came as quite a surprise.
I flew through this one and did not want to put it down. It was so good. I loved following along
This is told in three parts. Part one was so good and engaging. I would have given part one five stars. It was where most of the interviews occurred which I really liked. Part two did slow down a little. I do think this would have even better if it was maybe around fifty some pages less. There was a lot of repeating information around the suspects that did get a little repetitive.
I did not love the ending and why everything happened the way it did. However; overall, I did enjoy this one more than I was expecting and highly recommend it on audio.
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
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.
The protagonist is Pip, who, for her final school project, has chosen to reexamine an infamous cold case that happened in her hometown. While everyone around her believes what the official police investigation stated-that Sal Singh killed his girlfriend Andie
This book has everything I love-a twisty mystery, secrets from the past, a romance I rooted for from the start, unique characters, a strong female narrator, use of unique formats, suspense, and surprises. The comparisons to Serial (Season 1) and Making a Murderer (both of which I also loved) are spot on, but this is also a book that more than stands on its own.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is one of my favorite reads of the year. Get your hands on a copy as soon as possible and make it one of yours as well!
Pippa, or Pip, has started her senior project and it is a doozy. She has decided to tackle the mystery of the murder of a teen girl several years ago. Everyone knows that Andie Bell was killed by Sal Singh, everyone except for Pip. Pip is convinced that what everything thinks happened is absolutely wrong and she teams up with Sal’s brother, Ravi, to find out what did happen that night. Pip starts looking at everything that happened in detail, interviewing people who were there, and looking for inconsistencies. I loved the format of the book and really enjoyed taking a peek at all of Pip’s notes, interviews, emails, and other assorted evidence.
This was a very good mystery. I was pretty sure from the start that Sal had not been guilty of murder but I had no idea what had really happened to Andie. There were characters that trusted and others that I didn’t. There were a lot of twists that I did not see coming. Not at all. Things do get pretty intense at times and I worried about some of the things that Pip was doing more than once. I think that I was just as taken by the mystery as I was Pip and the other characters.
I would recommend this book to others. This was one of those books where the pages just seemed to fly by because I was enjoying the story so much. Pip and all of her friends were fun to spend time with and I cannot wait to read the next installment in the series.
In A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, the clues are presented in the form of interviews and notes, making the police investigation into the case seem terribly incomplete. As more and more suspects are revealed it becomes clear that Pip's sleuthing is making several people nervous and putting her in more danger than she ever could have imagined. My only minor complaint is that Pip's reasons for playing detective make her seem a bit detached since she has no real personal connection to the case. Overall, however, an extremely well-thought out and engaging young adult mystery well worth the read.
The romance is sweet and subtle. The writing flows well and the plot is well constructed aside from the major issues above and aside from the incredibly whackadoodle Flowers in the Attic aspect, which doesn't fit the character at all.
Read this if you like Serial or if you like YA mysteries. You'll love it.
This YA teen crime thriller is both fast paced, intricate and addictive. At first I did think that Pippa was a little to good to be true, very mature for her age and she seemed to know exactly how to progress her theories about the crime, but eventually, she shows that she is indeed an impulsive teen who sometimes acts before she thinks. I was a little hesitant about reading a YA crime thriller, but this book totally worked for me. I liked the main characters and I thought the plot was intelligent and there were a few twists that certainly held my attention.
The book is written with journal-like entries, charts, text screenshots and interview recordings and this unique format brought a sense of reality to the story. For me, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was a book that I found hard to put down, I was constantly wanting to read “just a few pages more” as Pippa stumbled ever closer to the truth.
"He smiled, put his hands on the back of her neck, fingers in her hair, and leaned in to press his forehead against hers. He’d told her before that he did it to take away half her sadness, half
Okay, I know A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is YA, but what teacher would green light that project? Not to mention all her reports, which I am guessing were turned in weekly, clearly showed that she did not follow rules one: don't talk to the families. That's exactly the first thing she did! It was sad when
This was my pick for The StoryGraph's Onboarding Reading Challenge 2022, prompt three, Read a book from your 7th most-read genre in your All Time stats. My 7th most-read genre was Mystery.
The idea is interesting. I’m just
Pip was a terrific character. She was an intelligent, feisty young lady who wasn't afraid to stand up against injustices. She did annoy me at times, but I liked that she was determined to find the truth regardless of the cost.
"A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" was an engaging YA mystery from a debut author. Well done, Ms Jackson.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a young adult mystery. The
Everyone except Pip. Now that she's a high school senior herself, Pip plans to use her senior capstone project to investigate the truth behind Andie's disappearance and apparent murder. The Sal she knew was a nice guy - she's never been able to accept that he might have killed his girlfriend, and it's always bothered her that the entire town so readily accepted this narrative. She convinces Ravi, Sal's brother, to help her, and the two of them begin picking at the various threads of the original investigation, trying to find things that the police missed.
A star student hoping to get into a good college almost certainly wouldn't have picked a senior capstone project with a high probability of getting disqualified (Pip was told flat out that any ethical violations would get her disqualified). But the author needed a reason why Pip would be able to devote this much time and effort to a single thing - if you can accept that, the investigation in general was pretty interesting. I enjoyed the way Pip dug into her topic and tried to find various holes or inconsistencies. At least until the end, the way everything was laid out (including things like Pip's map, her attempts at a timeline, etc.) made it feel like readers could follow along and try to solve the mystery with her.
Pip was so focused on her investigation that it was, unfortunately, easy to forget that she had family or friends. Anytime any of them had on-page appearances, it was a bit of a surprise. I had particular difficulty remembering the names of Pip's friends. Maybe that's part of the reason why Pip herself never really grew on me as a character. I enjoyed her investigation, while she was just the way that investigation was communicated to readers.
And about that investigation...for someone who was supposedly so smart, Pip made some truly boneheaded decisions at times. The ones that stuck out to me the most were the ones that literally put her in danger. I get that she wanted more information than the police would likely give her later on, but confronting a likely murderer all on her own was really, really stupid, especially considering that her investigation had already led to more death.
While I generally liked this book, I haven't decided yet whether I'll continue on with the series. As far as I'm concerned, this book works fine as a standalone.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)