Synopsis

Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. The case is closed.

But Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. She decides to investigate the case for her final year project and 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?

Review

I was looking forward to reading Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, as it was cropping up everywhere, but I found it quite slow going.

The book is written as if by a teenager, which is appropriate considering the protagonist, but is quite annoying, especially as Pippa isn’t telling the story herself; I’m also not sure the writing style of her journal etc. fitted with her being a clever and meticulous student destined for Cambridge.

As a character Pippa is irritating and not at all likeable. Her lack of consideration for any of her friends and family is appalling and she comes across as very arrogant.

As she uncovers more and more clues (that the police failed to find), the story got more ridiculous; Pippa harasses people with quite murky pasts, yet they casually give this teenage sleuth incriminating information about themselves and then let her walk freely out of the door.

In my opinion, the reader is given far too many clues; I worked out the murderer (and which other character was going to die) quite early on and the ending is a little far fetched.

That said, there are still some good plot twists and I did want to keep reading to the end.

It’s worth reading, but sadly doesn’t live up to all the hype.

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