Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Written by Holly Jackson, Review by Asiyah, Grade 12 - 3/5
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a mystery novel in which 17-year-old Pippa Amobi-Fitz investigates a five-year-old murder case that has continued to haunt her town. The case is closed as the authorities and everyone in town agree that Sal Singh killed his then-girlfriend, Andie Bells, and then committed suicide in order to not get charged with murder. Initially, her investigation only starts as a school project on crime in media, however, the more she interviews people involved with the alleged murderer and the victim, the more she unravels and suspects that the whole truth has not been told.
The strongsuit of this book is the mystery and the plot as Jackson writes a well-paced and suspenseful story. However, the weaknesses of this book include the characters as well as the atmosphere, or lack thereof. The main characters, Pippa and Ravi lack well-rounded personalities as well as any chemistry between them. This, however, is not a major cause for concern as the mystery makes up for this. The atmosphere, however, was not well developed or present at all. As this book takes place in a small town in England and is about a murder mystery, it can be said that the expected atmosphere should have been slightly darker and gloomier. However, one aspect of the book that I appreciated was how the protagonist was not an overpowered investigator at all as all her discoveries were rational and reasonable.
This book also deals with systemic racism against South Asian people in the legal system and I was weary about how well it was going to be handled considering Holly Jackson is white. However, I believe she did an adequate job at portraying it as she didn’t go into too much depth, she described the surface-level discrimination people of colour face. Overall, this book is definitely worth reading for mystery and crime fans.