"A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" by Holly Jackson is a fun and thrilling debut novel you won’t want to put down!
Five years ago, Andie Bell went missing and her boyfriend Sal was the number one suspect. Before Sal was officially charged, he sends a confession text to his father and shortly after is found dead in the woods. Never finding the body of Andie, residents of the small town go about their lives believing Sal was the real murderer.
Eager to become a journalist, straight-A student Pippa Fitz-Amobi doesn't buy that Sal Singh killed Andie and took his own life. She decides her senior capstone project on the crime will be her first report, in hopes to clear Sal of Andie's disappearance & murder. Was Andie the popular and innocent girl everyone thought? Was Sal Singh capable of killing someone? Pippa teams up with Ravi, Sal's younger brother, but neither of them realizes that her project will thrust them into a world of secrets, lies and crime.
I know readers can't actually see me clapping, but I am! You would never know reading that this is a debut novel. I had no idea until I looked up the author's bio.
Ms. Holly Jackson does a fantastic job at bringing the characters to life and it feels like you are alongside Pip and Ravi trying to solve the mystery. The secondary characters were written beautifully, and the author gave each of them their own personalities. You will be rooting for Pip the entire way. The twists and turns of this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat. Kudos to the author for giving the readers a realistic and exciting mystery to solve.
The only negative thing I will say is that there was a lot going on. What I mean by that is my Kindle told me I was only 50% through the book and I already had a great deal of information and multiple suspects. I found myself having to make sure I had a clear mind before diving back into the novel day 2 and looking back to see who some of the characters were. I thought some of the information was repeated in the dialogue and on the capstone reports the author gave us. In my opinion, one or the other could have been omitted for certain point and parts of the story.
I would give this novel 4 out of 5 stars. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the "info dumping". But I still recommend you pick up this debut novel. My only suggestion is to make sure you are focused when reading so you can keep up.
Check out the link to purchase this book below!
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Girls-Guide-Murder/dp/1405293187
*I received a complementary copy of this book, in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine*