Everyone in Little Kilton 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 Little Kilton doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. Book 1
This was lovely. For a YA mystery book it was indeed quite lovely. I suppose I read the UK version? And also, I may be old for these book in age, but I never mind, sometimes reading about teens doing stuff is refreshing memories of how much of dumb shit can be dug from our own past. Just not as bad. in general I enjoyed the storyline, especially the pacing and the placement of all ups and downs so you're kept in that state of confusion (if you're not part of the brainy type).
Pip decided on her EPQ project theme to be the disappearance of the Andie Bell. With undeniable proof of Sal Singh's guilt that was found by the police the case was closed and the Singh family is now branded as a family of a murderer. But something always bothered Pip as a person who knew Sal personally, she just couldn't believe that such a kind young man was capable of doing what he's been charged with. Sal can't even defend himself because his body was found and he committed suicide out of guilt.
I'm not a person who likes to guess 'who did it'. If some ideas come into my head I may follow them, but otherwise I just like the feeling of a bit of a surprise coming. The only thing I thought about while reading - they couldn't be most obvious ones for sure (and I didn't guess exactly who, but certainly the category of not the obvious ones?). Holly Jackson managed to pace the book in such a way, so your conviction will constanty follow and change along with the main character. And because it's a YA, it may not be as dangerous as you think. Maybe a little bit.
This is how we follow Pippa on her journey to find out the truth. We see a lot of intricate relationships that keep getting interconnected and no one is as simple as they seem. Starting from Andie herself.
I saw comments that said stuff like - why people simply answered the girl's questions, but honestly why would they not? Sometimes strangers start to use you as a confession room and you surprised about this.. In many cases she reported who she was and what she's doing, but also I felt like there is a bit of disregard in people's attitude towards what Pippa did, "what can a young girl do?" that type of vibe. And another one is that how she was able to uncover what police was unable to... em, here I might argue. Real life is not a TV show with some genius detective that solves the crimes at count three, a lot of perpetrators are quite dumb when they commit something, so it's easy to investigate, but at other times police will follow the obvious path instead of theorizing. After all it's a missing person case, all evidence was against Sal Singh, what did they have to do? And yeah if they had some big head, which was the main character it might have been the case, but it's a YA mystery and our main girl is a teen "detective". Not comparing, but Nancy Drew somehow became the popular.. what was the word, sleuth? yeah, that's it.
Also what Pip asked and what she found are not grounbreaking things, it's just that there was no need to investigate further. While her agenda was different from everyone involved and for whom this case should better have stayed closed.
Not going to put any spoilers here, because books like these need their own reader to dig for the truth.
RATE: 4,75/5.
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