Holly Jackson is the author of the New York Times bestselling series A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, an international sensation with millions of copies sold worldwide. She is also the author of the thriller Five Survive. She graduated from the University of Nottingham, where she studied literary linguistics and creative writing, gaining a master's degree in English. She enjoys playing video games and watching true-crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective. She lives in London. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @HoJay92. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
Pip is not a detective anymore. With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. Though the podcast went viral, Pip insists that her sleuthing days are behind her. But when someone she knows goes missing and the police won't do anything, Pip has no choice but to investigate. After all, Jamie Reynolds disappeared on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the six-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh. It has to be more than a coincidence. Pip follows a trail of clues, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way . . . and this time, everyone is listening. Will she find Jamie before it's too late?
What I loved about A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is the creative storytelling format, and Jackson leans even further into that with Good Girl, Bad Blood. Not only does the book include interview transcripts Pip records with eyewitnesses, but it also includes images of evidence, podcast upload updates, podcast transcripts, and more. I love how this kept the details of the mystery fresh in my mind, while also keeping it fresh on the page. What I also love about this structure is how it shows Pip's growth as an investigator. She's able to use her podcast and the internet as a resource for this second mystery, and it shows in how the story is told.
Good Girl, Bad Blood starts almost pretty much where A Good Girl's Guide to Murder left off. What I love is how Jackson doesn't just drop us into a new mystery, where everything was resolved at the end of Book 1, and how Book 2 was a fresh slate. Pip has her reservations this time, the town has a memory of the Andie Bell and Sal Singh murders, and all of that is very present in this second investigation. All of this affects how Pip is working through the investigation, and how she figures out who she wants to be. Pip's arc in this one is definitely more complicated, and it makes the novel more engrossing, because we've gotten just as invested in her as a character as we have in Jackson's mystery-spinning skills. I can't wait to read the third book to see how it all comes together even further, and how everything (if anything) will get resolved.
I've heard some people who read this before me say that this one wasn't as good as the first one. I will agree, the mystery in the first novel felt more explosive, and the twists of that one had higher stakes. Pip's dog dying felt like a punch to the gut, and that's the kind of thing that's hard to replicate in a sequel. I was able to guess some of the key players in this mystery (especially when a specific town was mentioned enough times to feel fishy), but overall, I think Jackson does a great job crafting an engaging and twisty mystery. Despite how I was able to guess some key players, I was surprised by other people who came into the story, and felt that the surprises definitely outweighed my correct suspicions. It may not feel as explosive as the first novel, but in some respects it felt just as high-stakes based on the timeline for missing persons and how everyone on social media and around town was pressuring Pip to find the culprit.
I wasn't sure I needed to read the second or third book in the series until I finished Good Girl, Bad Blood. I was satisfied with the ending of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but now that I've read this one, I feel a burning need to check out As Good As Dead to know how it all ends. So, until then, you can find Holly Jackson on Instagram and Twitter @HoJay92. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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