PLOT: 5/5 CHARACTERS: 5/5 ENTERTAINMENT: 5/5 NARRATORS: 5/5 OVERALL: 5/5
“I’m not sure I’m the good girl I once thought I was. I’ve lost her along the way”
– Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
I am a big fan of mysteries and thrillers, and one of my favourite themes has always been closed or unresolved cases. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has long been on my TBR, and a recent review that I saw on Instagram prompted me to pick this one up next.
Thankfully, I found the audio of this book in my Storytel subscription app, and to my great pleasure, it was narrated by a full cast.
Whenever an audiobook is narrated by a full cast, while listening, the story comes alive and becomes quite engaging for the listener. And as I had expected, the entire cast did full justice to the story and its characters.
The summary of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Five years ago, a school girl named Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh. This ruthless murder that killed a young and innocent soul inflicted everyone with grief. Everyone in the small town knows it, including the Police, and believe it in their heart that Sal was the murderer.
Well, everyone except Pippa Fitz-Amobi, who has lived and grown up in the same town and also goes to school there. Pippa does not believe that Sal could be the murderer, having known Sal since she was young. To uncover the truth behind the murder, Pippa chooses this case as her topic for the final year project.
But as she goes in step-by-step, solving the case and unraveling the layers of truth, she starts to uncover secrets that were hidden by the very people of this small town. Secrets that they don’t want coming out.
The real killer is still out there, living his normal life, but as Pip comes closer to the truth, life for her starts getting difficult; something or someone is spelling danger for her.
How far will Pip go to find the real killer?
My thoughts
OMG! This is such a brilliant book and the narration is on point. The writing is fast and gripping, with enough twists and turns that kept me hooked right till the end. Also, unlike many other thrillers that fizzle out in the climax, in the case of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, the final twist was done very cleverly.
With every chapter, we uncover something new, something murkier than before. With every chapter, the finger is pointed at someone new, only to realize in the next chapter that it could be another person. I enjoyed the way the case was solved going step-by-step, by getting all the facts rechecked and finding loopholes in the investigation.
Our main character Pippa is the perfect detective/investigative journalist-in-the-making. She is strong, clear-headed, fearless, curious, and determined. Most of all, she has the guts to do what it takes to solve a case like this one.
“I’ve already learned my lesson here: when you catch someone lying about a murdered girl, you go ask them why.”
If you get your hands on the paperback, well and good. But I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook for this one. If there’s just one statement to describe it, it would be – It’s FANTASTIC!!
All the narrators did a fabulous job. Not just the dialogues and the regular narration but also the real audio phone calls and the vlog entries in the middle of narration were brilliant. If I could give an extra star for the narration, trust me, I surely would.
In the end
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a YA mystery/thriller that should not be missed. Not in any circumstances. It would also make a fantastic TV movie or a series adaptation, perhaps something along the lines of 13 Reasons Why.
As for me, I would be listening to the next two books real soon – Good Girl, Bad Blood, and As Good As Dead.
Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder using the link below.
