If you are looking for a book that will have you on the edge of your seat, I have the book for you. “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” was released in 2019. I read it in 2023, and it has become one of my favorite books. It is a very fast-paced book that gets straight to the point. This book is about a murder-suicide that has happened in a small town called Fairview. Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, and then killed himself. Five years later, Pip does her senior capstone project on the murder-suicide and starts digging in and filling in gaps that the police never found. Pip doesn’t believe that Sal killed Andie, which was her interest in doing her project about the murder — Pip teams up with Sal’s brother, Ravi, and searches to find Andie’s actual killer. But along the way, her and her family’s lives are in danger. 

Holly Jackson released her debut novel, “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” on May 2, 2019. It became a best-selling mystery series. The book quickly became a New York Times Bestseller. 

The story immediately pulls you in from the first page. I want to enter criminal justice, so this book was perfect. I was solving the case with Pip and Ravi. The characters are all connected differently, and you discover everyone’s secrets. To me, it’s just like watching a true crime documentary told by the investigators. You get Pip’s journal logs, interviews, maps, pictures, etc. 

Reviewers online have expressed their feelings about the book; not all are good. This book is for teens and young adults, and some people don’t like that or think it’s inappropriate for teenagers. This story does talk about murder, suicide, sex, drugs, and a relationship between a teacher and a student. 

Some of these topics may be inappropriate, but it depends on how mature the teenager is. Some reviewers said they didn’t like Jackson’s writing. And I loved the way she wrote this book. But everyone has their own opinions. 

Jackson’s writing is like no other. But Pip and Ravi’s story doesn’t just end after “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,.” It continues with two more books in the series and a novella. These two follow Pip and Ravi to investigate a disappearance in Fairview. Jackson has a few more books I’ve heard people like, and it reminds them of “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.” 

Jackson has released “Five Survive,” which came out on November 29, 2022, and “The Reappearance of Rachel Price,” which will be coming out on April 2, 2024. I will pick it up and read it, but I don’t know if anything can top “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.”