By Holly Jackson

Published: 2020

AR level: 5.4

AR points: 16.0

Word count: 101,302

I suggest: 7th grade+

Well, I’ve been on a bit of a murder mystery and horror streak lately. It may have to do with a manuscript that I’m revisiting–revising for just the right amount of thrill and chill. But I have to say, Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a mystery that has it all.

If you enjoy cracking the case right alongside the character, then this is your book. Although a larger novel, the book is definitely hard to put down. The pages seem to turn themselves to each dark discovery. And I feel fairly confident it will keep even the best reading detectives in the dark up to the last few chapters.

So, for my first post of 2021 (get on out of here, 2020!), get a fire crackling, curl up with your favorite blanket, and follow Pip on a journey to solve a murder case.

Here’s the description:

Everyone in Fairview 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 Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.