Series Review | A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Series by Holly Jackson

Here’s my thoughts on this popular YA mystery series.

---

The series follows Pippa Fitz-Amobi as she begins investigating the mysteries and cold cases that surround her small town and reveal secrets thought long buried. She starts a podcast chronicling her search and discoveries.  This is a quick-paced mystery with lots of twists, turns, and reveals. If you decide to pick it up, I highly recommend the audiobook, which has a full cast used very sparingly, but effectively.

---

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Rating: ★★★☆☆
Release Date: May 2, 2019

This was an excellent audiobooks and I devoured it in one day.

I really loved the actual mystery in the story – I thought it was well plotted, and there were a few twists, so even though I was able to guess some, I still had some surprises. The overall cast of characters is large (yielding a great audiobook as stated) but it was never confusing to follow. My biggest complaint was Pip. I grew more and more frustrated with her as the story progresses, with my biggest gripe coming at the end of the story. The book does suffer from YA mystery syndrome where in order for anything at all to be possible in the plot, police and parents must know nothing, I’ve accepted this in the genre so that didn’t bother me.

---

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

Rating: ★★★★☆
Release Date: April 30, 2020

This series might be taking over as my favorite YA mystery series!

Book 2 picks up shortly after the events of book 1, but there is growth with the characters and Pip in particular makes less frustrating choices. I loved how Pip’s friends were included more throughout the story, but I do feel like Ravi took a bit of a back seat. And once again, the production of audiobook is fantastic.

---

As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5 Stars)
Release Date: August 5, 2021

After praising Pip for making smarter choices in book 2, I was once again frustrated with her in the conclusion to the series. While I can understand a certain amount of distrust she exhibits, especially after the trauma she faced in book 2, this story just got more and more unbelievable. I really wish that we focused solely on one of the 2 big plot points in this book- either the defamation trial against Max or Pip’s stalker. I think that having both in this book, weakened the overall pacing and made the stakes feel lower and the plot a bit rushed. I did like that more side characters were included here as well, and we get to see more of Ravi, so that’s an immediate win. Overall this was a lackluster conclusion to me, but a fun and easy series to listen to overall.

---

Favorite mystery series? Share below.