Another Episode, Another Mystery

In this episode, Claire and I discuss A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson.

It seems like we just had an episode about a teenage girl solving a cold case... right? Didn't we? Yes, yes we did. But this one is different. Instead of going to a boarding school because of her abilities to solve crimes, our main character in this book, Pippa, is using her crime-solving abilities to get into college. And, you know, to prove her childhood hero is innocent.

Five years ago, sweetheart Andie Bell was "murdered" by her boyfriend, Sal Singh. But Pippa knows it's not true. Sal just couldn't do that! But no one can talk to him about it because shortly after "murdering" his girlfriend he "committed suicide." I put all those in quotes because there was no trial proving that Sal did anything to Andie and there's no way he'd kill himself. Pippa just can't believe it. She begins investigating as part of her senior capstone project and begins to find new evidence and learns secrets that someone apparently wants to stay hidden. That's when the mysterious texts and letters begin. If you start getting ominous texts about your senior project, you should probably stop doing that project, right? Not if it means you're getting closer to solving a cold case and proving that Sal Singh was innocent and maybe Andie wasn't as innocent as she seemed...

We had a lot of fun recording this episode, see?

But you know what? I have some bones to pick with this one. Things like the use of the word duvet and ringing someone on the phone. There were other things, too, but those stood out to me the most. You know who they didn't stand out to? Claire. Because she's from the United Kingdom and snuggles under her duvet when she gets chilly and rings her friends on the phone all the time. It wasn't weird for her, but oh man, was it for me. After some sleuthing, it was discovered that this book was originally published in the United Kingdom before it was brought over to the United States. It was not originally set in Fairview, Connecticut, it was set in Little Kilton, Buckinghamshire. Now all I want to do is read the original and see if it's less grating to me.

Other than that, I loved the book. I love epistolary novels, you know, novels with journal entries and other bits included. It was a great mystery and I didn't know whodunit until Pippa did, so, way to go debut author Holly Jackson.

Good work, but get a better editor next time if you're going to change locations, okay?


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