A Good Girls Guide To Murder – AGGGTM
It’s not every day you come across a guide on murder, well a lousy one in this case. No, of course, this is not a step-by-step handbook on how to get into handcuffs, but ‘a good girl’s guide to murder’ rather narrates the thrilling and darkly humorous story of an A* grade senior, Pippa Fitz-Amobi who won’t let go of a closed cold-case regarding a student’s murder, 5 years ago. Formatted into a college report, completed with log entries, interviews, murder diagrams and maps, the addictive plot grows with the themes of justice, family, corruption and survival, ultimately becoming a dangerous reality.
Everyone in town along with the police knew that it was Sal Singh who murdered Andrea Bell, but Pip is not so sure and her gut is never wrong. Though the alleged killer was never really proven guilty, it was the ‘path of least resistance’, but Pip believes it was rather the path of assumptions. The pieces don’t fit together well and something is definitely wrong. When she got the chance of writing an Extended Project Qualification for school, she pounced on the chance of choosing this case as her topic, unravelling it before her, with her prudent detective and organisational skills to finally know the truth, not only for her but also the town she lived in, Little Kilton, a seemingly sweet town shrouded in a veil of secrets and mystery yet to be uncovered.
Growing up reading ‘The Famous Five’ and ‘The Secret Seven’, whodunit’s were always my personal favourite when it came to having a good read. During the course of this book, I immediately related with Pip, someone who is never satisfied with the easiest line of conduct, and would work day and night or break into houses if they had to, just to crack the case. As with every lead she got, I formulated my own theories and was as invested in the murder as she was. Surprisingly finishing 430 pages in a frenzy of 3 hours, AGGGTM has been, by far the hardest book to put down. It didn’t matter whether it was 2 am on a school night, I just had to find out which one of my 4 suspects would finally end up behind the bars…