Hello!
This week I have read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson from the YA Book Prize 2020 Shortlist. It is a page turning, crime thriller where, Pippa Fitz-Amboi, tries to uncover a cold case murder in her small town of Little Kilton.
For her EPQ (Extended Project Qualification), as part of her A-Levels, Pippa’s research is based on the ‘2012 missing persons investigation of Andie Bell’ as well as the ‘implications of the press in their presentations of Sal Singh and his alleged guilt’, both of whom attended her school. The EPQ forms the basis of her investigation.
The narrative is presented through the Pip’s first-person production reports for her EPQ, ‘my production log will have to be a little different: I’m going to record all the research I do here, both relevant and irrelevant’. Transcripts of Pip’s interviews are also included and written in interview format:
‘Pip: Do you mind if I record this interview so I can type it up later to use in my project?
Angela: Yes, that’s fine. I ‘m sorry I’ve only got about ten minutes to give you. So what do you want to know about missing persons?
Pip: Well, I was wondering if you could talk me through what happens when someone is reported missing?’
In addition, the story is interspersed with third person narration such as how Pip behaves when she gets nervous: ‘Oh god, this is what happened when she was nervous or backed into a corner; she started spewing useless facts dressed up as bad jokes. And the other thing: nervous Pip turned four strokes more posh’. The transitions between points of view are seamless and provides the reader access to Pip’s thought process as well as omniscient knowledge of the other characters and events.
The fictional town of Little Kilton, based on Great Missenden, and the murder mystery is exemplified through a map, detailing: Sal’s house, Andie Bell’s house, the location of Andie’s car, the school and the woods. All locations that feel as though they could be real, creating a layer of authenticity to the narrative and an unnerving sense of the factual buried within the fiction.
The atmosphere of mystery is established from the outset with the Singh house described as ‘their home was like the town’s own haunted house’ with children ‘daring one another to run up and touch the front gate’. This image is reminiscent of the mystery surrounding the Radley house in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird where ‘Jem wouldn’t get any farther than the Radley gate’.
Pip has a Type A personality. She is smart, ambitious and highly organised. In the midst of her EPQ investigation, she tries to complete her application to Cambridge, prepare for a ‘pre-interview ELAT exam’, finish the ‘admission essay’ and take the entrance exam. However, the deeper Pip digs, her investigation has to potential to derail her future. Pip’s strength and intelligence as an investigator has hints of Riverdale’s Betty and Veronica Mars, unafraid and fact based, strong female protagonist role models.
Pip’s family is a reflection of contemporary families. Her ‘real’ father ‘died in a car accident’ when she was a toddler and she describes Victor (her step-father) and her brother Joshua, not as ‘just three-eighths hers, not just forty percent family, they were fully hers’. As a family unit they come in and out of the narrative, providing a support network and positive encouragement. Their closeness is demonstrated as Victor addresses Pip endearingly as ‘Pickle’. Victor adds moments of light relief in the narrative and is described ‘buoyant’. His actions are humorous as he ‘dramatically, gripping the banister reaching for the departing teenagers, like the house was a sinking ship and he the heroic captain going down with it’ while saying, ‘Fare thee well’.
As Pip works with Ravi, Sal’s older brother, they develop an ever-growing list of ‘Persons of Interest’ uncovering unlikely associations, lies and motives. With the detective skills of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple, in conjunction with the technology of contemporary society, Pip uses everything at her disposal: computers, mobile phones, photographs and police reports, in an attempt to unravel the mystery of missing Andie Bell, the supposed guilt of Sal Singh and uncover the secrets of a small town that hides a murderer.
Themes: murder, lies, secrets, deceit, truth, drugs, date rape, deceit, power, money, bullying, friendship, loyalty, belief, honesty, family
All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations.
The Gold Shoe Writer 