Good Girl, Bad Blood
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #2
by Holly Jackson

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: YA mystery, suspense

After solving the mystery of Andie Bell’s and Sal Singh’s deaths, Pip and Ravi create a limited-run podcast to share their discoveries. Due to the podcast’s success, when Jamie Reynolds, the brother of one of Pip’s close friends, goes missing, his family asks her to use her audience to try to find him. Pip is resistant at first, not wanting to get caught up in another investigation, given how damaging the last one had been for her and those around her, but since the police don’t consider the disappearance a priority, Pip knows she can’t leave her friend and his family without answers.

I liked this book a tad more than the previous, I think because it felt a little more focused than the first one, with so many paths Pip went down to get to the real truth. I liked the merger of the updates from the previous investigation with the new case at hand. I have to admit that I pegged the main bad guy really early in the book, which is not normal to me, but I honestly don’t know if it was majorly telegraphed or if I just took a guess based on tropes of the genre. I think there was at least one thing that happened that wasn’t explained, which I wish had been. And the reader is definitely not given a chance to figure out the motive in advance, but then again, this isn’t exactly a cozy mystery, so I think that’s okay.

I still get serious Veronica Mars vibes from this series (in a good way). I take issue with some of the ethical and legal lines Pip is willing to cross in this book, with no consequences, though they may come about in the next book. For those who want to know about content, there is some language and references to drug use and rape, though nothing explicit. If you’re concerned, I’d definitely recommend reading it before your teen does (especially a younger teen). I’ve enjoyed this series thus far and look forward to the conclusion.

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