Good Girl, Bad Blood is the sequel to the wildly popular A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Although this sequel was not up to par in my opinion, it was still a solid read. If you missed the main characters from the first book in the series, they –Pip(pa) Fitz-Amobi and Ravi Singh– make a reentry in this novel, simply confronted with a different set of mysteries. This time, it’s not for certain that there was foul play, but it’s at least what Pip highly suspects when Jamie, the older brother of Connor (a close friend of Pip’s), abruptly goes missing.
There were no glaring flaws in terms of this novel or its plot; it just felt like a typical Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book. There was a pretty big plot twist at the end, but it was less impactful or moving than the ones in Good Girl, Bad Blood. I think this was so due to myself feeling more disconnected from the story overall and how the book didn’t have the high tension that frequently characterized the scenes of the first book. The reason for my disconnection is hard to pinpoint, but aside from Pip and Ravi, it was difficult to really care about the characters. Perhaps if Jackson had spent a bit more time in the novel introducing Jamie and Connor or done a bit more “showing and not telling,” I would’ve cared a bit more, which I get is hard when Connor is a character who goes missing in your story but still.
At the novel’s conclusion, you realize that a certain character in the story is in fact someone else and been deceiving you all along. While it was a bit surprising, I felt an overall sense of nonchalance about it. Pip and Ravi are still great characters, however, and the mysterious, sort of spooky atmosphere that was critical to making the first novel of the series so successful still remains. Overall, I’d say that this sequel is still worth reading, as it is a pretty solid read overall, and a final book to this series is coming out in November or so. Stay tuned for another book of this gripping mystery series!
Review By ~ Andrew
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