When I finished Jackson’s first Pippa Fitz-Amboi thriller novel A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I loved it and I was excited to read the next novel in the trilogy. However, I was a little nervous that the second novel was not going to be as exciting as the first; my sights were set pretty high for Good Girl, Bad Blood. Again, Jackson did not disappoint with Bad Blood! I believe it is even better than Guide to Murder and, again, there were amazing twists and turns as well as some jaw-dropping moments.
The novel begins with Pip putting together the final touches of her season 1 podcast regarding the harrowing details of the Andie Bell disappearance and murder case. Ravi Singh, Pip’s new boyfriend, is also a contributor to the podcast. Ravi, in fact, comes up with the title for the podcast: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Pip’s podcast becomes one of the most listened to podcasts and there are many different online articles that come about because of it talking about the different aspects of the case. After she has reached the height of her success with the podcast, she swears to the people in her life that her crime-solving days are over; she does not want another case to consume her life like Andie Bell and Sal Singh’s murder did. She also does not want to put her life in danger. She keeps her promise until her friend’s brother, Connor, comes knocking on her door to tell her his brother Jamie is missing. When Jamie is reported missing and the police consider his disappearance “low risk” and do not use any available resources to start to search for him, Pip feels that she has no choice but to help Connor and his family find justice and Jamie. There are instances, however, where the missing have secrets to hide from and do not want to be found.
Jackson does another amazing job of telling this story. Pip is again illustrated as a teenage heroine who does not take no for an answer and will do anything to figure out the truth. As expected, her sleuthing uncovers some unsavory things about Jamie as well as the town, but she takes these findings in stride and refuses to give up. Jackson is a master at intricately weaving a plot that will keep the reader guessing until the very end. I also enjoy the fact that Jackson uses different formats in her novels rather than just telling everything in the narrative form; some formats are written in email threads, text messages, and letters. Bad Blood is an addictive read! I am so excited to read the final novel in this trilogy…stay tuned!
Bookworm's Delight 