Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Book 2) by Holly Jackson

Book Review

Title: Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Book 2) by Holly Jackson

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: 5 Stars

After reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder last month I couldn’t wait to get into the sequel because I absolutely loved the first book especially the relationship between Pip and Ravi and I hope to see more of them as a potential couple. The opening to Good Girl, Bad Blood was a great wrap up of the previous novel as Pip publishes her podcast about the investigation in Andie’s disappearance and Sal’s death which really takes off but she insists that her investigating days are over now. We also see her following the trial of Max Hastings who is faced various rape and sexual assault charges and the vigil for the anniversary of Sal and Andie’s deaths. This was hard for all the characters now the truth has come out but it was so nice to see Ravi and Pip as a proper couple and supporting each other through these difficult times and I can’t wait to see how this develops over the course of this novel.

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As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Connor comes over to ask for Pip’s help in investigating his brother’s disappearance since both he and his mother believe that something has happened to Jamie. Pip at first refuses but offers to go to her contact in the police to see if they will change the priority on the case but is essentially told that there are other missing persons like an 8 year old who are higher risk than Jamie who is an adult with a history of disappearing without contact. Hearing this Pip decides she has no choice but to investigate and Ravi promises to stick by her through it all like he did last time. She interviews Connor and his mother, Joanna to get a timeline of Jamie’s movements on the night he was last seen and in the weeks leading up to his disappearance. The last time Jamie was seen was actually by Pip at the vigil for Sal and Andie and she learns that he was supposed to head over to Nat da Silva’s house that night but it seems more complicated than that. It is assumed that Jamie had feelings for Nat and was heartbroken when she met her boyfriend, Luke Eaton but lately he had been talking to someone and sneaking out at night more than usual. His mother and brother also note his erratic moods over the past few months and that he also has a tense relationship with his father who sees Jamie as a waste of space. Pip is immediately thrown back into things she has been avoiding but she is hopeful that things might turn out differently this time but she isn’t looking forward to speaking to Nat who still hates her. However, in Jamie’s room they try to get into his laptop and fail for now but they find a name, Hillary F Weiseman and a woman’s watch belonging to someone unknown. Pip gets missing flyers printed and gets Stanley Forbes to put them in the paper as well as announcing the news on her podcast.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Pip begins to really throw herself into the investigation seeking out photos and videos from the memorial in order to find Jamie. She soon learns from Cara that Jamie might have been at the calamity party she went to after the memorial and this is soon confirmed by the host. Pip reaches out and asks for photos and videos of the party in order to track Jamie’s movements and figure out where he went after the memorial and who he was watching. As she and Ravi begin going through all these photos and videos they uncover a few pieces of information. The first is that Max was at the memorial despite knowing that no one wanted him there and this might have been who Jamie saw but they can’t be sure. The second is that Jamie was definitely at the as he is seen clearly in photos and videos and that he was watching someone near the fireplace and they are trying to find out who. From another partygoer they learn that Jamie took a phone call outside the party and he was clearly upset and kept repeating that there is something he can’t do and there is reference to a child but who the child belongs to is unclear. After these revelation Pip has to face her parents and explain that she is investigating Jamie’s disappearance despite promising them she was done after last time. Pip seems much more grown up probably because of the events of the first book and her parents support her and it is here her mother lets loose a huge piece of information. She explains that Jamie had been fired from his job with her after she caught him trying to steal the company credit card and all he could say to her was he was desperate and the money was a matter of life and death. My mind at this point was running wild and I thought what if Jamie has a secret kid and someone is blackmailing him with that information or something along those lines.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the investigation seems to take a much darker turn when Pip realises that a knife is missing of Jamie’s home but this is pushed to the back when they learn the identity of the person Jamie was looking for at the calamity party, Stella Chapman. Connor and Pip talk to Stella and they learn she doesn’t know Jamie, he approached her at the party mistaking her for someone called Layla. Through this Pip concludes Layla must be a catfish using Stella’s pictures but they have some difficulty tracking her down. In the meantime they get a sighting from Harry Scythe and his friend who saw Jamie at 11:40pm heading away from the town like he was in a rush. Pip ends up setting up a fake Tinder account using Ravi’s pictures and ends up finding the profile of Layla Mead, using Stell’s photos which have obviously been edited and her Instagram handle. They use Connor’s anonymous profile to message her but she knows it is Pip and tells her she is getting closer before deactivating all the accounts. However, they did learn their new history teacher is also following her and his profile and Jamie’s are the only real ones so they essentially blackmail him into talking to them about Layla. They have also learnt that Jamie broke into a neighbours’ house which was caught on CCTV and learn that he only stole Flora’s watch which is currently in Jamie’s bedroom but the question they all have is why. The interview with Adam Clark now becomes the most important since Jamie has now been missing for four days with no sign of reappearing anytime soon.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, Jamie has been missing for five days and there is more information coming to light that makes me think Jamie has gotten involved in something terrible. Pip learns that he must have come home the night he disappeared since his favourite hoodie is missing along with the knife. Through his Fitbit they learn the approximate area where the Fitbit stopped recording data meaning he took it off or his phone was no longer recording the data but the area is very large including the woods where she and Ravi testing the Sal murder theory and the farmhouse where Andie’s body was hidden. The data from the Fitbit shows that Jamie covered a large area in a small amount of time briefly stopping once or twice but the key information is that his heart rate was very high which Pip learns could be because he was scared and experiencing the fight or flight response. More information comes together as in addition to the stealing, Jamie must have got into a fight as there is blood on the jumper he was wearing on his birthday and the night that Connor heard him sneaking out and I’m sure everything connected back to Layla whoever she is. Pip ends up setting up a search for the area Jamie was last in and Cara’s team at the farmhouse finds the missing knife and Pip calls it into the police. However, one of the officers to turn up is Daniel da Silva, Nat’s brother and Pip learns that he has possibly been in contact with Layla to which establishes a partner in the type of mean she is targeting although Jamie did lie about his age and financial status when he was talking to her. Pip is also sure that someone is lying about Jamie’s whereabouts since he was spotting going to Nat’s house which would mean he wouldn’t have had enough time to visit Nat, return home and get the hoodie and knife before his father came home who he doesn’t have a good relationship with. So either Nat is lying about him being there or Arthur is lying about not seeing Jamie that night and she needs to answers before something happens to Jamie.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things are definitely moving swiftly towards the conclusion of the novel and I can’t wait to see it. Pip looks through the messages on Jamie’s computer and gets a sense of his relationship with Layla and what she wanted from Jamie but something isn’t clicking. When the news breaks of a body being found everyone fears that it might be Jamie and they wait for the news. They do learn that it isn’t Jamie but this is what causes Arthur to break down and agree to talk to Pip about the strained relationship he had with his oldest son and how Jamie asked him for £900 and things finally start to click for Pip. During their stake out of the farmhouse, they learnt that Luke Eaton, Nat’s new boyfriend has taken over Howie Bowers position as local drug dealer and he has a grudge against Pip and they confirm this when they chase down a white sports car. They don’t get the number plate or see the driver but the fact he is running confirms his guilt and it seems like Jamie agreed to get drugs for Luke, stole the money and disappeared but the question of Layla’s identity and the potential child comment is nagging at me. Pip is also having a crisis since certain people are saying she is making the whole disappearance up to make money which angers her greatly and gets her suspended from school and this is made worse when the verdict comes back on Max’s trial as not guilty. Pip breaks the news to Nat and stays with her as she breaks down and Pip has a personal crisis since she feels she isn’t good enough to do anything and is breaking down. However, she is saved by her neighbour Charlie who tells her not to conform to other people’s ideals of good and normal and she takes this advice to her. She then posts to audio clip of Max confessing to raping Becca Bell on her website and vandalises his house smashing the windows and leaving a message for Max for when he returns from London and she is ready to throw all of her energy into finding Jamie.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, everything comes together in ways I really wasn’t expecting as we learn how Jamie, Layla Mead, Scott Brunswick and Stanley Forbes all tie together and what the mystery amounts to in the end. While I loved the first book, the one was darker, not shying away from more dangerous topics and the way Jackson tackled them was amazing. It was also nice to see Pip as completely human as the events of the book really get to her and she suffers the consequences of everything taking it all upon herself and she needs to learn to live with this now but she isn’t alone with her friends, family and Ravi at her side. Overall, Good Girl, Bad Blood was amazing and I can’t wait to read the final book next month and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me after this one. If you haven’t read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder then I highly recommend you start this series straight away as it is absolutely divine and so fast paced with some amazing characters.

Buy it here:

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com