Prompt: A book with a map

I love it when I book that I was planning on reading anyway fits perfectly into one of the Popsugar categories. Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson is that book. Published at the ed of April, I had this on pre-order and started reading as soon as it arrived. It features a map of Little Kirton with some of the key locations marked at the beginning of the book.

What it’s about?

From Goodreads:

Pip Fitz-Amobi is not a detective any more.

With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.

But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared but the police won’t do anything about it. And if they won’t look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town’s dark secrets along the way… and this time EVERYONE is listening. But will she find him before it’s too late?

What I think:

This book is brilliant!

It’s compelling and clever and so readable I could not put it down.

It’s the sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder which is really good, but I thought this was even better.

In A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Pip set out to find out the truth about a murder in her home town.In the process she uncovered other crimes being hidden behind respectable front doors and “nice” families. The aftermath of this has left her disillusioned and working to rediscover herself.

Her podcast is a national talking point and Pip has to balance maintaining a focus at school with the impact that her investigation has had on friends and family. She is still traumatised by some of the events of the previous investigation.

The central mystery to this is very clever. When Jamie goes missing, because he is an adult with a history of going away for a few days, the police believe he is a low priority and don’t get involved.

Pip takes on the case.

Pip is an amazing young woman. She is intelligent, methodical and fearless. She takes on people in authority and occasionally puts herself in danger to get to the truth.

Despite this she is still a teenager, filled with anxieties about relationship, friendships and parents. Her relationship with Ravi is really important to Pip and they compliment each other well.

I won’t spoil the mystery that Pip solves, needless to say it unravels slowly and brilliantly. The ending is fantastic.

I cannot sing the praises of this book enough. If you are looking for some intelligent British YA fiction then I really recommend Holly Jackson. One of the best books I have read in a long time and better than a lot of “adult” crime fiction.

You can order Good Girl, Bad Blood from:

Waterstones: click here

Amazon.co.uk: click here