Good Girl, Bad Blood

I loved the first book's podcast structure, so I was nervous about a sequel. Good Girl, Bad Blood was published April 30, 2020 by Electric Monkey, 412 pages in paperback, ISBN 9781405297752, author Holly Jackson, second in the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. Pippa Fitz-Amobi solved a murder for a school project and now swears she is done with true crime. Then a friend disappears and the town asks her to look. I read it in two days and liked how it interrogates its own success.

Pip is seventeen now, in Little Kilton, trying to be normal. She has a podcast with Ravi that did well. She gets recognized. She has nightmares about the first case, about Andie and Sal, about being threatened in the woods. She tells herself and her parents she will not investigate again. College applications, birthdays, a dog, a boyfriend in Ravi who is gentle and funny. Normal is the goal.

Then Jamie Reynolds, older brother of Pip's friend Connor, goes missing after a party. The police treat him as low risk adult who chose to leave. His mother disagrees. Connor begs Pip. Pip refuses, then sees a pattern she cannot ignore. Jamie was last seen, his phone off, his flat odd. She starts a new season of her podcast, not to entertain but to find him, documenting each step so listeners can help and so no one can bury it. That framing device returns but with more doubt. Pip narrates her process and also questions whether narrating harms.

The investigation moves through small town layers. Jamie worked at a hotel, owed money, argued with someone. He messaged a person called Layla. He searched for something about cold cases. Pip interviews coworkers, friends, dealers, a teacher. She maps timelines on her wall with Ravi's help. Ravi, whose brother Sal was falsely accused in book one, knows how police and rumors fail. He supports Pip while warning her about cost. Their relationship is sweet and strained. He wants her safe. She wants answers. Both are right.

A second thread is fame. Strangers send tips, some useful, some cruel. A true crime fan shows up at Pip's house. Comments accuse. A local paper twists. Pip learns that solving one crime made her a character to others. When she withholds a name to protect someone, listeners call her cover up. When she shares, she risks a life. The book is sharp on this double bind. Doing justice in public is not the same as doing it right. I appreciated that Jackson lets Pip be wrong about publicity in ways that cost.

The missing person chain

Without giving the final name, the shape is this. Jamie did not vanish at random. He was looking for someone else who vanished, a woman the town forgot. That woman's case connects to a man with power, to a hotel with back rooms, to money moved quietly. Pip follows from Jamie to Layla to a name on a form to a house with no lights. Each step has a document. A receipt. A log. A photo timestamp. Jackson plays fair with clues. I guessed one level early and missed the top.

The middle has a long section where Pip goes undercover online and in person to meet a source. She uses a false name, borrows clothes, lies to her parents. Those lies pile. Her mother, who was understanding in book one, sets firmer limits now. Her father worries quietly. Pip breaks curfew, misses dinner, hides her laptop. The cost at home feels real. Solving takes time stolen from family and school. A scene where Pip misses her brother's small play because she is following a lead hurt more than any chase. Ambition has a bill.

Ravi's role deepens. He drives, films, edits, checks Pip when she spirals. He also carries his own grief about Sal. A late chapter where Ravi tells Pip he cannot be her camera and her boyfriend at once, that he needs to be a person who says stop, is one of the best in the series. Pip hears him and keeps going anyway, which damages them. The book does not romanticize her drive. It shows obsession as symptom after trauma. She cannot sleep unless she solves. Solving does not let her sleep either.

The villain, when revealed, is not a stranger but someone the town trusted. Motive involves control and reputation, not grand evil. Means involve ordinary tools, a car, a phone, a spare key. Opportunity comes from people looking away. Jackson keeps violence off page more than on. Fear comes from implication. A locked room. A message unsent. A shoe found. I found that restraint effective. The horror is how easily a person can be filed as runaway.

Pip's podcast ethics get tested directly. She records a witness who asks to be off record and must decide. She edits out a name and gets accused of hiding. She releases a photo to force police action and puts someone in danger. Each choice has comments within hours. The book includes transcripts and comment snippets that feel true to internet true crime culture. Fans demand content. Family begs privacy. Pip stands between, learning that telling a story is also taking.

After the first book

What I liked most is how sequel pressure is theme, more than business. Pip knows readers expect another neat solve. She fears she only matters when she investigates. Friends joke about her being Little Kilton's detective. Teachers mention it in recommendations. That identity trap drives her to say yes to Connor even after saying no. Who am I if I am not the girl who found the truth. The book answers slowly. You are a person who can choose not to look, and who chose to look this time for a friend, at cost.

The town of Little Kilton also changes. After book one exposed police failure and media cruelty, trust is thin. Officers are defensive. The new investigator is careful but overloaded. Residents film each other. A neighborhood watch group shares number plates. That surveillance helps Pip once and harms her twice. Justice as crowd work is messy. Jackson shows both the power of many eyes and the cruelty of many mouths.

Pacing is tight for 412 pages. Short chapters. Transcripts. Maps. Lists. I never felt the sag that hits many middles. The investigation widens just as Pip tires, then narrows to a house. The last eighty pages move fast. A confrontation in a confined space. A call cut. A decision about whether to stream live to stay safe. I held my breath. The solution reframes small details from early, a jacket, a charger, a shift swap, into proof. Fair and surprising in good balance.

Character work beyond Pip stays strong. Connor is loyal and scared, more than a plot trigger. His mother is fierce without becoming saint. Jamie, seen through messages and memories, is flawed and kind, in debt and trying. Layla, or whoever she is, is written with care as victim rather than twist. Ravi's parents offer warmth and food that ground the teens. Pip's dog gets a scare that will upset animal lovers briefly, handled without gore.

Criticisms that remain

A few strains show. Pip's tech skills sometimes stretch. She cracks passwords fast, finds deleted posts, tracks phones with ease. As a teen podcaster with time, some of this fits. At other moments it feels convenient. A password guessed in two tries. A camera angled just right. I went with it because momentum covers, but on reflection the ease smooths over real difficulty of missing person work, which is often boring and bureaucratic.

The book also leans on Pip keeping secrets from police to preserve twists. She withholds a ledger photo, a name, a location, to investigate alone. Given her trauma with police in book one, distrust makes sense. Yet as bodies mount, the withholding risks lives in ways the text acknowledges but quickly moves past. I wanted one scene where an officer says plainly, you could have saved days by sharing, and Pip sits with that longer. She does sit, briefly. Not long enough for me.

The romance is sweet but thin in the middle. Pip and Ravi have little time alone that is not case talk. Their affection shows in drives and edits, not in dates. That fits the story, a couple under strain, but readers who loved their banter may miss it. The book prioritizes friendship and family over swoon, which I respect, though the blurb promises more romance than pages deliver.

Violence level rises from book one. Threats to Pip are explicit. A home invasion scare. A knife. Blood. It stays within young adult bounds, no torture porn, but it is intense. Sensitive readers should know. The book handles aftermath with care. Pip shakes, vomits, cannot sleep, tells Ravi. Trauma is not glamorous here. It costs school, appetite, humor. That honesty is a strength.

Still, I closed the book admiring Jackson's control. She wrote a sequel that questions sequels, a true crime story that questions true crime, a heroine who solves while doubting solving. Pip ends more famous and less sure, with a decision about a third investigation that feels earned rather than teased. If you liked book one for documents and deduction, you will get more, with harder questions about who pays for answers.

Connor, classrooms, and cost

Connor deserves more than trigger status. He is younger brother trying to be brave, bringing Pip biscuits, apologizing for asking, waiting in cars while she interviews. His guilt about Jamie, about a fight they had, drives him to push Pip when she hesitates. A scene where he falls asleep on her floor while she edits audio is tender and sad. He trusts her with his brother's life. That trust weighs.

School pressure threads through. Pip misses homework, fakes illness, gets a warning about grades. Teachers who praised her podcast now worry she performs grief for content. One teacher asks if solving helps applicants or people. The question stings because Pip does not know. Ravi's parents feed her and tell her to rest, showing adult care without control. Her parents set a curfew she breaks, then set consequences she accepts. Those domestic negotiations felt real to me. Ambition tested by family love, more than danger.

The final cost lingers after solution. Pip is more known and less trusted, even by herself. She deletes drafts, keeps the wall map up too long, jumps at knocks. Ravi asks for a week without cases. She agrees and checks her email. That last image, a girl who solved trying not to search, is the truest in the book. Justice as habit that harms the holder.

One more practical thread helped me trust the solution. Phone logs with times, hotel key records, a shift rota, a petrol receipt. Pip lays them on her floor and photographs for listeners. I followed along with my own timeline on paper and it matched. That transparency is rare in mysteries that hide. Jackson shows work. When a witness lies about being home, the log says otherwise without speechifying. Documents do quiet accusing. I liked learning to read alibis that way.

I also noted how adults partially redeem. A detective who dismissed Jamie apologizes without groveling and reopens. Pip's father drives her to meet a source and waits in car, scared but present. Ravi's mother brings food to stakeouts. Those grown ups do not solve, but they buffer. After book one where adults failed badly, this partial repair feels honest. Systems still slow. People inside try harder. I also kept thinking about Pip's dog, who waits by door when she works late and sleeps on her wall map when she finally rests. Animals notice absence without judgment, and that quiet company steadies her more than comments.

Facts held: first published April 30, 2020 by Electric Monkey in the United Kingdom, 412 pages in paperback, ISBN 9781405297752, author Holly Jackson, series A Good Girl's Guide to Murder book two. Summary follows that text.