The much awaited third in the A Good Girls Guide to Murder series, which has produced two spectacular books prior to this epic finale. And wow was it epic!

I was so invested in this book, tearing through the pages needing to know all the answers. I felt right in it with Pippa, as she faced one of her toughest challenges yet. And with her own life in the balance, it certainly made for edge of the seat reading! This time, she has to save herself…

The writing in this is just amazing. You can tell the book takes a slightly darker and more sinister tone here and with Pippa still reeling from her past encounters, all of her struggles and battles with herself are clear to see. Holly Jackson did such a fantastic job at detailing all of Pips inner thought processes, with you feeling like your right there with her, in her head as she processes what she’s facing. Creepy at times too, I was enraptured and the suspense was a thriller.

I’ve loved seeing the developing relationships between Pip and Ravi too. So nice to read.

But woahhh, the plot twists! I won’t spoil it for anyone as this is a strictly non spoiler review but just when you think you’re walking the right lines in your head for how things are going to go, bam! Rug is pulled from underneath you and you’re propelled in a completely new different route with earth shattering plot twists. I loved it!

I was so heavily invested in this book and especially towards the end, I don’t think anything in the world could have stopped me from reading those end few chapters.

All I can say is, for those waiting to read this book or thinking about reading it, you are in for a treat! Strap on your seatbelt and get ready for the wild ride that is reading ‘As Good as Dead’. You won’t regret it!

As Good As Dead follows Pip, Little Kilton’s resident teenage detective-slash-genius, as her life descends into chaos once again following the events of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Good Girl, Bad Blood. This time, though, instead of the focus of her investigation being on her friends, neighbours and acquaintances, Pip’s latest case is all about her, and it’s proving to be much darker and much more dangerous than anyone could have imagined.

It’s difficult to put into words just how much I adored this book. I loved books one and two and have been recommending them constantly since they came out, but this book is in a whole new league. It’s so, so much darker than I expected it to be and so terrifyingly clever that it was completely impossible to put down.

Pip’s character is fascinating as ever, but she’s so different now than the cheerful wannabe-detective that she was in the first book that exploring her character is even more gripping. Over the course of the series, she’s become stressed, scared and much less strait-laced, as expected from someone with her track record of getting tied up in murder investigations, but she’s still somehow so recognisable that it really felt like I went through the whole dark, terrifying journey right alongside her. After so many books and so much time getting to know them, I was just as captivated by the growth of Ravi’s character, Pip’s friends and fellow victims, and even the villains of the story as well.

I’ve mentioned how clever this book is, but it’s so important to highlight just how scarily intelligent Holly Jackson must be to write this. It’s a long book at 570 pages, but every single page tied together perfectly and all details seemed well-researched and unnervingly believable. Every time I thought I was ahead of the plot twists, I found myself being tricked and pulled into a different story entirely, until I just gave up guessing in an attempt to get through the story even quicker.

I can quite honestly say that this is one of the best thrillers I have ever read, and absolutely the most gripping book I’ve read this year. It’s fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat scary, clever, dark and somehow sprinkled with comedy at the same time. I haven’t been this captivated by a story in such a long time and am absolutely certain that I will read absolutely anything that Holly Jackson comes out with next.

When I finished Book Two in the series I was struck by the shift into darkness - perhaps inevitable for a true crime focus - but nothing prepared me for the developments we see in As Good as Dead. In this finale to the trilogy (and, boy, does that pain me to write) Pip is thrust into a position it’s hard to imagine…and nobody could come out of that unscathed.
When the book opens Pip is preparing for her new life at Cambridge. Superficially her life is good, but the signs are there that events have taken their toll. Pip is far from alright. She’s not sleeping, her nerves are shredded and she seems to be developing a sense of paranoia when she is convinced that the little chalk figures appearing on her driveway, the online death threats and the nuisance phone calls she is receiving are connected. In spite of promises to her parents, Pip needs something to take her mind off things…so she turns to what she knows best. Murders.
Pip starts looking into the stalking incidents that the police refuse to take seriously. They share an alarming link with the profile attributed to the DT killer, a recent case where five young women were found murdered. But the DT killer has been behind bars for six years. He confessed, so it can’t be him.
If someone were in this situation they might be reassured, but not Pip. She is unsettled by the links and digs deeper. What if the confession was, as the killer’s mother is convinced, given under duress? Could the real DT killer still be at large? Could Pip be the killer’s intended sixth victim?
This is the point that I give no more details, as the enjoyment of this story really does come from following Pip on her journey and being given access to her thought process as the events she has started to investigate take an incredibly personal turn. I was - on more than one occasion - stunned by what I was reading. It is haunting, and made me review my thoughts on certain characters and even the events covered in the previous books in the series. When this is published in August I cannot wait to see the reactions…
Holly Jackson, I never imagined you’d go there…what a character you have made us come to love (which makes the events of this book even more difficult to process) and I am so grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.