As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson

As Good As Dead is the third book in the A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series and after loving the first and second books I had high hopes for this one! This book focuses on Pip Fitz-Amobi, who is haunted by how her last investigation ended. Soon she’ll be leaving for Cambridge University but then another case finds her, and this time it’s all about Pip herself.

Pip is used to online death threats due to her podcast, but there’s one that catches her eye, someone who keeps asking: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? And it’s not just online as Pip has a stalker who knows where she lives. The police refuse to act and then Pip finds connections between her stalker and a local serial killer. The killer has been in prison for six years, but Pip suspects that the wrong man is behind bars. As the situation intensifies, Pip realises that everything in Little Kilton is finally coming full circle. If Pip doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears.

I loved how these books flow right into each other, which made them perfect for binge-reading. This book was definitely the darkest from the get-go and was a lot more intense than the other books. I really felt for Pip at the start of the book as it focused on her trauma and how intense the events of the first two books were, making us reflect on everything that happened. As these books in this series are so interlinked it was very satisfying that everything came together and all questions were answered. 

I did find it a little bit repetitive when the plot of the first and second books was recapped a lot, but that is most likely because I read the second and third books back to back. However, this did ensure I didn’t forget any details but I still felt it was repeated more than necessary. 

In terms of the overall plot, this was the only thing stopping me from giving this book 5 stars. I personally found it far-fetched and out of character for Pip, especially her behaviour right at the end of the book. What I liked so far about this series is that on the whole, it remained realistic, but this book took it too far on a few occasions. Whilst it did make for good reading, I did hope the book would go a different way. This probably wasn’t helped by the fact that I guessed who the DT killer was immediately. However, as I continued reading the story did grow on me and I found the ending particularly satisfying especially with what that represented in terms of true justice.

This book is a lot darker than I expected but it was a gripping read and parts of it gave me Line of Duty vibes. There were some good discussions around justice that felt poignant and emotional to read. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and whilst being different to the other books in the series, in the sense of Pip’s character and the style of storytelling, I would recommend the whole series. I’ve also seen there is a prequel, Kill Joy, which I’d like to pick up as well as I do enjoy Jackson’s writing. 

4/5 stars