A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly JacksonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
We are two days into 2021 and thus far no five stars—and I had such high hopes! This murder mystery/suspense novel seemed, out of the gate, destined to be a winner. All that promise, however, fizzled out, slowly, before crawling to an unlikely conclusion. Between that startling beginning and anti-climactic finish, there were moments of brilliance. Author Holly Jackson clearly can write! Unfortunately, those moments were overshadowed by a plethora of possible suspects whose stories, though they intersected with the main plot, served to make it sometimes feel as if the plot were moving forward through thick sludge. It was this muck that made the journey too much work.
I did enjoy the unique format for the novel (narrative interspersed with project notes and diagrams), and found the main characters, Pip and Ravi, to be sympathetic, though the breadth of their reach in the small community of Fairview strained the limits of my ability to suspend disbelief. Jackson’s character development kept me reading and saved this from ending up as a DNF.
I am going to definitely explore more of Jackson’s work, and I look forward to doing so. I hope, however, that she ups the ante and quickens the pace. If she does, I’m sure whatever she writes will be worth all the stars.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment