Books Like A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
by Holly Jackson
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is built around a single engine: a meticulous, amateur investigation that unspools through notes, interview transcripts, social-media sleuthing and a podcast-friendly structure. Pip Fitz‑Amobi chooses a closed-case murder — the apparent suicide of schoolgirl Andie Bell and the conviction of local teen Sal Singh — and methodically rechecks the evidence to test a theory that everyone else has accepted. The novel mixes procedural attention to detail (timelines, contradictions, witness statements) with YA immediacy: a high-school setting, peer-group politics, and stakes that become genuinely personal.
Readers who loved it most will fall into clear camps: those who wanted a puzzle with forensically laid-out clues; those who wanted a tense teen narrator who won’t stop asking awkward questions; and those who liked how menace creeps into everyday places (hallways, basements, schoolyards). The picks below are chosen to match those specific pleasures — from other teen whodunits that trade in suspect lists and red herrings, to darker, podcast-like hunts that echo the book’s structure and moral tension.
Recommended for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
One of Us Is Lying
Karen M. McManus
High-school murder mystery with competing suspects and twisty plotting.
Pick this if you want a locked‑room feel inside a school with multiple suspects, snappy teen voices and twisty plotting — this is the closest YA procedural match on the list.
Sadie
Courtney Summers
Gripping true-crime podcast structure and a young woman's hunt for answers.
Pick this if you loved the documentary/podcast fragments and the way audio-investigation shapes the narrative. Sadie is the most direct match for that structural device and the emotional urgency it creates.
Two Can Keep a Secret
Karen M. McManus
Small-town secrets and missing girls, tense atmosphere and investigative teen narrator.
Pick this if the atmosphere of buried community secrets and missing girls was what gripped you. It shares the tense, suspicious-local vibe even though the plotting and reveal style differ.
The Cheerleaders
Kara Thomas
Town trauma and teenage investigation uncovering long-buried, deadly secrets.
Pick this if the communal trauma and the way one death reshapes a town appealed to you. It shares the excavating-of-history energy and slowly revealed local conspiracies.
People Like Us
Dana Mele
Dark social-clique mystery with a disappearance and a determined teen unraveling lies.
Pick this if you were drawn to social-clique dynamics and a determined teen pulling at lies. It’s a close match on motive and peer pressure, though the tone here is slightly darker.
Truly Devious
Maureen Johnson
Boarding-school cold case with obsessive amateur sleuth and clever reveals.
Pick this if you liked obsessive amateur sleuthing and a layered cold case set among teens. Expect a more gothic, boarding-school tone rather than a small‑town procedural.
The Darkest Corners
Kara Thomas
Guilt, unreliable memories, and a tense hunt to prove innocence.
Pick this if your interest was in psychological fallout and unreliable recollection as much as the mystery itself. This is a moodier, more introspective take on culpability and memory.
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
Atmospheric, twist-driven story with unreliable narration and emotional payoff.
Pick this if you liked an unreliable or emotionally driven narrator and a major structural twist. This one is more literary and elliptical — a looser fit if you want clear procedural clues.
The Last Time I Lied
Riley Sager
Adult-leaning summer-camp cold case with obsession, secrets, and shocking twists.
Pick this if you liked the adult‑leaning idea of returning to an old disappearance with personal obsession and shocking reveals. It’s more of a psychological, grown‑up cousin to Pip’s investigative arc and the loosest match plot-wise.
At a glance
Matches were chosen on three concrete dimensions: procedural/puzzle-driven plotting (timelines and evidence), teen-point-of-view and social setting (school or small-town dynamics), and structural choices (podcast/epistolary fragments or obsessive cold-case framing). Percentages reflect how many of those strands each pick shares with Holly Jackson’s novel.
| Book | First published | Pages | Closest match on | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
One of Us Is Lying Karen M. McManus | 2017 | 360 | High-school whodunit | 92% |
Sadie Courtney Summers | 2018 | 322 | Podcast-style investigation | 90% |
Two Can Keep a Secret Karen M. McManus | 2019 | 332 | Small-town secrets | 86% |
The Cheerleaders Kara Thomas | 2018 | 384 | Town trauma & uncovering secrets | 84% |
People Like Us Dana Mele | 2018 | 381 | Clique-driven disappearance | 83% |
Truly Devious Maureen Johnson | 2018 | 432 | Boarding-school cold case | 80% |
The Darkest Corners Kara Thomas | 2016 | 327 | Guilt & unreliable memory | 78% |
We Were Liars E. Lockhart | 2014 | 240 | Atmospheric, twisty narration | 75% |
The Last Time I Lied Riley Sager | 2018 | 384 | Obsessive cold‑case obsession | 72% |
About A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson’s debut YA mystery, was first published in 2019 in the UK and quickly became a bestseller. It launched a trilogy following Pip Fitz‑Amobi and made extensive use of epistolary elements (interviews, case notes and transcripts) to build suspense.
Frequently asked questions
What should I read next after A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder?+
If you want more of Pip and the same investigative mechanics, read Holly Jackson’s sequels in order (Good Girl, Bad Blood then As Good As Dead). For similar standalone vibes, One of Us Is Lying or Sadie mirror the teen-investigator and true-crime structures respectively.
Is A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder YA or adult?+
It’s firmly YA: the protagonist is a teenager, the social world is a high school, and many plot pressures are age-specific. That said, the novel’s procedural rigor and darker themes make it readable for adults who like mysteries.
Which of these books has the same podcast-style structure?+
Sadie uses a parallel format combining a serialized investigative podcast with a protagonist’s first-person sections, so it mirrors A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s split documentary feel most closely.
Are the sequels necessary to finish the story?+
Yes. Holly Jackson continues Pip’s arc in Good Girl, Bad Blood and then As Good As Dead; each book advances her investigative skillset and raises the stakes in different ways.
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