Thank you to Delacorte (via NetGalley) for the ARC!

I think this book was definitely a solid follow-up to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I really appreciated the recap (in the form of a podcast wrap-up) of the first book, because it's been quite a while since I read it, and my brain retains absolutely no plot information.

I am usually taken completely by surprise with mystery/thriller-type books, but I had some inklings about this one. So it wasn't quite 5 stars for me, like the first one. I also felt like Pip was really one-dimensional in this book, too. I can't remember if she was like that before, but there doesn't seem to be much to her, personality-wise outside of her need to solve crimes. It was definitely enjoyable, and I read the last 70% of the book in one sitting, so it was really engaging and fast-paced.

I do have complaint, and I'm not sure if this is too nit-picky or what, so I didn't take it into account for my rating: the amount of British-isms in this book is SO distracting to me! This was an issue I had with the first book as well and every time I came across something that was written in British grammar instead of American, it took me out of the story for a few seconds, which is really annoying. Honestly, I think this is something that should have been fixed in editing. Because I know publishers often change spellings and things like that for books when they're published in other countries. But the fact that this series is set in the US and the character use so many British-isms while speaking is really distracting to me. Honestly, even the MC's name is very obviously British (and so were many of the side characters' names. When was the last time you met an American teenager named Harry or George?). Americans do not say "I have to revise," they say "I have to study." There are so many instances of this that I can't even remember them all now. And yes I realize the author is British! So she shouldn't be expected to write in American grammar! But I think that it takes away a certain level of believability to the story. And for me, like I said before, it's very distracting. And honestly took away some of my enjoyment of the book. So I think it could do with some editing. If this book were set in England, fine. I would have no problem with it. It's not that English grammar makes it unreadable or anything. It's just the manner of speaking is noticeably different. Anyway, I'm not sure if that rant makes sense to anyone else (mostly because I have heard literally no one say the same thing about the first book....) but it really did affect my enjoyment of the book. Okay I take back everything I said because apparently SOMEONE decided to change the location of the book from the UK to Connecticut for the US release of the book which is why all the characters talk like they're British. Because they ARE. So bravo on that dumb decision. I assume that was a decision by the publisher and I think it was a stupid one. If you're going to do that, you have to fully COMMIT to it and change all the grammar too because then you get people like me who go on long-winded rants about how these people don't talk like Americans! Good grief.... (This also reminds me of the stupid decision to set the movie version of The Girl on the Train in New York because....Americans...don't understand English trains...? Or something?? And yet the main character is still English...????)

Anyway, if you liked the first book in this series, I think it's safe to say you'll like this one. I am looking forward to the third one, and if it's about who I think it is, it's looking to be an interesting mystery!