How To Read Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide To Murder Books In Order

Anyone who loves Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder needs to read the original series by Holly Jackson, and this is the best order to read them in. The 17-now-18-year-old Pippa Fitz-Amobi is a fantastic young detective and anti-hero, and Emma Myers does a great job of bringing her to life. The TV show is extremely entertaining, despite A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder‘s mixed reviews. The books are truly above and beyond in terms of storytelling, though.

There’s a good reason why the book series has been translated into 40 languages and topped The New York Times bestseller list. The books’ unique format mixes together podcast interviews, news articles, emails, and traditional scenes. The perspective is limited to Pip, unlike the TV show’s omniscient perspective. As such, the reader discovers the clues and reveals alongside our young heroine, who is like a Gen Z Sherlock Holmes.

Luckily, the A Good Girl’s Guide book series is available in multiple formats, making it extremely accessible. The book can be read in traditional print hardback and paperback, large print paperback, eBook, full-cast audiobooks, and audio CDs. Some library networks also offer the book in digital Braille files. There are also separate UK and US versions of the book. However, the order can be confusing because they were published out of order. This is the best way to check out the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder books by Holly Jackson in publication and chronological order.

A Good Girl’s Guide Book Series
Chronological Number	Book Title	Publication Year
#1	A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder	2019
#2	Good Girl Bad Blood	2020
#3	As Good As Dead	2021
#0.5	Kill Joy	2021

How To Read A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder In Chronological Order

Emma Myers in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder season 2 — Emma Myers in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2

Anyone who wants to read A Good Girl’s Guide in chronological order needs to start with the last book released in the series first, Kill Joy. The novella Kill Joy is a prequel set about two months before the first book. It shows how Pip decided to do her EPQ about Sal Singh and Andie Bell. It also gives us a deeper look into Pip’s method of solving mysteries and her inability to handle being wrong.

After Kill Joy, it’s time to go back to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which starts July 30 and runs until November with an epilogue in January. Good Girl Bad Blood picks up on Valentine’s Day, shows a review of the podcast on March 28, and then Jamie goes missing on April 28. He’s gone for about a week before the climactic ending. Finally, As Good As Blood picks up in mid-August with most of the story running to late September, with one final time jump in the last two chapters.

Ultimately, the key events of the book series take place over about a year and a half, even though it feels like so much more time passes. It has to be the most eventful year and a half of Pippa Fitz-Amobi’s life, all things considered.

Which Holly Jackson Books Have Been Adapted For Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder

Except for Kill Joy, which follows a murder mystery party, each book in A Good Girl’s Guide follows a separate crime case. Netflix’s TV adaptation adapts one book per season. The first book is the first season in narrative form. The second season of the TV show will tell the story of Good Girl Bad Blood.

Like the first season, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 is expected to make some big changes to the book. The trailer already confirms at least one big change, as Jamie is a key witness in the Max Hastings case. In the novel, Max’s rape trial and Jamie’s disappearance run concurrently but have no direct story connections. Inevitably, there will be more. However, that’s a much less terrifying prospect this time around since author Holly Jackson joined the writing team for season 2.

If Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder gets renewed for season 3, it would almost definitely follow the story of As Good As Dead. Ideally, they would end after three seasons, as the book series does. Shows are known for becoming disastrous when they outlast their source material. That said, Holly Jackson’s involvement in writing Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder means that she could come up with something great to continue the story past the trilogy.