A good girl’s guide to murder is a mystery novel by Holly Jackson. It’s the first book in the series of three novels about the same characters. 

The book tells us a story about a 17 year-old Pippa Fitz Amobi who is determined to solve the cold murder of Andie Bell that happened 5 years ago in her town Little Kilton. The police and detectives proclaimed that Andie’s boyfriend Sal Singh is the one who brutally murdered his girlfriend and then procided to commit suicide. 

She leads an investigation masked as a school project. Throughout the whole book Pippa/Pip finds out a lot of different evidence that show the innocence of Sal Singh and she’s sure the real killer is still among residents of Little Kilton. She befriends Sal’s younger brother Ravi and he really helps her with this mysterious case that needs to end once and for all. She needs and is determined to find out the truth. For Andie, Sal, Ravi and now herself too.

Personal opinion:

I enjoyed this book very much. You cannot put it down no matter what and the words of the author just suck you in. The story is full of plot twists and turns. I read the whole book in a day and I need to say that it is one of the most exciting murder-mystery books I have read in a while. 

It’s great for anyone who likes to read and is interested in mystery books. 

I really, really recommend it!

Lorin, 8.r

The book is about the Amazing Maurice, a group of talking rats, and the human boy Keith travelling in a mail coach to a small town called Bad Blintz.

The Amazing Maurice is a talking cat that leads his Educated rodents (a group of talking rats) as they leave town being a “plague”. Their gang parter named Keith pretends to be a rat chaser and has to “lure them all away” from the town in return of money. After Keith makes the money, they all share it and either waste it or save it. The rats had gained intelligence from eating leftovers of a spell behind Unseen University (a wizard school). Maurice gained it after eating one of the rats, before he was capable of realizing that they were no longer proper rats.

The group is not completely happy. The leader of the rats, Hamnpork, despises Maurice while Dangerous Beans (a near-blind rat who guides them) wants to start a rat civilization and both he and Peaches (the group’s scribe) find them unethical. The rats seek an ideal world where humans and rats can live together. They agree to do one last job in the town of Bad Blintz.

                                                                                                                     Sofia, 7. r

The book is about two best friends, Elle and Lee. They have been best friends for a lot of years. Elle has a crush on Lee’s brother Noah, but Lee doesn’t know that.

Their school organizes a carnival. Elle and Lee decide that they are going to do the »THE KISSING BOOTH«. They invite some girls and boys to work there. All the money that people will give them, will be sent to charity. But the girls say that they will come if Noah comes too. Elle needs a lot of time to ask Noah if he will come. When he finally says yes, Elle and Lee can start making »THE KISSING BOOTH«. They start earning lots of money. But then one girl lies about something, so Elle needs to start working there.When she sees that Noah kissed her, she is speechless. After that, Elle starts to hang out with Noah more than with Lee. Once when Noah is fixing his motorbike, Elle falls and Noah carries her to the kitchen and helps her. Then he kisses her. When Lee sees that, he gets very angry with them, stops talking to them and ignores them. But then Elle says that she is sorry for not telling him and they become best friends again. Lee needs a little more time to be OK with Noah, but at the end everything is finally alright.

Ema, 7. r

The book is about a boy named August. A lot of his classmates think that he is a freak because his face looks very strange. He starts going to school when he is ten and his mum cannot teach him anymore. So, the principal calls three kids to his office.  Julian, Jack and Charlotte. Jack and August become best friends, but Julian does not like him because of his face. He thinks he is a freak.  And because Jack is his friend, everybody thinks he is a freak too. So, Julian and his friends often steal their homework or send them very rude notes. But at the end everybody realizes that he is not a freak, so they become friends. Julian gets kicked out of school because of the messages he sends to August and Jack.  August also works very hard and gets a medal for all his hard work.

Ema, 7. r

THE CALLING OF MORRIGAN CROW

This is the second part of the trilogy that follows the magic world of Morrigan Crow.

In the first book we meet a twelve-year-old girl that has always felt like an outsider in a normal world. One day a stranger named Jupiter comes for her in her home and takes her to a secret and completely different magic world named Nevermoor. He believes that Morrigan has a very special superpower. And that is true, Morrigan soon discovers that she is a Wundersmith just like Ezra Squall the worst villain of all time and no one else.

In the second book Morrigan goes to the most elite school Wundrous Society. Her classmates never like her because of her gift, but one day that turns even worse.

When one day they arrive to their private train station to go to school, they find a letter. In the letter anonymous person writes that one classmate needs to do something to embarrass themselves or something nearly impossible. If they don’t do that, the blackmailer will tell their class secret. They hate Morrigan even more because they think they have to protect her secret about being a Wundersmith. The letters come individually.

In the meantime, a lot of Society members disappear, which is really bad because the Society was supposed to be the safest place in Nevermoor.

One day the Ezra Squall visits Morrigan secretly and wants to teach her how to use her Wundersmith gift.

Will Morrigan and her friends find who’s behind all off this? Will Morrigan teach how to use her power? Will the others finally accept her?

Ema, 9. r

The book is about a 16-year-old girl Belly, who spends every summer since she was born with her mother, her brother, her mother’s best friend and her two sons Conrad and Jeremiah at the summer house in Cousins.

Belly has always had a crush on Conrad, but for him she was like his little sister. At least she thought so.

Conrad’s younger brother Jeremiah, who always has a lot of energy and is a very funny person, is Belly’s best friend and has never looked at her like something more. Until this summer.

So there’s a love triangle between these three.

Belly’s older brother Steven was always annoyed when she was with him and the boys because he always looked at her like she was a child, so she spent a lot of time with her mom and her best friend  Susannah.

They were best friends for a lot of time.

Susannah had cancer a few years ago, and now it came back. She and Belly’s mom Laurel wanted to keep this a secret, but Conrad accidentally found out, so he wasn’t himself all summer.

One night the kids were at a party and Belly met a boy called Cameron. They started dating and Conrad and Jeremiah were jealous beacuse they both fell in love with her.

But while Belly and Cameron were dating, she constantly thought about Conrad because she still had a crush on him, so she ended the relationship with Cameron.

At the end they all found out that Susannah was ill and it was heartbreaking for all of them.

But the love triangle never ends.

Zana, 9. r

The book is about three women (Rachel, Anna and Megan) that are connected to a murder of a man, who was found dead on a boathouse.

Rachel is 33-years old alcoholic woman, who is afflicted by broken marriage.

Tom, who is Rachel’s ex-husband, is now married to Anna and lives a happy life with his wife and her daughter Evie.

Anna is proud of her husband and she wants to make Rachel jealous of her, but she doesn’t succeed.

Rachel follows her old habit of taking the train to London and back every day once in the morning and once at the evening.

Her train slowly passes her old house on Blenheim Road, where Tom, Anna and Evie live now.

On the train she meets an attractive couple, who live a few houses away from Tom.

She thinks they are perfect, but is stunned to see the wife, Megan, kissing another man.

The next day, after drinking hard, Rachel wakes up to find herself bloody and hurt with no memory of the night before.

She learns that Megan is missing and is questioned by the police after Anna reports seeing her walking around during night of Megan’s disappearance.

Armed with sad felling and realization that Tom must have been the one to kill Megan, Rachel warns Anna.

When Anna confronts him, Tom confesses killing Megan after she threatened to reveal that he got her pregnant.

Anna is scared and fears fir her daughter’s safety.

Tom tries to overpower and bully Rachel into silence, but she defies him and fights back.

Knowing he will kill her, Rachel stabs Tom in the neck with a corkscrew.

Anna helps Rachel make sure she stabs him to death.

When the police arrives, former adversaries Rachel and Anna support each other by reconciling their stories to explain their actions as self-defense.

Rachel finally breaks free and decides to stop drinking and to move on.

I liked the book very much because it talks about murder and crime.

Ana, 9. r

Whisper is the book of a very famous German children’s and youth writer Isabel Abedi. It is a crime and love story. It was published in 2007. The book talks about a weird family which came on summer holidays to the country.

Kat is a very famous film actress, Noa’s mother and Gilbert’s friend. The family lives in Berlin. Gilbert loves reading fat books which talk about ghosts, the universe, clairvoyance, etc. He also has a statue of the Buddha. Kat is always in the centre of attention. Noa’s real name is Nora (after the famous actress Nora Gregory), but she didn’t like it so she took the R away.

Kat’s agent hires a five hundred years old house in the country on her wish. Kat, Noa and Gilbert are supposed to spend summer holidays there. The owner of the house is a farmer named Hallscheit.

When they enter the house, Noa smells a perfume. It smells very strongly, as if someone has put it on recently, even though the house has been closed for thirty years. The smell disappears in a short time. They eat dinner in an inn called Kropp, a little away from the house. Marie, Esther (Marie’s mother in law) and Gustav (Esther’s son) work there and are the owners. They live above the pub. Marie has two sons: David, who is the similar age as Noa and Kalle. David helps Kat, Noa and Gilbert to renew the house. Noa and David soon fall in love. One evening they play calling ghosts.  There appears the ghost of a girl Eliza, who was murdered in the attic of that house thirty years ago.

The new owners find a lot of things which belonged to their predecessors. Noa and David find out that girl Eliza really existed. They communicate with Eliza by a piece of paper on which numbers and letters are written. Eliza is gives them various hints and helps Noa and David to expose a cold-blooded killer. Eliza also wants them to find her diary. Noa and David find it and read it. They realize that Eliza had a very sad life. One August night David, Noa and the two brothers from the village come to the attic of the house where Noa, Kat and Gilbert live during the summer. They don’t expect anybody there, but a murderer comes. He nearly kills Noa too, but luckily David saves her. The perfume, which belonged to Eliza, disappears from the house before they call the police. Eliza has gone from this world. A few days after this event, summer holidays finish and Noa, Kat and Gilbert go back to Berlin.

I read this book many times and it seemed very interesting every time I read it. I recommend it to anyone who loves crime and love stories. You shouldn’t be scared of thick books, too.

Tina, 9.r