The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Jackson, Holly. Good Girl, Bad Blood. Penguin Random House, 2020.

Good Girl, Bad Blood is the sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. The novel is told primarily in third-person past with a close focus on the protagonist, Pip. However, many chapters begin and end with first-person present podcast transcripts, case notes, interview recordings, emails, text messages, or even photographs of evidence. In the prologue, the events of the last novel, in which Pip solved a cold case in her hometown of Fairview are revealed. Andie Bell, a high school student, had been murdered and her death had been blamed on her boyfriend, Sal, because he seemingly killed himself and left a note confessing. Pip had teamed up with Sal’s brother Ravi to prove that Sal was innocent. The discovered that Sal had been killed by the history teacher, Elliott Ward, who had been having an affair with Andie. Andie had been killed accidentally by her sister, Becca. During the investigation, Pip also proved that Andie’s classmate, Max Hastings, had bought Rohypnol from Andie and used it to rape several girls in their class. Pip released a podcast about her investigation and then promised to continue reporting on the trial of Max Hastings though she would be giving up investigations of her own since she had nearly died and had put her family in danger during the last novel.

On Friday night, Pip went to a memorial for Sal with her boyfriend Ravi. She ran into her friend Connor, who was with his older brother, Jamie Reynolds. During the memorial, she saw Jamie leave suddenly. After the memorial, Pip had to pick up her friend Cara who had gotten drunk at one of the school’s infamous calamity parties.

On Saturday morning, Connor came over to tell Pip that his brother Jamie was missing. He wanted her to help investigate what had happened, but Pip refused. She said she would go with him to the police and ask them to help instead. However, the police told her there was nothing they could do since Jamie was an adult. Frustrated, Pip decided to take the case on and create a Season 2 of her podcast to alert the world to Jamie’s disappearance. Pip went to Connor’s house and interviewed him and his mother. She learned that Jamie had been acting overly emotional the last few weeks and had been up all night talking to a girl on the phone and constantly texting. Both Connor and his mother suspected the girl was Nat de Silva, one of Max Hastings’ rape victims, but Nat denied seeing Jamie that night despite the fact that he was supposed to come over after the memorial.

On Sunday, Pip went to the Fairview Mail and asked Stanley Forbes to print a missing-person flier for Jamie. He agreed. Pip learned that Jamie had gone to the calamity party after the memorial. She also learned that Jamie had been fired from his job for trying to steal money and that a knife is missing from Jamie’s kitchen.

On Monday, Pip went to school and learned that Jamie had been talking to her classmate, Stella, at the calamity party. Pip interviewed Stella, who told her Jamie thought she was someone named Layla Mead. Pip realized that Jamie had been catfished by someone named Layla. Pip found Layla’s Instagram account and saw that her new history teacher, Adam Clark, had liked some of her pictures. Pip’s new neighbor, Charlie, told Pip that he had security footage of Jamie sneaking into his house to steal his wife Flora’s watch.

On Tuesday, Pip interviewed her history teacher, who said he had talked to Layla for a few weeks before he told her he was a teacher and she ghosted him. Pip broke into Jamie’s computer and found Instagram messages between him and Layla. They had talked until Jamie revealed that he had lied about being 29. Layla had ghosted him, and he had begged her to forgive him, promising to do anything for her. Layla had asked him if he really meant that, then suggested they move their conversation to the phone.

On Wednesday, Pip led a search party for evidence about Jamie’s disappearance. She found the knife from his kitchen at the abandoned farmhouse where Andie’s body had been buried. That night, Pip went back to the farmhouse and found her pot-smoking classmate, Robin, waiting for a drug-dealer who was in a bad mood because someone owed them 900 dollars. Nat’s boyfriend, Luke Eaton, arrived, but then drove away when he saw Pip.

On Thursday, Pip talked to Jamie’s father, who finally admitted that Jamie had asked him for 900 dollars before he disappeared. Pip went to talk to Nat again, but she repeated her story that she had not seen Jamie after the memorial. The verdict for the Max Hastings case came back with him being found innocent.

On Friday, Nat went through Luke’s phone and discovered he had been talking to Layla and had supposedly met with her on the night Jamie disappeared. She told Pip, who went to talk to Luke. He said Jamie had showed up instead of Layla and had said something that sounded like “child broomstick.” Pip Googled the term and Google suggested “Child Brunswick,” which was the name the media had given the ten-year-old boy who had helped lure his serial-killer father’s victims to their death. He had been put in witness protection, but may people wanted him dead. Pip realized that Stanley Forbes was Child Brunswick. She sent Ravi and Connor to sneak into his house while she met with him at the abandoned farmhouse. Connor and Ravi found Jamie. Stanley admitted the truth to Pip and said he never wanted to hurt anyone, he just did not want his identity to get out. Pip’s neighbor Charlie arrived and admitted that he and his wife Flora were Layla. Charlie’s twin sister had been killed by Stanley and his father. Charlie shot Stanley despite Pip’s cries of protests. Pip tried to save Stanley, but he died. Charlie and Flora snuck away out of town.

About two weeks later, Pip attended the funeral for Stanley and was enraged when protestors arrived. About a week later, Pip went to a barbecue with her friends and family, but she felt distant from them. She went home and searched for new sightings of the couple on the internet.