A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)

by Holly Jackson

The people you love weren’t calculated, subtracted, or held at arm’s length across a decimal point.

But sometimes remembering isn’t for yourself; sometimes you do it just to make someone else smile.

Maybe laughter was one of the very first things you lost after something like that.

Eighteen months later a court order was filed and Andie Bell was declared dead in absentia, based on the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Andie Bell’s death certificate was issued.[*9] Despite her body never having been located, she has now been legally declared dead.

They were each other’s crutch to lean on when life got too much to carry alone. Pip, though only ten at the time, had helped Cara through her mom’s diagnosis and death. And Pip had been her constant two years ago when Cara came out, ready with a steady smile and phone calls into the early hours. Cara’s wasn’t the face of a best friend; it was the face of a sister.

I just overheard some stuff when she was here. I figured she didn’t have the best relationship with her dad. I can’t remember anything specifically.

I’m not sure I’m the good girl I once thought I was. I’ve lost her along the way.

He smiled, put his hands on the back of her neck, fingers in her hair, and leaned in to press his forehead against hers. He’d told her before that he did it to take away half her sadness, half her headache, half her nerves before her Columbia interview. Because half less of a bad thing meant there was room for half good.

“And yet, when we look closer, behind this true Andie, we find a girl who was vulnerable and self-conscious.