Pip Fitz-Amobi knows she’d rather be at home doing her Extended Project Qualification work – at least think of a topic for one. But her friends are right too. With their exams over and summer just around the corner, she needs to relax a little. They have a brilliant idea.

Dressing in clothes from the 1920’s Pip and her friends are participating in a real life Cluedo game, held in one of their houses. They all have been given identities and back stories and the mystery is outlined before they begin. They have a booklet each that they must follow at the mystery master’s instructions.

It’s not long at all before Pip is gripped by the game, and taking it as seriously as she takes everything else. She is the first to find a body and even though it is just a game, she’s surprised at how it effects her. Taking notes she follows the instructions, the clues and the realisation that she might be the killer everyone is looking for.

The fact that a real murder happened in their small town Little Kilton not so long ago, is never far from their minds. At least this is just a game….

The prequel to the astounding A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy, Kill Joy sets main character Pip on her investigative journey. Her mind is sharp and quick, perfect to determine the murderer in a mystery role play game. The results stop her in her tracks however, throwing her sense of deductions for a spin.

This revelation highlights another crime so close to them all, and Pip is suddenly on the scent of a murderer on the loose.

Kill Joy is entertaining, but at only 138 pages is a quick light read without the intensity of the brilliant trilogy it precedes.

Author – Holly Jackson

Age – 15+

(Strong language)

(2022, Harper Collins, Trilogy, Prequel, Murder, Mystery, Crime, Intrigue, Game, Clues, Mystery Master, Deductions, Friends, 1920’s costumes, Secret, Series)