A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Production Log – Entry 1
Overview
Pippa formally begins documenting her investigation, shifting her EPQ from a school assignment into a search for the truth about Andie Bell’s disappearance and Sal Singh’s alleged guilt. She lays out her methods, acknowledges her limitations, and frames her goal as finding reasonable doubt rather than solving the case outright.
Using news and police sources, Pippa establishes the first firm timeline: Andie left home around 10:40 p.m. and failed to collect her parents at 12:45 a.m., meaning the crucial events occurred within that two-hour window. This gives Pippa’s project its first concrete investigative focus.
Summary
Pippa Fitz-Amobi begins her first EPQ production log on 1 August 2017, noting practical tasks: she has booked an interview with Ravi Singh for Friday afternoon and needs to type up her interview transcript with Angela Johnson. She explains that the log will track all her research, whether or not it proves relevant, because she does not yet know what final argument her project will support.
Pippa admits that she hopes the project will become more than the essay she proposed to Mrs Morgan. Her real aim is to uncover the truth about what happened to Andie Bell on 20 April 2012 and, if Sal Singh was wrongly blamed as Pippa suspects, to ask who actually killed Andie.
Pippa recognizes the limits of her investigation: she is not a police officer and does not expect to solve the murder outright. Instead, she hopes interviews, online research, and speculation will reveal facts or accounts that create reasonable doubt about Sal’s guilt and show that police may have closed the case too quickly.
Pippa then starts reconstructing Andie’s disappearance from news reports and police statements. Early reports say Andie left her Little Kilton home in her black Peugeot 206 with her phone but without clothes, making the disappearance seem out of character. Andie was last seen by her younger sister, Becca, around 10:30 p.m., and CCTV showed Andie’s car leaving near STN Bank at about 10:40 p.m.
The log narrows the critical window of the case. Andie was meant to collect her parents, Jason and Dawn Bell, from a dinner party at 12:45 a.m.; when Andie failed to arrive or answer calls, they contacted her friends and Jason reported her missing at 3:00 a.m. Pippa concludes that whatever happened to Andie took place between 10:40 p.m. and 12:45 a.m., then prepares to type up Angela Johnson’s interview.
Who Appears
- Pippa Fitz-AmobiBegins her EPQ log and defines her investigation into Andie’s disappearance and Sal’s guilt.
- Andie BellMissing murder victim whose final known movements become the focus of Pippa’s timeline.
- Sal SinghAccused of killing Andie; Pippa hopes to uncover reasonable doubt about his guilt.
- Ravi SinghSal’s brother; Pippa has scheduled an interview with him for Friday afternoon.
- Becca BellAndie’s younger sister, reported as the last person to see Andie alive at home.
- Jason BellAndie’s father; reported Andie missing after she failed to collect her parents.
- Dawn BellAndie’s mother; was waiting with Jason for Andie to pick them up from a dinner party.
- Angela JohnsonInterview subject whose transcript Pippa plans to type up after establishing the timeline.
- Mrs MorganPippa’s EPQ supervisor, from whom Pippa wants to hide the project’s more speculative approach.