IN DEPTH


Author Interview Holly Jackson


Holly Jackson’s lauded true crime-inspired début has captivated readers on both sides of the Atlantic


Caroline Carpenter @carolinec1988 TheBookseller.com


‘‘ I


did not expect it to blow up like this at all,” says Holly Jackson of her début YA novel, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, adding: “I’m now terrified that I’ve peaked aged 27 with my first book, and it can only be downhill from here.”


Though she may be joking with the later comment, the first is not an exaggeration. Jackson’s début—a compel- ling murder mystery which sees teenage sleuth Pippa Fitz-Amobi set out to crack a cold case for a homework assignment—was 2019’s bestselling début across the UK Children’s and YA market. It is currently shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, a British Book Award and the YA Book Prize, and it is longlisted for the Branford Boase Award too. Last month it hit the top spot on the New York Times’ Young Adult Hardcover chart, just a couple of weeks aſter its US publication. Jackson says she was “in disbelief” at being a New York Times bestseller—“I just kept making high-pitched goat noises down the phone to my US publisher.”


A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was inspired by the 17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24