A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Ravi Singh is Sal Singh’s younger brother. He is 20 years old and described as having a messy, side-swept hairstyle and an oak-hued skin tone. His face is said to look similar to his brother Sal’s. Ravi is a humble and somewhat shy character, having dealt not only with the public shame of being the brother of an alleged murderer but also with racism over his Indian ethnicity. Ravi was also bullied when he was in school due to his association with Sal, contributing to his trepidatious nature.

Like Pip, Ravi is dedicated to finding the truth for his brother and teams up with Pip in her investigation to help her decipher the various clues and characters that emerge throughout the case. He wants Sal to gain liberation from the accusations that have plagued his family for the past five years. In the course of the investigation, Ravi demonstrates himself to be an even-tempered and mild-mannered individual and only becomes strongly emotional when Pip decides to give up on the case due to the danger she and her loved ones face. He becomes invested in the case as it develops and is as compelled as Pip is to discover the truth for Sal’s sake.

Although she is deceased in the novel, several characteristics emerge about Andie Bell through secondhand accounts. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Andie is said to have thrived on drama and been somewhat two-faced, making her friends feel special—like it was a gift to be around her—and then using what her friends were self-conscious about to put them down. Andie is also described as having been somewhat enigmatic, with those closest to her not really knowing who she was, and she is said to have loved keeping secrets.

Several of these secrets are revealed about Andie throughout the course of the novel. For example, when she felt threatened by Nat da Silva, Andie bullied the girl into dropping out of school. Andie’s treatment of her sister, Becca, is also characterized as quite cruel. Additionally, Andie is revealed to have been selling drugs at calamity parties, driven by a desire to make money.

Pip’s remarks about Andie paint her as a product of her father’s severe criticism. According to Andie’s friends, Jason Bell used digging comments to belittle his wife and daughters, resulting in Andie becoming obsessed with her looks and other people’s thoughts of her. Pip concludes that the community and Andie’s loved ones were unable to see what sort of person Andie would turn out to be when free from the toxic influences she was raised with.

Sal is deceased in the novel, but several passages reveal key aspects of his character, based especially on Ravi’s and Pip’s own accounts of him. A spirited individual who would light up a room, Sal was sad to be the best at everything, a straight-A student, and a golden child.

Ravi obviously looked up to Sal due to these qualities, but Pip also had her own personal experiences with Sal that led her to view him as a hero. He helped her deal with two individuals who were bullying her at school and was always kind to her. Pip felt she knew him well enough to know he could not have committed the crime he was accused of. This belief in the integrity of Sal’s character is what drives Pip to devote her capstone project to proving his innocence. At the start of the novel, most people believe Sal died by suicide out of fear he would be revealed as Andie’s killer. However, through Pip’s investigative work, it is revealed that Mr. Ward killed Sal and made it look like a suicide, first framing Sal by sending a confession from his cell phone.

According to Pip, Cara Ward is her closest friend, the two having known each other since they were six years old. She is said to have curly, ash-brown hair and came out as gay two years prior to the opening of the novel. Cara’s mother died a few years prior to the novel’s events, an event that brought Cara and Pip much closer.

Cara is a supportive friend who is always there for Pip. She has a casual manner of speaking, especially toward Pip, that signifies their closeness. Cara is also very protective of her somewhat fragile sister Naomi, warning Pip to go easy on her during their interview and asking Pip to protect Naomi from legal trouble due to her involvement in the hit-and-run.

Elliot Ward is Pip’s history teacher and Sal’s former teacher who has served as a sort of father figure for Pip. Mr. Ward initially comes across as harmless, disarming in his manner of speaking and his attitude toward Pip and the other characters. He makes jokes and even offers to help Pip if she is being bullied. However, as the novel progresses, secrets are revealed about Mr. Ward that show more of his true character. He became involved in an inappropriate relationship with Andie five years prior, despite stating that he knew it was wrong. Mr. Ward narrates how the relationship slowly developed into something he knew he must put an end to.

When Andie comes to his house and becomes violent, Mr. Ward accidentally injures her. She vanishes, and he acts to quickly frame Sal so that if Andie is found, his secrets will not come to light. When Mr. Ward thinks he sees Andie wandering around concussed, he kidnaps her and holds her captive for five years at his old house.

Although Mr. Ward seems genuinely apologetic for his crimes and even relieved that his lies are out in the open, his action demonstrate his two-sided nature. Able to act so casual and relaxed with his students, Mr. Ward has actually been hiding the side of himself that was so desperate to cover his tracks that he committed these crimes.

Naomi Ward is Cara Ward’s older sister and Mr. Ward’s daughter. She is fragile, mild-tempered, delicate, and calm. Naomi has been in therapy since her mother died. After suffering from panic attacks while completing college, Naomi moved back home with her father and sister. As recommended by her therapist, she regularly journals.

Naomi is very cagey in her interviews with Pip, behavior that turns out to be a result of the hit-and-run she was involved in that she and her friends have been hiding for years. When she finally confesses this crime to Pip, she becomes quite emotional. Naomi’s delicate emotional state makes her come across as somewhat vulnerable and easily rattled.

Stanley Forbes is a journalist for the Fairview Mail and reported on the Bell case five years prior to the setting of the novel. In his writing, it is implied that Stanley demonized Sal Singh in the press, assuming Sal’s guilt without him ever having been convicted. Stanley is also dating Becca Bell, Andie Bell’s younger sister.

In his interview with Pip, Stanley comes across as quite abrasive, boldly asserting that it is obvious that Sal committed the crime. He also uses language that conveys a sense of bigotry toward Sal. He states that Sal’s Indian ethnicity means he would have had different values in the way he treated women and that he likely killed Andie out of possessiveness. These claims show Stanley to be aggressive in his opinions.

Jason Bell is Andie and Becca Bell’s father. When Pip researches Jason, she watches press footage of him and feels something is off about him in the way he acts. Pip also quickly learns that Jason and Andie had a tense relationship. After Andie disappeared, Jason and Andie’s mother quickly divorced, and Jason married a much younger woman.

Pip later learns that Jason was very critical of his daughters and wife as the girls were being raised, especially regarding their looks. He is also said to have made his daughters compete for approval, using one’s good grade to put the other down, for example. Jason is almost characterized as a bully, and his criticism had severe effects on both his daughters, with Andie becoming more superficial and crueler and Becca becoming withdrawn.

Max Hastings was a friend of Sal’s. He is described by Pip as being 25 years old and a tall blond with floppy hair and a pretentious attitude. Max is somewhat of a partier, having begun the carried-on tradition of “calamity parties”—what the teenagers call house parties.

Max is rather closed off toward Pip, avoiding her questions and quite brusque in his responses to her. This cagey behavior is a result of the secrets he is hiding. Pip finds a photograph of Andie in Max’s room in which she is only wearing underwear, causing him to be highly suspicious in Pip’s mind. As is revealed, Max was also involved in a hit-and-run several years earlier in which he was the drunk driver and left a man to die on the road. Finally, it is revealed that Max bought roofies and slipped one into Becca Bell’s drink. Although he claims the sex was consensual, Becca claims Max raped her. These secrets Max attempts to keep hidden explain his gruff exterior throughout the novel.

Nat da Silva was a classmate of Andie Bell’s when they were in school. She has cropped white-blonde hair and heavy eyeliner, and to Pip, Nat is noticeably similar looking to Andie, with the same large blue eyes and plump lips.

As Pip discovers, Andie bullied Nat when they were in school due to Andie feeling that Nat was a rival. Andie posted a video online in which Nat was topless, and she threatened her to get her to drop out of the school play, stating she would tell people that Nat’s older brother Daniel had inappropriate relations with her. Nat dropped out of the school shortly afterward.

Nat was arrested for assault while in college and is wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet when Pip approaches her for an interview. Nat is aggressive when the topic of Andie is brought up, claiming that Andie ruined her life. However, when Nat sees Ravi, she is calmer and expresses sympathy toward Ravi for his having lost his brother.

Becca Bell is Andie Bell’s younger sister. She is 21 and has short hair that is dyed light like Andie’s was. Becca is an intern at the Fairview Mail and is dating journalist Stanley Forbes. Pip quickly learns that in the weeks before Andie went missing, Becca was hospitalized for self-harming.

Throughout the course of the novel, Pip learns that Becca looked up to her sister but was only met with cruelty from Andie. She also became increasingly withdrawn while growing up due to her father Jason’s criticism, focusing on her flaws and skipping meals. Pip eventually learns that Becca was raped by Max Hastings, although he claims the sex was consensual.

At the climax of the novel, Becca is revealed to be Andie’s killer. She describes attempting to tell Andie about being raped and Andie’s vile words and dismissal of her claims. This interaction informed Becca’s motivation to kill Andie. Although she was unaware of Andie’s concussion at the time she injured her, Becca stood by and watched her sister die without acting to save her. She placed Andie’s body in a septic tank at an old farmhouse. When Pip discovers the truth of Becca’s crimes, Becca attempts to kill Pip, although she stops at the last minute, claiming she cannot go through with it.

Howie Bowers is a drug dealer who was supplying Andie with drugs to sell and who sells to the teenagers who go to the calamity parties. He is quite a shady individual, living in a run-down bungalow, and he comes across as somewhat dangerous.

When Pip confronts Howie with pictures of him making a drug deal with a student, he reluctantly agrees to an interview. He describes how Andie approached him with the desire to sell drugs to make cash and how he got a second burner phone for her and told her to use codes when dealing. Howie also informs Pip about the roofies that Andie was selling.

During a tense moment between Pip, Ravi, and Howie, Howie blocks Pip and Ravi’s exit from his bungalow, demanding that Pip delete the photos she took of his drug deal. He sends Pip off with a warning that if she asks dangerous questions, she is bound to get some dangerous answers.