The Girl Who Wouldn't Die by Marnie Riches
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Girl Who Wouldn't Die is a gritty, dark novel I received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It follows the life of George who is an exchange student from Oxford studying in Amsterdam. During her time in Amsterdam a bomb goes off on campus outside of one of the university's buildings while it is full of students and employees. George and her friend Ad who are complete shocked insert themselves in the investigation because George has a great desire to be a criminologist. As time goes on we see George is not the only one inserting herself in the investigation, so is the killer.

The Girl Who Wouldn't Die is the first adult crime book written by Marnie Riches and she has, to use a baseball metaphor, hit the ball out of the park. Though the book can be quite cringe worthy with darkness at times when the hooks at the end grab you it literally makes up for it. As a recent visitor of Amsterdam I kept trying to envision the locations and realized now I have to go back to see if I figure out the locations of the events. Really, that is the only reason I would go back, to try and see the locations where George frequented. Now, I did not visit the Red Light District but I would love to see everything mentioned. The Girl Who Wouldn't Die seems like it might be a great armchair travel book too. I literally got a great feel for George's love of the buildings in London when she went back to her home school to visit her mentor and advisor at Oxford. You could feel her love for her adopted city as she walked and rode her bikes through the streets of Amsterdam, even though she was in a lower income area. The only drawback I found was George's expression of her feelings towards men seemed a bit stunted and I could not tell if it was the writer's attacking of this topic or George's inability to express the feelings in words. There was one twist in the story that I LOVED and I don't want to spoil it for anyone because it needs to be experience by all who jump in to experience The Girl Who Wouldn't Die.