A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

“But it wasn’t haunted by ghosts, just three sad people trying to live their lives as before. A house not haunted by flickering lights or spectral falling chairs, but by dark spray-painted letters of ‘Scum Family’ and stone shattered windows.”

In reference to the Singhs’ house, this quote exemplifies the public shame faced by the family in light of the accusations made against Sal. The tone of the quote reflects the grief felt by the family at the loss of Sal but also showcases the external ramifications of public opinion aimed against the family. The house has been defaced with spray paint, a literal marker setting the family apart as pariahs in the community.

“When you ask people in town what happened to Andie Bell, they’ll tell you without hesitation: ‘She was murdered by Salil Singh.’ No ‘allegedly,’ no ‘might have,’ no ‘probably,’ no ‘most likely.’ He did it, they say. Sal Singh killed Andie. But I’m just not so sure.”

The preconceived notions of the community in reference to Sal’s guilt are apparent in this quote. The accusations against him are solidified as true in seemingly everyone’s mind except Pip’s. The words also demonstrate what a difficult task Pip faces in investigating a case that appears open and shut to outsiders and even those who knew Sal.

“I’m not like an expert or anything, but they have different ways of life from us, don’t they? They don’t treat women quite like we do. So I’m guessing maybe Andie decided she didn’t want to be with him or something, and he killed her in a rage because, in his eyes, she belonged to him.”

This statement Stanley Forbes says to Pip during their interview illustrates the racism the Singh family—particularly Ravi—must deal with, being of Indian ethnicity. Sal is painted as guilty in part due to Stanley’s characterization of Sal’s values as differing from the seeming norm. Stanley has created this motivation for Sal based on this idea of values, which he wrote about as a journalist during the Bell case and disseminated to the community, exacerbating the family’s status as outsiders.