As Good As Dead

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-14

Part 1, Chapters 15-21

Part 1, Chapters 22-29

Part 2, Chapters 30-35

Part 2, Chapters 36-41

Part 2, Chapters 42-47

Part 2, Chapters 48-55

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 1, Chapters 15-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 15-18 Summary

Pip repeatedly tries calling Maria Karras, the mother of the convicted DT Killer. When the two finally connect, Maria says she left a message on Pip’s podcast website in April. Pip pretends that this is her follow-up call. Maria gives her details, suggesting that her son Billy couldn’t be the killer. She offers to send Pip a transcript of his interrogation.

Pip learns that Billy worked for the Green Scene landscaping company, to which other victims were connected. The company is owned by Jason Bell, the father of Pip’s original cold case victim—Andie Bell. Though Pip is unwilling to believe it, Billy may not be the real DT Killer, which means that the murderer is at large and after Pip.

The following day, jittery and sleepless, Pip pays a call at Jason’s house. He answers the door but won’t let her in. She asks about the security alarm that went off at his landscaping business on the night the fifth victim was killed. This was the same night that his daughter Andie died. He refuses to talk about the case anymore and accuses Pip of interfering in people’s lives.

Ravi arrives later for a visit, and Pip tells him about the numerous phone calls she’s now getting from a blocked number. She’s just bought a subscription to CallTrapper so that she’ll be able to trace the number the next time her stalker calls. Ravi suggests that she should go back to Detective Hawkins, but Pip says that he won’t believe her anyway. Pip still thinks that capturing the DT Killer is the road to her salvation:

If the man who wanted her to disappear was DT, then she couldn’t have wished for something more perfect. There was no gray area here, none at all, not even a trace. The DT Killer was the closest thing to evil the world could offer her (151).

Pip learns that police officer Daniel Da Silva worked at Green Scene during the killing spree. This is her friend Nat’s brother and someone that Pip once accused of murder already, but he appears to be her prime suspect. Pip tries to contact the sister of one of the victims because she wants to ask about the dead pigeon and chalk drawings left a week before the final murder.

Part 1, Chapters 19-21 Summary

The next day, Pip meets Harriet Hunter at the local café. The girl has agreed to be taped, so Pip has brought all her podcast equipment to the meeting. Harriet confirms that her sister found two dead pigeons, one without a head, and chalk drawings in the driveway. The victim also received anonymous calls from blocked numbers. Pip is stunned when Harriet discloses that Andie Bell contacted her after her sister’s death. Andie offered comfort and support, and the two struck up a friendship. Andie used a secret email address to communicate with Harriet, and Pip saves this information.

Back at home, Pip checks her records on the Andie Bell case and finds some day planner entries in Andie’s journal that mention meetings with HH. These must have been her talks with Harriet. Pip wonders why Andie was so intensely interested in the DT Killer. She decides to gain access to Andie’s secret email account to find out. Unfortunately, she can’t reset the password without answering a security question asking for the name of Andie’s pet hamster. Only her younger sister Becca would know this, and Pip already has a call scheduled with her for the following day. Becca is serving time in prison for the involuntary manslaughter of Andie.

That night, Pip is still having trouble sleeping and is almost out of Xanax. Her dealer says he doesn’t currently have a supply. She receives a late call from Detective Hawkins. He says the police have apprehended Charlie Green, the killer from Pip’s second podcast season. The detective reassures her that she doesn’t need to be afraid anymore. Pip isn’t scared of Charlie. In fact, she understood his need for revenge against the man who lured his sister to her death. Pip wishes she could talk to Charlie because he may be the only person who understands her obsessive need for justice.

The next afternoon, Pip gets on the phone with Becca and learns the hamster’s name. Later, she successfully accesses Andie’s email account and finds a draft message in which Andie says she knows who the DT Killer is. She’s afraid to let anyone know because he might come after her. By inference, Andie has had some social contact with the killer and fears that he may know she suspects him. She desperately wants to escape Fairview and get Becca out of town too.

Chapters 15-21 Analysis

This segment constitutes Pip’s investigation of the DT Killer case because she believes her stalker is a copycat. Significantly, she isn’t immobilized by fear as the stalker’s attacks escalate. Rather, she has gone on the offensive and begun to interview witnesses. While the subject of justice denied remains ever present in the background, the central theme of these chapters is Pure Evil. Pip uncovers information about the serial killer and finds his behavior repulsive in a way that her previous culprits never were: “She couldn’t have wished for something more perfect. There was no gray area here, none at all, not even a trace. The DT Killer was the closest thing to evil the world could offer her” (151). Pip is attracted to this particular case because it leaves no room for sympathy. She will be able to emerge from the morally gray area she has occupied until now.

However, Pip’s assumption that the real DT Killer is behind bars is soon open to question. Billy Karras is serving time but may be wrongly convicted: “Two halves of the same truth: if Billy Karras was innocent, then the DT Killer was still out there. Out here. He was back. And Pip had one week left before he made her disappear” (139).

Pip’s reference to being erased is related to the theme of The Struggle to Be Heard. Ironically, hers isn’t the only struggle in this regard. Andie Bell emerges as a ghost from the past whose own voice was silenced prematurely. Pip was able to provide some amount of closure by solving her murder and recovering her body. However, Andie retains another layer of mystery that ties directly into Pip’s current investigation. Finding Andie’s secret email and a draft message further indicates a suppressed voice. Presumably, the DT Killer has frightened her into silence. We still don’t know the identity of the serial killer at this point in the novel, but his blood connection to Andie makes her suppression even more poignant: “Andie Bell again. Another connection: her dad’s company, and now this friendship with Harriet Hunter. Had the police known about this convergence at the time, this strange link between two ongoing cases?” (161). Given the degree to which Hawkins ignores teen voices, it seems unlikely.