A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

The series is equal parts clever mystery and classic teen tropes—from a budding romance between unlikely partners to navigating a newfound sense of adolescent rebellion—with a delightful dash of quizzicality thrown in.

An involving ride — not so much for the plot as for the characters (which is how all detective stories live or die) and a great performance by Emma Myers (“Wednesday”) as its central sleuth, Pippa Fitz-Amobi.

Her quest to solve the case puts her in a lot of dicey scenarios — seedy, yeah, but also just too grown-up, and Myers’s luminous performance beautifully and poignantly synthesizes this blend of panic, regret, embarrassment, determination, courage, fear and stubbornness.

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder rides on the charm of Emma Myers, but there’s also a solid mystery to get to the bottom of, which isn’t always the case in shows like this.

Whether you're a fan of the book or venturing into the world of AGGGTM for the very first time, this is a killer series that will almost certainly return for future seasons.

With Emma Myers creating a performance that has us rooting for and caring about Pip from the moment she endeavors to crack the case, “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” makes for a satisfying viewing experience that won’t tax your soul or haunt your dreams.

Myers makes for an appealing heroine, particularly when Pip and Ravi begin working together and arguing about which of them is Holmes and which has the “Martin Freeman energy” to be better suited as Watson. It’s not reinventing the wheel, nor is it the best possible version of the genre. (If you’re curious, Veronica Mars Season One is over on Hulu.) But as Pip keeps getting in way over her head, it’s not hard to understand why books, TV, and film keep returning to the archetype.

For the first five episodes, particularly the penultimate one, which reveals a stunning twist, “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” engagingly unpacks the anguish of being a teenage girl, the complexities of friendship and the deceptiveness of appearances. But as Pip ties up loose ends in the finale, plotlines become jumbled and farfetched, as if the writers were racing to put a neat bow around the story.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder didn’t exactly keep me guessing, but it kept me generally entertained across the six episodes, all under 48 minutes.

Overall, A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder is solid viewing. It’s speedy enough—six 40-minute episodes—that no installment is devoid of action. Despite some slight British accent problems, Myers is mostly great as Pip, and compelling to watch, and the legendary Maxwell-Martin is fantastic as her mum.

Overall, there’s a wholesomeness, a sweetness that feels almost daring for the times. The six episodes slide down like a glass of old-fashioned pop on a sunny day.

In terms of gripping the viewer and getting them invested in the mystery, the initial setup is rather lackluster, so much so that it's difficult to say whether there’s even a setup at all. .... That said, when the series finally gets into the mystery, it really gets into it, and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder knows how to pull off its plot twists.

There is very little urgency here, which may be blamed on the fact that the six-part series was adapted from the very popular YA novel by Holly Jackson, who writes in a genre in which even death is not to be taken too seriously, lest one disturb the youth.

Even the tiniest and seemingly most insignificant details help put all the moving pieces into their place. Ultimately, as in most mystery series, getting the story right is what ends up being the most important thing here. And despite its shortcomings, "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" is able to do just that in the end.

It’s murder-lite but with just enough grit and twists, however contrived, to keep you bingeing through its six episodes. With more stories to plunder in the novel series, this surely won’t be the last we see of the resourceful Pip Fitz-Amobi.

There is no time to be bored, to dwell on the plot holes or to do anything other than enjoy yourself. It manages to be a meditation on the trials and tribulations of growing up and on the manifestations of grief. In short, it’s a good good girl’s guide to murder.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is at its best when it leans into being a fast-paced, frothy whodunnit. If you go into it expecting an epic and intricate Wilkie Collins-style thriller, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if you’re looking for an easy, breezy binge-worthy murder mystery, prepare to be glued to your screen.

Although some of these component parts might feel familiar, the story is pacily told and filled with enough twists to make A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder moreish viewing. Think The Famous Five meets Pretty Little Liars, as told by Agatha Christie: it’s a combination that shouldn’t really work on paper, but will have you hooked all the same.