A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is the first book in a trilogy by Holly Jackson that was adapted into a TV series on Netflix on August 1st, 2024. To briefly summarize, the first book is about a teenage girl named Pippa Fitz-Amobi, known as Pip, who becomes a detective to try to solve the Andie Bell case. She recruits a boy named Ravi to be her partner along her dangerous journey. Overall, the show was a success due to its outstanding portrayal of each character and how the actors were able to bring them to life.
The main character named Pip Fitz-Amobi is played by Emma Myers (known for her role in Wednesday). Emma did an amazing job playing Pip, a bold and daring teen detective who will stop at nothing to solve this case. Everything I had pictured Pip to be and look like, really did come to life, even her British accent.
Ravi Singh, the second main character who is Pip’s detective partner and the alleged killer’s younger brother, is played by Zain Iqbal. This actor had a really great performance as well and he was able to create that dynamic between Pip and Ravi that made us readers fall for the odd, but adorable, duo in the first place.
The last actor who I thought did a really amazing job with her character, Cara Ward, is Asha Banks. Cara is Pip’s best friend who was put in a sticky situation with the Andie Bell case due to Pip capturing the real killer. Trauma that Cara had been over, was dug back up. This was really well shown by Asha who had the perfect amount of everything while she acted that really made me feel for her and her complicated position on a deeper level.
Although these actors shined brightly throughout the series, there was one person in particular, maybe the person that deserves the most credit if not all, hiding in the shadows. This person would be Holly Jackson, the author herself.
Holly states in a Variety interview, “I’m proud of the show that we’ve made but ultimately I wasn’t the one writing it.” While she did have rights to the show, many changes were made that she didn’t approve of. She claims to have improved the show greatly from what it was before she stepped in.
Holly explains how she gave advice and made suggestions for the show that she felt would adhere to the book fans needs. While she could be an author that only cares about the profit and business aspect of producing an adaptation of an extremely popular book, she is the complete opposite. Holly gets money from her show regardless of how it’s made or how the fans react but she still perseveres to get it right for her enthusiastic supporters.
The book fans might feel betrayed with what the series final look was but according to Holly, this was actually the better, more book accurate version that she suggested. She sympathizes with her fans and felt dedicated to following through with the book to screen adaptation and its accuracy as best as she could under the circumstances.
Regardless of the issues with the author and her role as a producer, this series is still a must watch. It’s jam-packed with mystery, suspense, intense investigative work, and even some light romance. Anyone who loves a classic murder mystery with a daring teen detective and her lively partner, will love it and I highly recommend it.
