A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Stan is an intriguing murder mystery series brimming with heart and personality.
The new six-part series is based on the young adult crime novel of the same name by Holly Jackson, who went on to pen two more books and a novella in this series, all of which were critically acclaimed and beloved by readers around the world.
The new Stan series tells the story of 17-year-old Pip Fitz-Amobi (played by Emma Myers) who becomes enthralled by the disappearance of Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies) a popular high school student a few years ahead of her who went missing more than five years ago.
Everyone in Pip's life, particularly her own tight-knit friendship circle and fellow students, are against her looking into what really happened to Andie and accuse her of opening up old wounds for their community. They all reason that Andie's boyfriend Sal Singh (played by Rahul Pattni) already confessed to killing her, which happened before he took a fatal overdose, resulting in the case never going to trial.
But the more Pip delves into this story, the more convinced she becomes that the story around Andie's disappearance is not as it seems. Apart from the fact that Pip always viewed Sal as a kind and gentle person who she believes could never have committed such an act, Andie's body has also never been found.
In pursuit of the truth, Pip teams up with Sal's younger brother Ravi Singh (played by Zain Iqbal) who is initially resistant to her detective work involving his brother, but slowly he starts to see that Pip might be right and the growing chemistry between the pair is one of the highlights of the series.
As the series progresses, it becomes clear to the audience that Pip also has her own sense of guilt around how these mysterious events really unfolded in her small hometown.
Take a look at the trailer for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Stan.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder balances some of its darker storylines with compelling moments of lightness and humor, perfectly balancing the elements of murder mystery with a coming-of-age tale in a high school setting.
Emma Myers brings a fascinating complexity to the character of Pip, playing the role with curiosity, vulnerability, and determination as the teen sleuth begins to piece together the mystery. Scouring social media for clues, interviewing witnesses who scold her for digging into the past, and slowly realizing that the story of Andie's disappearance is peppered with inconsistencies.
Audiences first fell in love with Myers thanks to her role as teenage werewolf Enid Sinclair in the hit series Wednesday and one of the greatest strengths of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is propelling this actress into a lead role.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is a welcome addition to the pop culture world of teenage detectives that have come before Pip Fitz-Amobi.
The adventures of Nancy Drew have entertained audiences for decades through books, movies, and most recently a TV series with a supernatural twist. In the same vein, Veronica Mars starred Kristen Bell as a wise-cracking teenage sleuth who solves cases around everything from brutal murders to dog napping.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder leans into all the elements that have made teenage detective tales so enjoyable, while also carefully building out its characters, world and the mystery within it to create a series that stands on its own.
The story is set within the picture-perfect English village of Little Kilton, a location that appears cozy and quaint when we first meet these characters but slowly starts to appear more menacing, particularly the haunting woods that wrap around the town, as the truth about Andie's death is revealed.
The plot of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder moves at a brisk and compelling pace, leaving the viewer eagerly leaning into every moment of the series as each surprising plot twist unfolds. Just as you begin to think you've pieced together exactly what happened and who was involved, a new piece of information is revealed, and the mystery unfolding in this small town deepens even further.
If you fell in love with the book, then A Good Girl's Guide to Murder will bring your favourite characters to life in a new way, and you'll find yourself wrapped up in how this iconic story has been adapted for the screen. If you have yet to read the books, then do yourself a favour and avoid spoilers at all costs before you devour all six episodes (probably all in one sitting).
There's just no way you'll be able to pick how the ending to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder plays out.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is now streaming, only on Stan.
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