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A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Stan isn't your average book adaptation.

From books to podcasts to movies and TV — there's something about a good murder mystery.

Just ask Emma Myers, the star of Stan's new series A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

"I just love a good mystery," she shared when I sat down to talk to her about her new starring role. "I love listening to true crime podcasts, watching crime TV shows and all that, so that was definitely part of the appeal to this job.

"I always find it interesting to pick other people's brains, to figure out what's going on inside their heads, what causes them to do these kinds of things. But I also just like the suspense; trying to guess who did it."

Watch the trailer for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Stan. Post continues below.


It's clearly a universal sentiment, with both crime drama and true crime thriving — and this latest offering on Stan is right on track to be another hit for the genre.

Based on the bestselling YA mystery novel of the same name by Holly Jackson, the six-episode series follows 17-year-old Pippa "Pip" Fitz-Amobi (Myers), as she investigates a local murder case for her senior high school project.

When popular high school student Andie Bell was murdered five years prior, everyone believed the culprit was her boyfriend, Sal Singh. But Pip doesn't believe that Sal, who took his own life in the wake of Andie's death, was really guilty.

As she digs deeper, interviewing those connected to Andie and Sal, Pip uncovers dark secrets about Andie's life and the town itself that someone desperately wants to keep hidden. Pip faces increasing danger the closer she gets to the shocking truth about what really happened to Andie — and the deeper she digs, the more twisted the mystery becomes.

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The appeal of the book and the series is clear for Myers. "I think what draws people to this story is that Pip's a young girl doing it all on her own, without any help from a dude. She's smart. She can handle herself — and I think that's pretty appealing, especially for a younger female audience."

It's certainly part of what drew the actor to the project, and the lead role. 

"I love Pip's character so much," says Myers, who you might recognise as kooky roommate Enid from the popular series Wednesday.

"I think we're a lot alike. Obviously, I'm not as articulate or intelligent as she is! But I think we're both grounded and laid-back."

Of course, a high-school murder mystery would be nothing without a group of pals helping out, and Pip has just that in the form of her squad: Cara (Asha Banks), Lauren (Yali Topol Margalith), Connor (Jude Morgan-Collie), and Zach (Raiko Gohara), along with Sal's brother Ravi (Zain Iqbal).

Image: Stan.

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And if they seem like a tight-knit group on-screen, you should have seen them when the cameras weren't rolling.

"We're pretty close!" Myers laughs, sharing that the group still keeps in contact via WhatsApp. "It was so nice having people my age, and they're all really goofy and really fun, and bring such a good energy. Some of them become my best friends, and I just love them so much.

"Anytime they were in Bristol for filming, I'd go out to dinner with them. And we had sleepovers in each other's hotel rooms, and we'd go out to the movies together, and do all sorts of stuff. So yeah, we had a good time."

And yes, they had a lot of fun during filming too. When I ask Myers about her most memorable moment on set, she recounts a scene where they had to go for a swim in a lake on a summer's day... except it definitely wasn't summer. 

"We all jumped into a lake, and it's freezing, windy, and we were all in bathing suits! We had to pretend that it was warm, and I kept hearing them shout, 'Put your legs up in the air, have more fun,' but all of us were just were frozen solid," she shares.

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Chilly weather is maybe not surprising, given they were filming in the UK, which is where the series is based. It also meant American actor Myers had to work on her British accent.

And she does a bang-up job of it, although it took work and patience, she shares.

"I had an amazing dialect coach. We would meet twice a week and go over my scripts again and again and again. Anything I had to film that week, we'd go over again; and then the morning of filming certain things I would be having trouble with, we'd go over it again.

"It also really helped just being surrounded with an all-English cast and crew," Myers continued. "Everybody was very supportive of me trying to learn and get this accent down. It was good to have so many people looking out for me."

As with all book-to-TV adaptations, the big question remains: will fans of the book (of which there are many) be pleased with how the team has transformed the much-loved story for screen?

"I think the book fans are gonna be very happy with it," said Myers. "I'd say it's as true as it can be [to the book]. It's always hard adapting things from book to screen, because obviously not everything translates as well — not everything reads as well on camera. But I think we've all tried to stay as close as possible to the book, and I think it's turned out really well.

"I hope that fans will be very happy."

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder is now streaming, only on Stan.

Feature Image: Stan.

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