This Minecraft Movie Star's Murder Mystery Series Is A Gem Tucked Away On Netflix

Holly Jackson's Y.A. novel "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" was published in 2019, and follows the investigative adventures of teenage true-crime fan Pippa "Pip" Fitz-Amobi from a small suburb in Buckinghamshire. In the first novel, she investigates the five-year-old murder of a popular girl in her school, Andrea, and the subsequent suspicious suicide of the alleged murderer, Sal. Pip teams up with Sal's brother Ravi, and they delve into the old secrets at her school. Pip is able to get information because she claims she's actually working on a school project, and no one suspects the teenagers of being capable detectives. Naturally, Pip discovers that Andrea wasn't the squeaky-clean star everyone suspected and that Sal probably wasn't the perpetrator. 

The book was popular enough to warrant several sequels, including "Good Girl, Bad Blood" in 2020, "As Good As Dead" in 2021, and "Kill Joy" in 2021. It was also popular enough to spawn a TV series, which was released on BBC iPlayer in 2024. The series is also available on Netflix in North America. "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" has already run for two six-episode seasons, with a third coming in 2027, so it appears to be something of a hit.

The series starred Emma Myers (from "A Minecraft Movie") as Pip, and Zain Iqbal as Ravi. Rahul Pattni played Sal in flashbacks, while India Lillie Davies played Andrea. Critics liked it. Although the series deals with murder and tragedy, it's actually a lighthearted affair, breezily skipping along without much adult gravitas. In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Lloyd wrote that "Good Girl's Guide" is only mildly gritty, but that it is heartfelt, which is its greatest asset. 

Each episode is less than 50 minutes, and with only six episodes in a season, this seems like the kind of casual, fun, distracting show you can binge in just a few evenings.

Murder mysteries are deeply beloved, of course (we write about them often), as exemplified by the decades of success of shows like "Law & Order." It's wild to think that the most brutal acts one person can inflict on another have come to be America's (or Britain's) most reliable comfort-watch. Making a lighthearted teen entertainment of murder, then, is a wise idea and makes for a cozy experience unto itself. So while there is real death and suspected suicide in the middle of "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder," and the tone can be bleak at times, those details may only give the series an edge that many might find appealing. 

Before you ask, yes, the American Emma Myers plays a British character, sporting an accent that, according to the A.V. Club's Sarah Shaffi, she mostly pulls off. Myers herself is 24, but she pulls off the precociousness of a teen. Shaffi's review points out that Pip is indeed a traditionally "good girl," projecting a sense of innocence and even naivete that some might find unbelievable or grating. Her innocence also helps her out when she's busted doing things like breaking into houses. No, officer, this isn't the sort of thing I normally do. One of the show's central clues is that the murderer confesses via text, and his text-speak doesn't match his usual grammar. How teenage. 

The second season of "Good Girl's Guide" aired in May of 2026, where Pip investigates a missing persons case when her friend Connor's brother vanishes.