Netflix’s number one TV show is a binge-worthy murder mystery

There’s a new top show over at Netflix, and it’s based on a best-selling novel.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is the current global Netflix number one show, having peaked at the top spot in 75 countries, according to Flixpatrol.

It’s a bonafide hit that stars Emma Myers as Pippa Fitz-Amobi, a 17-year-old who decides to investigate a murder in her local village.

Five years previous, Andie Bell was murdered. Her boyfriend Sal Singh was fingered for the crime, but he then committed suicide, curtailing the investigation.

Pippa has her doubts as to whether he really did it, though.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is based on a YA novel by Holly Jackson, but, as you can tell from the plot, this isn’t an entirely light and breezy watch by definition.

What it is, though, is binge-ready. There are six episodes, packed with mystery, and a good old YA-size helping of friendship frictions and outsize emotions.

The one missing country on the Netflix chart roll-call for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is the UK. Given the series is set here, you’d guess it would go down a treat in Blighty on Netflix.

However, this is only because UK viewers need to head over to the BBC iPlayer to watch the show, where it arrived back at the beginning of July.

Most critics agree A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is well worth a watch if the basic premise appeals.

The Chicago Sun-Times calls the show “the streaming series equivalent of a page-turner you zip through while sitting on the porch or relaxing on the beach.”

The Independent says it feels like an unlikely but successful mash-mash of influences. “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 says.

The New York Times says the lead really hooks into the feel of being a teen, that Emma Myers “poignantly synthesizes this blend of panic, regret, embarrassment, determination, courage, fear and stubbornness.”

There’s potential for more to be made of Pippa Fitz-Amobi’s adventures if A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder really is as popular as its current chart position suggests too.

Holly Jackson has written four books starring Pippa. There’s a trilogy of tales, plus a prequel novella, Kill Joy, published in 2021.

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