Is ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ based on a true story?
Pip Fitz-Amobi is the queen of Netflix so far this August, as A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder continues to ride high around the very top of the global Netflix chart. Pip’s attempts to solve the mysterious murder of a girl at her school have captured the imagination of millions of viewers around the world.
The seventeen-year-old amateur detective is obsessed with true crime documentaries and podcasts, akin to the trio of characters at the forefront of Hulu comedy-drama Only Murders in the Building. In fact, it’s this obsession which leads her to the subject of her EPQ, a final school project that is graded for qualification in its own right.
Her aim? As she tells her best friend Cara, “To solve the Andie Bell case.” And she’s true to her word, no matter how many twists and turns she takes to get there. Her in-depth knowledge of true crime and passion for working through the murder mysteries of the real-life cases she follows leads her to suspects that others wouldn’t have considered, including the police.
Given the realism of Pip’s story, many viewers must be wondering what inspired it. The series deals with the harrowing struggles of the young adults she encounters during her search for answers, from drug problems to sexual abuse, in authentic terms, without overegging the drama or sanitising the details.
So, where did the story come from?
Rather than real-life crimes, though, the case of Andie Bell’s murder and Pip’s quest to solve it have come from the pen of British novelist Holly Jackson. It’s the first part of Jackson’s best-selling novel A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder that’s been adapted for the show of the same name. And the rest of the novel’s plot should be played out over further seasons of the series, especially in light of the first season’s success.
Is there any truth behind what Jackson herself wrote? Only to the extent that she herself is a true crime fanatic, much like Pip is in her story. “The real inspiration for AGGGTM was the world of true crime: podcasts and documentaries,” Jackson told the Bradford Boase award in an interview. “I became a true crime obsessive and wanted to write a book which replicated this ‘real’ amateur detective angle.”
But Jackson, who was 26 when her book was published, had only developed her obsession relatively recently when she wrote her novel. It coincided with the true crime craze that’s swept podcast and streaming platforms in particular during the last several years.
She wasn’t an amateur detective like Pip during her schooldays. Pip is a character entirely of her own invention, who allowed her to challenge herself to develop ingenious plotlines while writing. “One of my favourite parts of writing was coming up with ways that Pip could turn everyday tech into crime solving tools,” Jackson explained, “as – being a teenager – she doesn’t have the full resources of a police force.”
Although she’s not the slightest bit real, Pip could have fooled many of us thanks to her convincing portrayal by actor Emma Myers. It’ll be exciting to see how Myers interprets the next instalment of Pip’s story as told by Jackson, which is harder-hitting and involves more internal conflict within the character alongside its fresh murder mystery narrative.