'A Good Girl's Guide To Murder' review: We detect a solid YA yarn

'Believe it or not, nearly all my motivation for investigating this mystery centres on this bank of lockers.' Photos: Handout

Here comes a rather good entry in the not-always-great tradition of teen detective stories.

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, the latest young adult/teen hit on Netflix, follows in the footsteps of luminaries (aka "meddling kids") such as Nancy Drew, Veronica Mars, Enola Holmes, Velma and Daphne ... you get the idea.

Its central character truly is a good girl in the eyes of family and friends, respectful of and respected by almost everyone.

But 17-year-old Pip Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers, Wednesday's werewolf roommate), on the verge of leaving school for university, is haunted by guilt from an incident dating back to when she was 12.

And so, in the guise of an A-level qualification project, Pip decides to investigate a five-year-old murder-suicide that rocked the small (fictional) English town of Little Kilton.

Popular, pretty Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies) was supposedly killed by her boyfriend Salil "Sal" Singh (Rahul Pattni), who then sent a text confession before taking his own life.

As it was early days yet in her sleuthing career, Pip still struggled with the fine art of looking inconspicuous.

Local law enforcement and the community were quick to accept this "resolution", which never sat right with Pip.

So she starts digging, enlisting any help that's forthcoming, including from Sal's brother Ravi (Zain Iqbal, solid as Pip's foil and anchor in his first starring role) who is initially reluctant but soon buys into her earnestness.

What they find goes beyond a "simple" frame-up job, with the finger of suspicion pointing variously at friends, older siblings of said friends, a local cop, teachers, and even (gasp) a member of Pip's own (complicated) family.

The beauty of this BBC adaptation of Holly Jackson's YA novel (the first of three, so there's room for more seasons) is how adapter Poppy Cogan carefully peels away the layers and guises of the many characters as the story unfolds, yielding surprises and uncomfortable truths.

It's helped along by its largely youthful cast, commendably adept at masking the deeper motivations (and for some, sinister secrets) of their characters through the early chapters of this yarn.

... and sometimes, she just failed miserably at not drawing attention to herself.

Myers does a fine job of bringing the upright, driven and mostly fearless Pip to life, subtly shading in the insecurity and self-doubt that surface as the mystery leads the aspiring detective down a dark and perilous rabbit hole (occasionally, even a cave or two) on her way to some devastating revelations.

A Good Girl's Guide makes for compelling viewing throughout its six episodes, compensating for the occasional pacing issue and puzzling lapses (if Pip drives, why is she always doing a dramatic Tom Cruise run through the streets of Little Kilton?) with some postcard-perfect scenery and aww-inspiring good-friends-leaning-on-one-another warmth.

And that kind of support is crucial indeed because, from the synopses of the next entries in Jackson's series, it doesn't look like things will go too well for our good girl. But if Myers' excellent turn here proves anything, it's that we can believe in Pip and her ability to guide herself through it all.

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All six episodes of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder are available on Netflix.