A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is here, adapting the first book in Holly Jackson's bestselling YA crime trilogy, recreating the narrative for the small screen and slipping in subtle nods for readers to pick out.
The BBC series follows teen Pip Fitz-Amobi (Emma Meyers) who decides to investigate the disappearance and apparent death of Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies) five years earlier, everyone in her town is ready to believe that Andie's boyfriend Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni) did it after he confessed and died by suicide, but not Pip and she's ready to uncover the truth.
There are a number of Easter eggs in the six-part series that'll have readers pointing at the screen like the now infamous meme of Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Some are small and others are so big they have the potential to spoil both the books and TV show if explained further.
Fans of Jackson's work are hoping the show will get renewed to adapt her next two books -- Good Girl, Gone Bad and As Good As Dead -- and it certainly seems possible given some of the hints hidden within the TV show.
We are hesitant to give away every Easter egg, particularly those in the finale, because of how they brilliantly lay the groundwork for an adaptation of Jackson's third book for future seasons.
However, there are plenty of others hidden that are safe to talk about without giving away the unexpected directions that As Good As Dead takes, some of which you may have missed.
One surprising name drop happens early in the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder TV show, the second episode sees Pip and her friends go on a camping trip together to celebrate Cara Ward's (Asha Banks) birthday. While sharing scary stories in the woods, Connor Reynolds (Jude Morgan-Collie) mentions DTK, the Duct Tape Killer.
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Readers will immediately pick up on this Easter egg if they've read As Good As Dead, which follows Pip as she starts to look into the DTK killings whilst contending with a stalker who sends her one ominous message over and over again: "Who will look for you when you're the one that disappears?"
The BBC adaptation of Jackson's book does make a few changes to the original story, and one of them feels to have been entirely done for the purpose of being an Easter egg: Elliot Ward's profession.
In the book, Elliot Ward (played by Mathew Baynton) is Pip's history teacher but in the show he is an english teacher. Why make such a small change, one might ask? Well the answer is simple if you know Baynton's filmography.
In the BBC comedy Ghosts Baynton plays Thomas Thorne, a Romantic poet who died during the Regency era and has been haunting the house where the show takes place ever since. Elliot's new role in the TV show is clearly a nod to Baynton's beloved character, and he even has a display on Romantic poets in his classroom to boot (though it's not clear if Thomas is mentioned on it).
If you're not paying close enough attention to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder you may well miss one of the only nods the show makes to Jackson's second book Good Girl, Gone Bad. When Pip and Cara help Cara's sister Naomi (Yasmin Al-Khudhairi) get ready for a school reunion her sibling mentions one Jamie Reynolds and he's set to attend the party too.
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Jamie is the catalyst for the events of Good Girl, Gone Bad, as his suspicious disappearance leads his younger brother Connor to beg Pip for help. She swore her detective days were behind her after the Andie Bell case, but Pip can't say no to a friend in need and promises to help only to uncover even more dark secrets in her town.
One character from the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder book that doesn't appear at all in the TV series is Stanley Forbes, a journalist who reported on the Andie Bell case and has conflicts with Pip over the course of the story. Stanley is a local reporter for The Kilton Mail and, like Jamie, plays an important role in Good Girl, Gone Bad too.
While he doesn't make an appearance in the show, nor is he mentioned by name, there is one subtly Easter egg to him hidden on Pip's murder investigation board -- a printout of one of his articles. It's a very small nod, but just enough to tell readers that he hasn't been forgotten entirely from the story.
