Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ follows the story of 17-year-old Pip, who puts her detective skills to use when she decides to solve a five-year-old murder for her school project. For the townsfolk, the case is already solved: Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who confessed to it in a text message. But Pip is not convinced. There are too many variables in the case that set her off, and she decides to find the truth, no matter the cost. But soon enough, she realizes that everything comes at a price. The killer is still out and about, and they don’t want her digging up the case and jeopardizing their secrets. They threaten her to stop, and they take something precious from her when she doesn’t.
Barney Has to Pay the Price for Pip’s Relentless Investigation
The thing about Little Kilton is that everyone knows everyone there. It is such a close-knit community that when Pip starts asking questions, everyone learns about her project. Most people are not happy with it, largely because they think that it will dig up bad memories for Andie and Sal’s families, but the killer is the one who has the most to lose. They start by sending threatening messages to Pip, asking her to stop or risking something bad happening to her. When she doesn’t back down, they decide to show her what can happen. While Pip and her family are busy celebrating her brother’s birthday, her dog, Barney, goes missing.
Pip immediately realizes that the killer has taken Barney and decides to stop working on the case. She immediately releases a video, taking back her claims of having irrefutable evidence against the killer, which is what inflamed the killer in the first place. But this trick doesn’t work. She and her family spend a whole day in the woods where Pip used to take Barney for his walks, calling out to him, believing that he may have simply run away. But when they get back home, they find him outside their house, lying dead.
The Book Answers the Mystery of Barney’s Death
It’s clear that Barney died at the hands of the murder, and this makes Pip even more adamant about solving the case and unmasking the killer. Eventually, she figures out that the person who sent her threatening text messages and kidnapped Barney was Andie Bell’s sister, Becca. She had previously confronted Pip about why she was so adamant about finding Andie’s killer. However, because they hadn’t had any more interactions, Pip didn’t even consider Becca a suspect, even though she was the last one to see Andie alive.
In the show, Barney’s death is left unacknowledged, but the book on which the TV show is based better explains how things turned out. Becca Bell kidnaps Barney in the hopes of scaring Pip and forcing her to stop her investigation. She is more thorough about it in the book, where she forces Pip to give away her entire research and destroy it. When Pip as she’s asked, Becca lets go of Barney, believing that the dog will eventually find his way home. Still, the dog turns up dead.
Becca believes that the dog may have lost his way and drowned in the creek at night. She feels bad about it, but there is nothing she could have done. An added twist in the story comes in the book’s sequel, where it is revealed that Barney’s death was no accident. Becca and Andie’s father, Jason Bell, killed Barney, but his intentions were completely different, as he wasn’t even aware that it was Pip’s dog. Things unfold a little differently in the show, as Barney is found outside Pip’s house, and the circumstances of his death are not touched upon. It is implied that Becca was his kidnapper, but the exact nature of his death remains elusive.
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