Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day.
In Netflix’s A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2024), Andie was involved in two age-gap relationships - with Dan Da Silva, a “handsome” police officer, and with The Secret Older Guy, Mr. Elliot Ward, the Head of English at Fairview High. (Note that Pip, a teen investigating Andie’s murder for a school project, referred to Officer Da Silva as “handsome” in s01e01.)
 |
| Pip Discovers that Mr. Ward is Andie's Secret Older Guy |
In s01e05, Officer Da Silva informed Pip that he and Andie “had a thing”. Pip was able to deduce that the thing between Officer Da Silva and Andie occurred when Andie was illegally 15. However, Officer Da Silva implied that Andie claimed that she was 16 when they had sex. (Note that 16 is the age-of-consent in the United Kingdom where the Netflix series was set.)
Officer Da Silva, “Andie and I had a thing, but it was two years before she went missing.”
Pip, “How old was she? That’s statutory rape. She was 15!”
Officer Da Silva, “Yeah. Not a good look if you want to become a police officer. I could tell you she lied about her age, said she was 16, but I’m not sure you’d believe me, would you?
Later in the same episode, Mr. Ward shared with Pip that when Andie was 17, he and Andie “grew close and started a relationship”, but they only had age-gap sex three times before Andie started dating Sal - her teen boyfriend with whom she did not have sex.
Mr. Ward, “[...] her grades had started slipping. She came to me for help - just tutoring. This was not long after [my wife] Isabel had died and I was in a dark place. Andie and I grew close and started a relationship.”
 |
| Andie's Ivy House Hotel Selfie |
Unsurprisingly, it was Andie’s idea to have Mr. Ward take her to the “posh’ Ivy House Hotel where they checked into the hotel under Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. To commemorate the occasion, before sex with her teacher for the first time, Andie took a selfie in a pink lingerie set in the hotel’s bathroom.
They went to the Ivy House three times before Andie ended the age-gap relationship and started dating Sal - a teen classmate.
Mr. Ward, “It only happened a few times, and then she started seeing Sal. We limped on for a bit, but then she called it off. She said she was in love with him.”
However, after Andie started dating Sal, she asked Mr. Ward to see her again at the Ivy House, but that time it wasn’t for sex. It was for money.
Pip, “You were at the Ivy House Hotel with her just days before she went missing.”
Mr. Ward, “You’re right, I was. She said she wanted to see me. At first, I thought she’d had a change of heart, but she wanted money.”
Pip, “Why?”
Mr. Ward didn’t know why Andie needed the money, and he didn’t give her the £5,000 that she requested. Consequently, a few days later at Mr. Ward’s house, Andie threatened to (falsely) accuse Mr. Ward of having a non-consual age-gap relationship with her, but Mr. Ward refused to be blackmailed.
Mr. Ward, “I don’t know, but I said, ‘No.’ Then she left, but a few days later, she came to my house. She told me if I didn’t give her £5,000, she would tell the world that I’d taken advantage of her. Again, I said, ’No, I wouldn’t be blackmailed.’
Consequently, Andie, “[...] went wild, screaming and slapping [Mr. Ward]”. In an effort to defend himself, he pushed Andie who, “Hit her head on the countertop. It was bad. There was blood everywhere.” But after Mr. Ward went to get his phone to call an ambulance, Andie was gone - never to be seen by him again.
Naturally, Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder novel, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, provided more details about Andie. For example, we learned from the novel that 17-year-old Andrea “Andie” Bell was described as “[...] white, five feet six inches tall, with long blond hair and [“sparking pale”] blue eyes” and “plump pale lips” - the “[...] prettiest, most popular girl in the grade”.
Mr. Elliot Ward was described as the Fairview High history teacher and former Yale professor with “wisps of gray hair in his brown hair and [...] thick-rimmed glasses.” Mr. Ward taught Andie AP US History during her sophomore year, but per Mr. Ward, Andie initiated their student-teacher affair when she started “paying attention” to him at school during her senior year. For example, Andie followed Mr. Ward in the halls where she asked about his day, and she even asked for his phone number.
“It was late February. Andie started . . . paying attention to me at school. I wasn’t teaching her; she didn’t take his history. But she’d follow me in the halls and ask me about my day. And, I don’t know, I guess the attention felt . . . nice. [...] And then Andie starts asking to have my phone number. Nothing had happened at this point, we hadn’t kissed or anything, but she kept asking.”
Not being able to resist the allure of a nymphet, Mr. Ward (somewhat) reluctantly gave Andie his phone number. Subsequently, Andie suggested that they, “[...] meet somewhere outside of school. Like a hotel” where they had sex for the first time.
“I told her absolutely not. But in a moment of madness, a moment of weakness, I found myself booking one. She could be very persuasive. [...] And I booked the [The Ivy House] hotel for the next week [...] That’s when it happened the first time.’ His voice was quiet with shame. ‘We didn’t stay the night; [...] We stayed just a couple of hours.”
Mr. Ward tried to end the age-gap affair, but Andie blackmailed him into returning to The Ivy House for sex by planting her nude selfie in his classroom, which Max, to his delight, discovered in the back of the classroom.
“I said it couldn’t happen again and tried to call it off. Andie wouldn’t let me. She started threatening to turn me in. She interrupted one of my lessons, came over and whispered to me that she’d left a naked picture of herself hidden in the classroom somewhere and that I should find it before someone else did. Trying to scare me. So, I went back to the Ivy House the next week, because I didn’t know what she’d do if I didn’t. I thought she would tire of whatever this was soon enough.”
Subsequently, Mr. Ward tried to end the affair again, but that only caused an “irate” Andie to go to Mr. Ward’s home where she screamed, she said that she “only touched” him because she wanted him to help her get into Yale, and she destroyed his deceased wife’s paintings.
There are some notable differences between the Netflix series and the novel:
Andie’s selfie that Pip found in Max’s bedroom and that Max found in Mr. Ward’s classroom was different in the book than in the series. In the series' selfie, Andie was wearing a pink bra and pantie set, but in the book, the schoolgirl was nude except for a pair of black underwear. Jackson wrote:
A photo she’d taken of herself in a mirror. Standing on a red and white tiled floor, her right hand raised and clutched round the phone. Her mouth was pushed out in a pout and her eyes looked straight out of the page; she was wearing nothing but a pair of black underwear.
(Note: In the ebook that I referenced, which was published by Electric Monkey - an imprint of Egmont UK (2019), instead of black underwear, topless teen Andie wore black pants.)
In the series and the novel, 15-year-old Andie had sex with Daniel “Dan” Da Silva. In the series, Daniel implied that Andie lied about her age. In the novel, it was clarified that they had sex while Dan was Fairview High’s janitor.
In the series, Nat Da Silva’s nudes were leaked “all over the school”. Consequently, Nat was nicknamed “‘Nude-gate’ Nat.” In the novel, we learned that Nat was a freshman at the time (i.e., ≈14-years-old) and that Andie was the leaker`of Nat’s topless video.
In the series, after Mr. Ward and Andie ended their student-teacher affair, Andie attempted to blackmail Mr. Ward by demanding £5,000 or she would “tell the world” that he took advantage of her, but after Mr. Ward refused, Andie “[...] went wild, screaming and slapping [Mr. Ward]”. In the novel, Andie blackmailed Mr. Ward into returning to The Ivy House for sex by planting a nude selfie in his classroom. But after Mr. Ward tried to end the age-gap affair again, Andie became “irate” and went to Mr. Ward’s home where she screamed, she said that she “only touched” him because she wanted him to help her get into Yale, and she destroyed his deceased wife’s paintings.
Alan Sepinwall opined in his review of the series for Rolling Stone (August 1, 2024):
Once again, the idea is to contrast the seemingly sweet, wide-eyed, innocent exterior of these girls with the dark secrets they’re trying to uncover... "Good Girl’s Guide" is a reasonably well made version of that [...]
_Nicolas%20Berggruen%20(60).png)
