One needn’t have read Holly Jackson’s novel of the same name to immediately identify exactly what Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is up to. The six-part series fits squarely into a well-trod, but deservedly beloved tradition of mysteries about meddling teenage gumshoes, with traces of everything from Nancy Drew to Harriet the Spy to Veronica Mars, if you’re looking for American antecedents. Or, with its small village British setting, maybe it’s more Miss Teen Marple?

Adapted by Poppy Cogan and directed with solid, tone-blending balance by Dolly Wells and Tom Vaughan, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is too familiar and too rushed, especially toward its final episode, to get anywhere near the pinnacle of the prolific genre. But on its modest level the series, which already premiered on BBC Three and iPlayer works well. Its core mystery zigzags decently, spiked by moments...