Is Child Brunswick a real person? ‘A Good Girl's Guide To Murder’ Season 2's true crime explained
In recent years, few young adult thrillers have risen to the prominence enjoyed by the New York Times bestseller novel 'A Good Girl's Guide To Murder' and the follow-up novel 'Good Girl, Bad Blood.' Written by author Holly Jackson, both books have now been adapted for the screen in the Netflix series of the same name. While the debut season premiered in 2024 and was based on the first book, Season 2 has upped the stakes by adapting the riveting second book. However, fans have a major question about one character.
Season 2 references the disturbing Brunswick case involving Scott Brunswick and his son, known as Child Brunswick. What separated Scott from the other criminals in his league was the fact that he used his son, referred to as 'Child Brunswick' in the show, to lure innocent victims, who were mostly underage. The fact that Child Brunswick was a child himself went a long way in throwing Scott's victims off guard. The chilling portrayal of Child Brunswick has prompted many audience members to wonder whether the character is based on a real-life figure. There is no evidence that Child Brunswick is based on a specific real-life person, since Season 2 is widely known to be a work of fiction, and any resemblance to a real-life figure is unintentional. Nevertheless, speaking in a 2020 interview with UnitedByPop, Jackson had revealed that 'Good Girl, Bad Blood' was indeed inspired by true crime cases.
Season 2 of ' A Good Girl's Guide To Murder' stars Emma Meyers in the leading role of Pippa Fitz-Amobi. The plot picks up directly in the aftermath of the debut season's case involving Andie Bell, which Pippa successfully solved. The official synopsis of the second season reads, "After she solved the Andie Bell case in Season 1, Pip’s world has been transformed by her actions, and not always for the better. Pip is determined to fix the fallout—and stay away from any further investigations. But as Max Hastings’ (Henry Ashton) trial approaches, key witness Jamie Reynolds (Davies) suddenly disappears, and Pip finds herself in a race against time to find him. This new mystery will take Pip to unexpected places as she struggles with the idea of justice, straying even further from the “good girl” she once was.
Jackson further explained, "Yes, in fact, unlike AGGGTM, which was inspired by small parts of a whole load of true crime cases, Good Girl, Bad Blood was largely inspired by just 2 criminal cases from the UK. I used these as inspiration to form the mystery at the heart at the book. I cannot go into detail about the cases as that would risk spoilers, but one of them is a very famous criminal case that happened in the UK in the 90s." However, since the interview was taken just before the publication of 'Good Girl, Bad Blood', Jackson purposefully refrained from revealing the exact cases that inspired her book. Some readers have speculated that elements of the story resemble notorious UK criminal cases from the 1990s, though Jackson has never confirmed which specific cases inspired the novel. 'A Good Girl's Guide To Murder' is available exclusively on Netflix.
