Book to Screen Adaptations We’re Obsessed With

The past few years have seen an explosion of fantastic book-to-screen adaptions of mystery, suspense, conspiracy fiction, adventure fiction, and legal dramas. Whether you’re looking for a true crime film, a fast-pasted detective series, or a thriller with sci-fi elements, you’ll find a new show to fall in love with on this list. Once you’ve watched these shows and movies, you’ll know exactly where to go for more—to the great crime fiction and nonfiction books they’re based on.
In 1850s London, the Great Exhibition is being erected in Hyde Park and, among the crowd watching the dazzling spectacle, two people meet by happenstance. For Iris, an arrestingly attractive aspiring artist, it is a brief and forgettable moment. But for Silas, a curiosity collector enchanted by all things strange and beautiful, the meeting marks a new beginning.
When Iris is asked to model for Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint. Suddenly, her world begins to expand beyond her wildest dreams—but she has no idea that evil is waiting in the shadows. Silas has only thought of one thing since that chance meeting, and his obsession is darkening by the day. The Doll Factory will be adapted by Paramount+, and you can learn more about the announcement here.
The 2022 Netflix film The Good Nurse is based on Charles Graeber's brilliant work of investigative journalism about Charles Cullen, a serial killer who, over the course of his 16-year career as a nurse, was involved in the deaths of hundreds of patients. Graeber spent close to a decade working on the book, which draws on primary sources, interviews, police records, and the dozens of conversations Graber had with Cullen himself after he was imprisoned. The film, starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, focuses on Cullen's coworker, Amy Loughren, who was instrumental in getting Cullen arrested and convicted. The movie captures all of the nuances of the original book—it's a chilling experience and a thoughtful indictment of the flaws in the U.S. medical system. Watch now.
Fans of charming, quirky, quick-thinking detectives should run to the hit 2021 Netflix series Lupin. The series is based on a series of novels and novellas by French author Maurice LeBlanc, all starring Arsène Lupin—gentleman, thief, and detective. He makes trouble for France's wealthy elite, causing mischief wherever he can, but he's always a friend to the innocent and helps those in need whenever he can. The series stars Omar Sy as Assane Diop, a Senegalese man who arrives in France seeking opportunities. After a series of hardships, he's inspired by a book about Arsène Lupin—and decides to become a gentleman thief himself! Watch now.
In 1850s London, the Great Exhibition is being erected in Hyde Park and, among the crowd watching the dazzling spectacle, two people meet by happenstance. For Iris, an arrestingly attractive aspiring artist, it is a brief and forgettable moment. But for Silas, a curiosity collector enchanted by all things strange and beautiful, the meeting marks a new beginning.
When Iris is asked to model for Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint. Suddenly, her world begins to expand beyond her wildest dreams—but she has no idea that evil is waiting in the shadows. Silas has only thought of one thing since that chance meeting, and his obsession is darkening by the day. The Doll Factory will be adapted by Paramount+, and you can learn more about the announcement here.
Time travel meets thriller meets murder mystery: The Shining Girls is a book that was just begging to be adapted, and, happily, Apple TV+ released a series based on the novel in 2022. It stars Elisabeth Moss as Kirby Mazrachi, a young woman who has miraculously escaped Harper Curtis, the serial killer determined to hunt her down. Harper has a deadly secret weapon: he can vanish into different times, via a mysterious house in 1930s-era Chicago. Kirby gets a job as an archivist at the Chicago Sun-Times, and teams up with a journalist to bring Harper to justice. Watch now.
The bestselling Japanese thriller Bullet Train got a film adaption in 2022. The darkly comedic novel is about five highly skilled assassins who unexpectedly find themselves stuck on the same train. The film version stars Brad Pitt as one of the assassins, Ladybug, who is most definitely not pleased to learn he's sharing a train with a group of rivals. Watch now.
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.
Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated. Watch now.
An ingenious tale of murder and revenge at West Point, featuring a retired detective and a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe—from the author of Courting Mr. Lincoln.
At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man's heart.
Augustus Landor—who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective—is called in to discreetly investigate. It's a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally—a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling.
The strange and haunted Southern poet, for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe. Watch now.
Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.
One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen, but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault.” Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”
Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. Watch now.
Neflix's 2022 legal drama series The Lincoln Lawyer is based on two bestselling books by Michael Connelly: The Lincoln Lawyer and its sequel, The Brass Verdict. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo stars as Mickey Haller, an unconventional L.A. criminal defense attorney who works out of his Lincoln town car. The series focuses on various plot lines from the books, including Mickey's defense of a Hollywood playboy and his investigation into the murder of a big-name lawyer. Watch now.
If you’ve got up on all these adaptions, don’t worry: there are more slated for 2023 and beyond! Mystery and suspense fans should definitely keep an eye out for the upcoming Apple TV+ series based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel Bad Monkey, about a detective turned restaurant inspector, under the name Fast Charlie. Amazon Prime is working on a new Alex Cross series, based on the beloved suspense books by James Patterson.
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