11 Criminally Good Adaptations To Travel the World With

While readers living in the US may not think this counts as armchair travel, I’m including this series because it’s part travelog and focuses on the locations the crimes were committed: Dixon, Illinois; Miami, Florida; Opelika, Alabama; Washington; NYC; and Ohio.

Laci Mosley turned her very popular podcast about scammers and con artists into a true crime memoir, which then got a six-episode docu-series adaptation where Laci traveled to the communities impacted by six scammers.

Watch the Scam Goddess trailer.

Set in Tihar Jail, one of India’s largest prison complexes, this seven-episode series is based on a nonfiction book co-authored by Sunil Gupta, who worked in the prison for 35 years and oversaw eight hangings, and journalist Sunetra Choudhury. Zahan Kapoor (the character of Sunil Gupta) is a rookie discovering the deep corruption in the prison system when he meets a serial killer who has found a way to get special privileges while in prison.

Watch the trailer for Black Warrant.

The Hallmark film series, starring Tamera Mowry-Housley and Risteard Cooper, is adapted from Alexia Gordon’s fun Gethsemane Brown cozy series. Musician Gethsemane Brown moves from the US to Ireland to teach at a boarding school, but she gets more than just a new location and job! She’s now got a mystery to solve: a ghost needs her to clear his name of his wife’s murder and his own!

You can watch a preview here.

This seven-episode revenge series is based on a 2020 serialized Korean webcomic, Gwangjang by Oh Se-Hyeong, Kim Kyun-Tae (illustrator). Ki-jun is not only avenging his brother’s murder by planning on killing anyone involved, but he’s also determined to find out why his brother was murdered. All as he plunges into the criminal underworld.

Watch the Mercy for None trailer.

Jane Harper’s Aaron Falk procedural series (which is very atmospheric!) has two film adaptations starring Eric Bana (excellent casting) as a financial crimes detective. The Dry starts with Falk returning home to his small town to face his past after his childhood friend is at the center of a murder-suicide. The second film, following the sequel book Force of Nature, is also streaming on Hulu. I don’t know if there are plans for a third film, but if you’ve yet to read The Exiles, I recommend bumping that up on your TBR.

Watch the trailer for The Dry.

Okay, this one did change the book’s original setting, but it remains outside of the US. The Department Q book series, written by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, is set in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Netflix series is set in Edinburgh, Scotland. The tone, characters, and procedural plot do remain the same as the very grumpy and struggling Detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode!) is assigned a new “task force” to look into cold cases. It’s mostly a PR stunt, and to get him out of the way, but he of course stumbles into a dangerous case…While Netflix is known to give the ax to great, popular series, in this case, you can look forward to an upcoming second season.

Watch the trailer for Dept. Q.