Jamie Canavés is the Tailored Book Recommendations coordinator and Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter writer–in case you’re wondering what you do with a Liberal Arts degree. She’s never met a beach she didn’t like, always says yes to dessert, loves ‘80s nostalgia, all forms of entertainment, and can hold a conversation using only gifs. You can definitely talk books with her on Litsy and Goodreads. Depending on social media’s stability maybe also Twitter and Bluesky.
Streamers and Hollywood studios have been putting a lot of focus on adaptations recently — some news headlines have even announced adaptation rights being sold before the book has even been published. I’m a huge fan of this since I love both mediums and, also, because it gives the opportunity for a story to be told from different perspectives and to find different audiences. Studios are even making new, different adaptations for work that has already been adapted, like Laura Esquivel’s Like Water For Chocolate, which is getting an “updated” series adaptation on HBO Max. (The original film adaptation has always been at the top of my list for best book adaptation.)
This month, there are three mystery/crime adaptations that should satisfy fans of historical crime, psychological thrillers, and cozy mysteries. You also have viewing options, as one is a film playing in theaters, another one is a seven-episode streaming series, and the third one is a four-part series on TV and streaming. So grab the books, if you’ve yet to read them, and make some popcorn! Heads up, though, that publishing continues to publish and market books by a majority white people, and the resulting lack of diversity in new books tickles down to book adaptations.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead’s novel won a lot of awards, including the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It’s a historical fiction novel based on the true history of a reform school in the Florida panhandle, Dozier School for Boys, where horrors of abuse occurred, and ultimately, almost 100 children died and were buried in unmarked graves.
How to watch the film adaptation: In theaters starting October 25th.
Watch the trailer: Nickel Boys, Amazon MGM Studios, official trailer.
Some links to what people are saying:
“Shot almost entirely from the alternating POVs of its two central characters, Nickel Boys is about what’s left unseen as much as it shines a light on what does get brought to the surface. Within this conceit, Ross was able to say something more honest about trauma and memory than onscreen brutality would convey.” (RaMell Ross explains why Nickel Boys refuses to “revel” in trauma)
“Nickel Boys is the kind of story that probably could have been adapted in more conventional fashion. It could have jerked easy tears from us — earned tears, to be sure, prompted by our horror at what we’d be seeing onscreen and everything it implied. But there’s something truer and more unshakable about what Ross has given us.” (Nickel Boys Is a Cinematic Experience Unlike Any Other)
Disclaimer by Renée Knight
Catherine Ravenscroft is a documentary filmmaker who starts reading the book The Perfect Stranger, with no clue of who sent it to her. Which would be fine, except she quickly realizes that the book isn’t fiction, but rather based on her life. And even worse is that it’s about her deeply held secret that only one other person, who is now dead, ever knew…
How to watch the adaptation: The seven-part series, starring Cate Blanchett, will begin streaming on Apple TV+ on October 11th.
Watch the trailer: DISCLAIMER* — Official Teaser | Apple TV+
Some links to what people are saying:
“Complicity. Narrative. Form. Cuarón isn’t shy in laying out his thesis, instructing the audience to watch carefully as his seven-episode adaptation of Renée Knight’s 2015 novel plays out. What information do we know, and what information do we only presume to know?” (Disclaimer Review: Alfonso Cuaron’s Vicious Apple Series Is an Astute, All-Consuming Thriller)
“Like Y Tu Mamá También, Cuarón’s latest also deploys voiceover to reveal the characters’ motivations and thoughts, as well as to slyly comment on the action. But the form here takes surprising turns — Stephen’s narration has a Machiavellian flavor, while Catherine’s alternates between second-person and a sort of third-person narrative omniscience.” (Alfonso Cuarón on His Twisty, 5.5-Hour Thriller Disclaimer, Casting Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, and Sex in Cinema)
The Marlow Murder Club (The Marlow Murder Club #1) by Robert Thorogood
This cozy mystery stars a team of three women who are very different from each, and who create the Marlow Murder Club after septuagenarian Judith Potts witnesses a murder, but the police don’t believe her. Joining Potts in the sleuthing is the vicar’s wife and a dog walker!
How to watch the adaptation: The four-part series will start on MASTERPIECE on PBS on October 27, 2024, 9/8c.
Watch the trailer: The Marlow Murder Club, MASTERPIECE PBS, Trailer.
Some links to what people are saying:
“Robert Thorogood adapts his own novels alongside Lucia Haynes (Vera) and Julia Gilbert (Midsomer Murders), each of whom will write a two-episode murder mystery. Thorogood’s episodes will be an adaptation of his second novel, Death Comes to Marlow while Haynes and Gilbert are set to pen brand new stories.” (The Marlow Murder Club Renewed for Season 2 by Masterpiece, UKTV)
“And I was raised mostly by my mum, and my great aunt Jean, and my great aunt Jess, and my grandmother, Betty, all of whom were these really strong, eccentric, intelligent women who smoked and drank. They were just these really inspirational women who were married to these quite boring men, who all felt they had the power.” (The Marlow Murder Club creator first pitched it as a TV series before the book)
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Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations! Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Goodreads, and Litsy.
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