Book to Screen Adaptations We’re Obsessed With

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.

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.

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.