Red Planet Pictures (known for DEATH IN PARADISE and SANDITON) has acquired the rights to adapt Will Dean’s Tuva Moodyson crime novels from Conrad Williams at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose Ayling-Ellis (whose acting credits include EASTENDERS and AS YOU LIKE IT) is to star as its redoubtable heroine, Tuva Moodyson.

Moving back to her hometown in the wilds of Scotland, Tuva finds herself working on a small-time local paper, desperate for a scoop. When a serial killer who has remained dormant for twenty years starts to kill again, Tuva finds herself with a front-page story that could make her career. If it doesn’t kill her first.

DARK PINES, the first in the Tuva Moodyson series, was published to huge critical acclaim in 2018, shortlisted for Not the Booker prize, and named as a Daily Telegraph ‘Book of the Year’. RED SNOW and BLACK RIVER were both longlisted for ‘Crime Novel of the Year’ at the Theakston Old Peculier Awards in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The latest in the series, WOLF PACK, has been delighting readers and critics alike, with the Observer picking it as their ‘Book of the Month’ and Allison Flood declaring it to be ‘claustrophobically horrifying.’

The series is being adapted into a six-part returning crime thriller series by screenwriter and award-winning playwright Charlotte Jones. Currently in development under the working title TUVA, it moves the setting of the series from Sweden to the UK. It will be exec-produced by Belinda Campbell and Caroline Skinner for Red Planet Pictures.

Hodder is set to publish ICE TOWN, the sixth book in the Tuva Moodyson series, in October 2024.

About Will Dean

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.

Will’s first standalone novel, THE LAST THING TO BURN, was a word-of-mouth sensation reviewed positively by readers and media alike. It was shortlisted for Thriller Book of the Year at the Fingerprint Awards 2022, Crime Novel of the Year at the Theakston Old Peculier Awards 2022 and the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2022 and was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award 2022.

Hodder published his third standalone novel, THE LAST PASSENGER, in the UK in May 2023, while Emily Bestler Books (Simon & Schuster) published in the US. He is currently writing his fourth book for both publishers, THE CHAMBER.

Praise for Tuva book series

‘Tuva […] is admirably resilient, full of warmth and humour (as well as having curious gastronomic tastes) and generally manages to identify the murderers who skulk among the strange inhabitants of the region… Her travails may well give sensitive readers nightmares, but that’s a small price to pay for spending time in her exhilarating company.’ – Natasha Cooper, Literary Review

‘Crackles along at a roaring pace, as Dean piles on sinister locals, hideous troll figures and danger in the dripping wet forest…’ – Observer

‘Tuva is a wonderful creation and Dean’s series is not to be missed.’ – Daily Express

‘It's great. You get snow, ice, Swedishness, murder and liquorice!’ – Marian Keyes

‘Atmospheric, creepy and tense. Loved the Twin Peaks vibe. Loved Tuva. More please!’ – C.J. Tudor, author of THE CHALK MAN

‘Scandi Noir meets Gormenghast. Just wonderful. Can’t get enough of Tuva Moodyson…’ – Mark Billingham

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