New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth has joined Liane Moriarty, Emily Perkins, Zoë Foster Blake, and Jane Harper in having her work optioned by Made Up Stories, with her ninth novel Darling Girls to become a television series.
Winner of the 2024 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction, Darling Girls picks up with foster sisters Jessica, Norah, and Alicia returning to the idyllic farming estate where they were raised by a loving foster mother when a body is discovered under the house.
Rescued from family tragedies, the foster sisters were always told how lucky they were to be given an elusive second chance at a happy family life. However, it becomes clear their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thought it was, and the sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses – or prime suspects.
The story will be adapted for television by Irish screenwriter and producer Orlagh Collins, who also serves as executive producer/showrunner. Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, and Katie Amos will produce for Made Up Stories, with Hepworth and Rob Weisbach executive producing alongside Collins.
The author said she had long admired Made Up Stories’ “dynamic filmmaking and passion for telling women’s stories”.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Bruna, Steve, and Made Up Stories to adapt Darling Girls for series,” she said.
“I feel unbelievably lucky to partner with them to bring this particular story to life—one that examines three uniquely complex women at the centre of a murder investigation and the team of detectives who grossly underestimate their unbreakable bond of sisterhood.”
The announcement is part of a recent spate of optioning from the company, which is also adapting Blake’s Things Will Calm Down Soon, Moriarty’s Here One Moment, and Perkins’ Lioness.
Papandrea said Darling Girls fell well within its storytelling remit.
“We love making compelling thrillers at Made Up Stories with complex women at the centre,” she said.
“Sally’s brilliant book has four of them and, paired with Orlagh Collins’ adaptation, we’ve been left breathless.”