Hat Trick on the case with new ITV crime drama

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Hat Trick Productions has signed a deal with ITV to develop a new crime drama populated by strong women in peril.

The programme will be based on one of Sophie Hannah's trilogy of crime novels Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Point of Rescue, which all star detective Simon Waterhouse and his boss and on-off love interest Charlie Zailer.

Each book is equally split between their hunt for the truth and the story of an ordinary woman who finds herself in extraordinary circumstances. In Little Face, the protagonist finds a baby lying in her newborn daughter's cot who she is convinced is not her own, whilst The Point of Rescue follows a married woman who discovers that the family of a man she has had an affair with has been killed - but the bereaved husband speaking on TV looks entirely different to the person she slept with.

The project is being overseen by Laura Mackie at ITV and Hat Trick head of drama Mark Redhead, with a view to becoming a returning drama. No writer has yet been hired to work on the script.

The setting is said to have the feel of ITV's Midsomer Murders but tonally "they're Hitchcockian, psychological thrillers with a taste of Du Maurier", development executive Hannah Pescod said.

Publisher Hodder & Stoughton said: "Sophie's great skill is brilliant suspense with a twist. You get completely hooked right from the start and then she springs a surprise on you so it would translate very well to the small screen."

Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Point of Rescue have sold more than 140,000 copies in the UK between them.