Apple TV has acquired the rights to Colson Whitehead’s “Harlem” trilogy and is developing an ongoing television series based on the crime novels. The project brings together prominent creative figures including Graham Yost, Aric Avelino and Barry Jenkins, extending Apple’s push into prestige literary adaptations.

The trilogy follows Harlem furniture salesman Ray Carney as he becomes entangled in the criminal underworld from the 1950s to the 1980s, combining crime fiction with social satire. It comprises “Harlem Shuffle” (2021), “Crook Manifesto” (2023) and “Cool Machine”, published on 21 July; Whitehead and several producers will executive produce, while Jenkins previously adapted Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning “The Underground Railroad” for Amazon.