Carnival Films, the production company behind "The Day of the Jackal", has acquired television rights to Sarah Pinborough's forthcoming novel "They Say a Girl Died Here". The murder mystery follows university drop-out Anna Maybourne, who becomes fixated on two unsolved killings, spaced exactly three years apart, in the fictional farming town of Harper's Creek, while also caring for her mother, sister and dementia-affected grandmother. The deal adds to Carnival's growing slate of literary thriller adaptations at a time when the studio is riding high on other prestige projects.

The novel is due out on 25 August in the US via Flatiron Books and on 27 August in the UK via Orion. Pinborough, known for the Netflix hit "Behind Her Eyes" and her own adaptation of "Insomnia" for Paramount+, has written almost 30 novels published in more than 30 territories. Carnival, part of Universal Studio Group, currently has "All Her Fault" up for seven Emmy nominations and "The Day of the Jackal" in production on a second season, alongside adaptations of Katherine Faulkner's "The Break-In" and Andrea Mara's "Such a Nice Girl".