Women on the Case

Laura Lippman earns her second mention in The Rap Sheet this week, thanks to the following news item from In Reference to Murder:

Apple TV+ released a first-look at its upcoming limited seven-part series, Lady in the Lake, ahead of its premiere on Friday, July 19. The film is based on Laura Lippman’s bestselling [2020] novel of the same name and takes place in ’60s Baltimore. An unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram), a hardworking woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

Speaking of propitious book-to-screen ventures, Variety reports that “Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel are set to headline a series adaptation of the Alafair Burke novel The Better Sister at Amazon Prime Video.” It goes on to describe the story as a thriller about “Chloe (Biel), who moves through the world with her handsome lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side, while her estranged sister Nicky (Banks) hustles to make ends meet while trying to stay clean … When Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, laying bare long-buried secrets.”