Book-to-Screen Adaptations on MASTERPIECE Mystery!
Some of your favorite MASTERPIECE Mystery! series were originally hit novels before they came to life on your televisions. From classics like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels, to beloved homages such as Death Comes to Pemberley (yes Jane Austen fans, that one is for you!), and current shows such as Grantchester and The Marlow Murder Club, we’ve got the rundown on which television series are based on novels, who the authors are, and how to find and watch full episodes with PBS Passport, an added member benefit.
- 1.
Arthur & George
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Reprint (2007); Charles Edwards and Martin Clunes in Arthur & George Book: Arthur & George
Author: Julian Barnes
Can’t get enough of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, even after digesting every hint of Sherlock Holmes in the known universe? You’re in luck! In 2015, MASTERPIECE Mystery! debuted Arthur & George, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by author Julian Barnes. The novel follows the infamous Sherlock Holmes author and a solicitor and son of a vicar, George Edalji, who has been convicted of a crime he did not commit. Doyle is then determined to uncover the true culprit and exonerate Edalji. The fictional novel is loosely based on the true crime investigated by Doyle, and was the first of Barnes’ works to be featured on The New York Times bestsellers list for Hardback Fiction.
- 2.
Death Comes to Pemberley
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Reprint (2013); Matthew Rhys and Anna Maxwell Martin in Death Comes to Pemberley Book: Death Comes to Pemberley (loosely based on Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice)
Author: P.D. James
Author P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park) penned the Pride and Prejudice inspired hit in 2011, and is set in October 1803, six years after the events in Pride and Prejudice. The star-studded, two-part screen adaptation, which premiered on MASTERPIECE Mystery! in 2014, featured Matthew Rhys, Anna Maxwell Martin, Jenna Coleman, and Matthew Goode.
The story begins as a happily married Elizabeth and Darcy’s pre-ball festivities are brought to an abrupt halt when Lydia Wickham arrives uninvited, hysterically wailing of a murder in Pemberley woods. The brutal crime puts not only its main suspect in dire jeopardy, but the future of the vulnerable Georgiana Darcy, the hard-won romance of Elizabeth and Darcy, and the very foundation of Pemberley itself.
- 3.
Endeavour
Ivy Books (1996); Shaun Evans in Endeavour Book Series: Inspector Morse
Author: Colin Dexter
MASTERPIECE Mystery! fans may recall that, before Endeavour, we first met the cerebral, aloof, and older Endeavour Morse in Inspector Morse, starring John Thaw, which first premiered in 1987. Later, in 2012, a prequel series starring Shaun Evans as the younger, up-and-coming Morse premiered and ran for nine seasons, ending in 2023. But did you know the world of Endeavour Morse was originally conceived on the page? Author Colin Dexter published 13 Inspector Morse novels, plus a number of novellas, before his passing in March 2017. From those novels came the screen adaptations of not only Inspector Morse and Endeavour, but also the spin-off series Inspector Lewis (starring Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox) based on another character in the Morse universe.
Fun fact: Dexter made cameo appearances in many episodes of Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, and Endeavour — just like famed mystery film director Alfred Hitchcock did in his films!
- 4.
Grantchester
Bloomsbury Publishing; First American Edition (May 7, 2019); Robson Green and Rishi Nair in Grantchester Season 9 Book Series: The Grantchester Mysteries
Author: James Runcie
The son of former archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie (who held the title from 1980 to 1991), author James Runcie once confessed to The Rap Sheet that he thought about the story cinematically from the start: “When I began writing these detective novels featuring a sleuthing vicar set in 1950s England, I did try to think as if it was a film …[which] may seem a cynical exercise, but I think it helped the writing come alive.” In total, there are seven books written thus far (the first having published in 2012 and the latest in 2019), all centered on the original vicar-turned-sleuth in town, Sidney Chambers. From there, show creator Daisy Coulam and team have breathed even more life into the series, which welcomed its third vicar, Alphy Kottaram, in Season 9.
Discover the proper reading order of the Grantchester novels with our handy guide.
- 5.
Magpie Murders & Moonflower Murders
Harper; First Edition (June 6, 2017); Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan in Magpie Murders Book Series: Susan Ryeland
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Before the six-part television series, starring Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan, premiered on MASTERPIECE Mystery! in fall 2022, Magpie Murders was originally a bestselling novel written by author and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz OBE. Prior to the MASTERPIECE Mystery! adaptations of Magpie Murders and its sequel Moonflower Murders, Horowitz was known as the creator and writer of Foyle’s War and writer and producer of Midsomer Murders‘ first seven episodes, as well as a number of other hit series and popular novels, including two Sherlock Holmes novels ( The House of Silk and Moriarty), and even a number of James Bond novels officially approved by Bond creator Ian Fleming’s estate!
Magpie Murders topped multiple best-seller lists including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and appeared on the year-end Best Books lists of NPR, USA Today and others. Not only that, but the series’ script (also written by Horowitz) also won the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe award for Best Television Episode Teleplay in 2023.
Watch Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders with PBS Passport.
- 6.
The Marlow Murder Club
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. HQ (2021); Thorogood and Samantha Bond Book Series: The Marlow Murder Club Mysteries
Author: Robert Thorogood
The Marlow Murder Club, first published in 2021, was written by Robert Thorogood (who the Sun heralded as “Agatha Christie with a modern twist”), who has since gone on to write three more novels in the series: Death Comes to Marlow, The Queen of Poisons,, and, most recently, Murder on the Marlow Belle.
Fans may also recognize Thorogood as the creator of the hit TV series Death in Paradise. After the comedic crime drama’s success on the small screen, Thorogood even went on to write a series of four books with the same Caribbean setting and characters.
Season 2 premieres on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 9/8c. Watch the trailer now!
- 7.
Sherlock
Penguin Classics (October 1, 2001); Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in Sherlock Book Series: Sherlock Holmes Series
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Whether you’re a Sherlock fan or have yet to see the fan favorite series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, there’s little chance you’ve never heard of the highly logical classic detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty partner in crime-solving Dr. John Watson. The classic mystery heroes — arguably the most famous mystery solving duo in fictional history — first appeared on page in A Study in Scarlet, the 1887 novel by Doyle that launched a literary phenomenon. And the rest, as they say, is history! In all, Doyle wrote 62 stories Holmes stories published between 1887 and 1927, between 4 novels and 58 short stories. Authors around the world have gone on to write their own pastiches of Holmes and Watson in the approximately 137 years since Sherlock Holmes was first introduced to readers.
- 8.
Van der Valk
Hanover Square Press (2020); Marc Warren in Van der Valk Book Series: Van der Valk
Author: Nicolas Freeling
Author Nicolas Freeling’s journey to writing about Amsterdam’s dogged detective Piet Van der Valk was no ordinary journey — he began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of taking home some veal from a restaurant where he worked at the time. In all, Freeling ended up publishing a grand total of 11 Van der Valk novels. And not only that, but Freeling also developed the first screen adaptation (based on his own novels) of Van der Valk in 1972, starring Barry Foster.
