Top Ten Tuesday – Books that should be adapted into Netflix movies or series!

It’s Tuesday morning which can only mean it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post! This week is all about books we’d like to see turned into Netflix movies or TV series. I had so much fun looking through the read shelf on my Goodreads account to the point I couldn’t leave it at just 10 so there’s some bonus books included in a gallery after the main post!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Books that should be adapted into Netflix movies or series!

The Ruby In The Smoke by Philip Pullman

About The Book…

Sally is sixteen and uncommonly pretty. Her knowledge of English literature, French, history, art and music is non-existent, but she has a thorough grounding in military tactics, can run a business, ride like a Cossack and shoot straight with a pistol.

When her dear father is drowned in suspicious circumstances in the South China Sea, Sally is left to fend for herself, an orphan and alone in the smoky fog of Victorian London. Though she doesn’t know it, Sally is already in terrible danger. Soon the mystery and the danger will deepen – and at the rotten heart of it all lies the deadly secret of the ruby in the smoke…

I love the Sally Lockhart series from Philip Pullman, dare I say it as a teenager I possibly slightly prefered it to His Dark Materials! I know the BBC did an adaptation of this book featuring Billie Piper back in 2006, and I think they did adapt the second book in the quartet but I’d love to see all four books on screen!

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Natural Causes by James Oswald

About The Book…

Short-Listed for the prestigious Crime Writers Association (CWA) Debut Dagger prize, ‘Natural Causes’ is the first of an ongoing series featuring Edinburgh-based Detective Inspector Anthony McLean. In a world where demons are not supposed to exist, he is one of the few unlucky enough to be able to sense their presence.

When Edinburgh police find the killer of a prominent city elder less than twenty-four hours after the crime, they are justifiably pleased. So the murderer has killed himself; that just saves the time and cost of a trial. But a second murder days later bears haunting similarities to the first, even though once more the murderer swiftly confesses and kills himself.

Detective Inspector Anthony McLean is investigating the discovery of a dead girl, walled up in the basement of an old Edinburgh mansion. She has been brutally murdered, her internal organs removed and placed around her in six preserving jars. The evidence suggests this all happened over sixty years ago, an attempt to re-enact an ancient ceremony that by trapping a demon in the dead girl’s body would supposedly confer immortality on the six men who took one of her organs each.

McLean’s grandmother – the woman who raised him after his parents were killed when he was a young boy – dies after months in a coma following a stroke. On top of this he has to investigate a series of unusual, violent suicides and a cat-burglar who targets the homes of the recently dead. But as another prominent Edinburgh businessman is killed, he begins to suspect that there may be a connection between the murders, the suicides and the ritual killing of the girl found in the basement. The same names keep cropping up. He just can’t find a rational explanation as to how that connection works.

As he digs deeper, and as the coincidences stack up, McLean is forced to consider an irrational explanation. Could there really be something evil stalking the city he has sworn to protect? And if so, how on earth can he hope to stop it?

I absolutely adore this book series! I’d love to see it on the small screen, I think James Oswald created a great cast of characters and there are plenty of stories already written for them to get started with!

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Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

About The Book…

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

I’m not sure that Netflix would adapt both Natural Causes and Rivers of London as they’re both crime with a supernatural twist but I’d love to see this one too!

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Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs

About The Book…

The meticulously dismembered body of a woman is discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery.

‘Too decomposed for standard autopsy. Request anthropologic expertise.’

Enter Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, who has been researching recent disappearances in the city.

Despite the cynicism of Detective Claudel who heads the investigation, Brennan is convinced that a serial killer is at work. Her forensic expertise finally convinces Claudel, but only after the body count has risen…

Tempe takes matters into her own hands, but her determined probing places those closest to her in mortal danger. Can Tempe make her crucial breakthrough before the killer strikes again?

This is a bit of a strange one as Fox aired a pretty popular series starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanez, but ‘Book Tempe’ and ‘TV Tempe’ are two very different people, and David’s Agent Booth doesn’t exist in the books (or at least none of the ones I’ve read, I’m slightly behind!). I’d love to see Tempe as she is in the books on screen

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The Cost Of Living by Rachel Ward

About The Book…

When a young woman is attacked walking home from her local supermarket, Bea Jordan, a smart but unfulfilled checkout girl, is determined to investigate. Colleagues and customers become suspects, secrets are uncovered. While fear stalks the town, Bea finds an unlikely ally in Ant, the seemingly gormless new trainee, but risks losing the people she loves most as death comes close to home. The Cost of Living is a warm, contemporary story with likeable leads, an engaging cast of supporting characters and a dark thread running throughout.

This is a delightful cosy crime series and I’d love to see it on screen! If it’s not on Netflix it could take Midsomer Murders slot on ITV! There are three books in the series so far filled with great mysteries and a wonderful cast of characters!

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Gilded Cage by Vic James

About The Book…

In modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them.

This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit.

Have a quick ten years. . . . 

Gilded Cage is the first of the Dark Gifts trilogy and I absolutely adore it! I think this would make the best dystopian adaptation. I’d love to see some of the locations brought to life on screen!

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The Exact Opposite Of Okay by Laura Steven

About The Book…

Izzy O’Neill is an aspiring comic, an impoverished orphan, and a Slut Extraordinaire. Or at least, that’s what the malicious website flying round the school says. Izzy can try all she wants to laugh it off – after all, her sex life, her terms – but when pictures emerge of her doing the dirty with a politician’s son, her life suddenly becomes the centre of a national scandal. Izzy’s never been ashamed of herself before, and she’s not going to start now. But keeping her head up will take everything she has…

I think Izzy O’Neill is such a great character! I’d love to see her come to life on screen. I think there are some really important issues that Laura covers in this book and the sequel so getting this issues on screen would be really beneficial!

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High-Rise Mystery by Sharna Jackson

About The Book…

The detective duo everyone is dying to meet!

Summer in London is hot, the hottest on record, and there’s been a murder in THE TRI: the high-rise home to resident know-it-alls, Nik and Norva. Who better to solve the case? Armed with curiosity, home-turf knowledge and unlimited time – until the end of the summer holidays anyway.

The first whodunnit in a new mystery series by Sharna Jackson.

There are currently two books in the High-Rise Mysteries series by Sharna Jackson, I’ve only read the first one so far but I absolutely adored it! I think it would make a great TV series, and I think getting more diversity on screen is so important! I would have loved to see more people who looked like me on TV when I was younger!

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Viper by Bex Hogan

About The Book…

Marianne has been training to be the Viper for her entire life – to serve and protect the King and the citizens of The Twelve Isles – but to become the Viper and protect the islands she loves she must find the strength to defeat her father. A new fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas.

He will make me a killer.
Or he will have me killed.
That is my destiny.

Seventeen-year-old Marianne is fated to one day become the Viper, defender of the Twelve Isles.

But the reigning Viper stands in her way. Corrupt and merciless, he prowls the seas in his warship, killing with impunity, leaving only pain and suffering in his wake.

He’s the most dangerous man on the ocean . . . and he is Marianne’s father.

She was born to protect the islands. But can she fight for them if it means losing her family, her home, the boy she loves – and perhaps even her life?

A brave heroine. An impossible dilemma. An epic new fantasy trilogy set on the high seas. 

If you follow me on Twitter in particular (@SarahWBlogs btw) you may have noticed how much I adore Viper, and its follow up Venom from Bex Hogan. I would go full Snake to get an adaptation of this on screen! I think seeing the Twelve Isles brought to life on screen would be incredible! Although all the action at sea might not be the cheapest… But Bronn on screen? Yes please!

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The Birthday by Carol Wyer

About The Book…

One hot summer’s afternoon, five-year-old Ava Sawyer went to a party. She never came home …

When five-year-old Ava Sawyer goes missing from a birthday party at a local garden centre, the police are bewildered by the lack of leads. That is until two years later, when Ava’s body is found and another little girl, Audrey Briggs, goes missing. Audrey also attended that party …

Leading the investigation is Detective Natalie Ward. A mother of two teenagers, this case chills her to the bone, and is a disturbing reminder of the last job she worked on. One that ended very badly.

Natalie soon discovers that Ava’s mother has some worrying gaps in her alibi and as she digs deeper, she’s sure Ava’s father is not telling the full story. And what did the owner of the garden centre Elsa see that day? Something that she’s not telling Natalie …

Just as Natalie is facing up to the grim possibility that Ava and Audrey were killed by someone close to home, another little girl from the party doesn’t come home from her ballet lesson. Can Natalie find a way to stop this killer before more innocent lives are taken?

I know this is another crime series, have you noticed how much I enjoy crime fiction? I love Detective Natalie Ward and Carol has created seven fantastic cases to date which would be wonderful to see brought to life on screen!

Bonus Books!

These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling + Heartless by Marissa Meyer + Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt + Everless by Sara Holland + Jack Of Hearts (And Other Parts) by L. C. Rosen + The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine + A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson

Whether they are standalones or the beginning of a series I’d love to see all of these appear on Netflix one day!

My Top Ten Tuesday! Would you pick any of these if you saw them appear on your Netflix menu? Let me know in the comments!