‘The Bookshop Detectives’ Heads to Screen
While Gareth and Louise Ward put the finishing touches on the third Bookshop Detectives mystery, the Hawke’s Bay duo are celebrating another major milestone, with their bestselling cosy-crime series optioned for television by South Pacific Pictures.
The popular novels, starring ex-cops-turned-booksellers Garth and Eloise and their beloved cowardly dog Stevie, have charmed readers with their humour and heart against the familiar backdrop of Havelock North. Now, the pair’s fictional bookshop, Sherlock Tomes, is one step closer to landing in living rooms around the country.
“The possibility that we could be watching The Bookshop Detectives enacted on-screen is mind-blowing. Hawke’s Bay is already firmly on the map, and to have its fictional but a bit real bookshop potentially beaming into the homes of the nation is beyond exciting. Scary, but exceptionally cool. Stevie is already checking out canine actors to see who will play him!” say Gareth and Louise Ward.
SPP has confirmed that the project is in development. “We’re pleased to have acquired the rights to this delightfully charming Kiwi book series and we look forward to working with Gareth and Louise Ward to develop it for screen,” says Kelly Martin, CEO of SPP.
With books one and two already delighting readers, the screen adaptation will bring even more fans into the witty, warm, and wonderfully bookish world of The Bookshop Detectives.
About the Authors
Gareth and Louise Ward are the real-life owners of independent bookshop Wardini Books, with stores in Havelock North and Napier, New Zealand. Louise is known among the staff as Fearless Leader and Gareth as a bit of a dick; he is, however, the author of the Tarquin the Honest and The Rise of the Remarkables book series, as well as being the bestselling and award-winning author of The Traitor and the Thief and The Clockill and the Thief.
Gareth and Louise met at police training college in the UK and are both ex-coppers. Louise has one murder arrest to her name, is an English Literature Graduate and as an ex-teacher inflicted Shakespeare on inner-city twelve-year-olds. She regularly reviews books on RNZ. Both are obsessed with their rescue dog Stevie, avoid housework and gardening, and live in the cultural centre of the universe that is Hawke’s Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand. The Bookshop Detectives is Gareth and Louise’s first book together.
