Tigelaar (pictured) and her producing partner Stacey Silverman will produce alongside Oliver through their company Best Day Ever. 20th Television, where Tigelaar is located, is the studio.
The television sale follows a competitive push for the US rights to the manuscript, won by Simon & Schuster, and a pre-emptive deal with Hemlock Press, Harper Collins in the UK. Translation rights are handled by Curtis Brown, with a confirmed Brazilian deal with Faro Editorial and other markets being negotiated ahead of this week's Frankfurt Book Fair.
A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage, which won't be released until 2026, follows Lalla Rook - a reformed sociopath trying to make it as an ordinary mother. There's just the small matter of a dead body - which she may have stabbed repeatedly - in her living room.
As Lalla tries to get what she wants despite useless husbands, needy children, private school admissions, and the trappings of suburban life, she is unencumbered by pesky things like shame, guilt, and morality. But as the mysteries unfold and the bodies pile up, Lalla's dark past threatens to resurface...
Author Oliver is originally from Liverpool, was a teacher and headteacher and worked for education charities for most of his career. He also enjoyed writing courses at the Royal Court Theatre, Curtis Brown Creative and Faber and Faber.
Following a decision a year ago, “to give writing a go now before it’s too late,” Oliver left his career and moved back to London. The result was A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage, which he then sent out as a submission.
“A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage is a singular and remarkable book that Best Day Ever feels truly honored and beyond thrilled to adapt as a series,” Tigelaar and Silverman said in a joint statement. “Told with M.K. Oliver’s razor sharp and delightfully incisive voice, it brilliantly presents a radical, subversive female character who is blissfully free of the guilt and shame that weighs so heavily on the modern woman — both on-screen and off.
This dark and hilarious examination of middle-class striving is as deliciously off-kilter as its complicated protagonist — part mad-cap detective story, part whirling soap, part demented superhero tale, and shimmering beneath all of it, a wholly original story about the struggle to love and be loved.”
This is the latest series project on Hulu for Best Day Ever, which follows several Emmy-nominated limited series - all based on books - Tiny Beautiful Things and Little Fires Everywhere - both adapted by Tigelaar - and this year's Under the Bridge. Tigelaar and Silverman are also developing The Guest List, based on Lucy Foley's bestseller, on Hulu, along with other projects under the company's 20th TV deal.
On the feature film side, Tigelaar wrote an adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, for Netflix.
