ABC has acquired CTV’s upcoming detective mystery series Motive for its primetime schedule.

NBCUniversal sold the Canadian “whydunit” drama from Foundation Features and Lark Productions to the U.S. network, where it is slated to air in summer 2013.

“We are very happy to have ABC on board and thrilled that this fantastic new Canadian drama will have a North American audience. CTV is very proud of our track record in developing and co-producing original Canadian content that continues to be seen around the world. Today’s announcement is a testament to the talent of Canada’s independent production community, Vancouver’s film and television community, and of, course Bell Media’s Independent Production team,” said CTV president of programming and sports Phil King in a statement.

The news comes in advance of the series premiere on Feb. 3 on CTV following the Super Bowl.

Motive stars Kristin Lehman, Louis Ferreira and Lauren Holly.

The 13-episode series reveals the identities of both the killer and murder victim at the beginning of each episode, putting the audience a step ahead of the investigative team.

Lehman in the lead role as detective Angie Flynn and her partner (Ferreira) trace clues to unravel the killer’s identity and piece together details of the crime.

The series also stars Roger Cross, Brendan Penny and Cameron Bright.

Vancouver-filmed Motive is produced by Lark Productions and Foundation Features in association with Bell Media.

Daniel Cerone (who wrote the series pilot), Louise Clark, Rob Merilees, Erin Haskett, Rob LaBelle, Lindsay Macadam and James Thorpe are exec producers, with Thorpe on board as showrunner.

NBCUniversal is distributing the series internationally.

with files from Etan Vlessing