Transplant and Peace by Chocolate scribe Abdul Malik (pictured left) has optioned the rights to American-Canadian novelist Ausma Zehanat Khan’s series of detective novels.

Malik secured the rights through the META Talent Agency, founded by Playback 10 to Watch Alum Jennifer Irons, who brokered the deal with Danielle Burby of New York-based Mad Woman Literary Agency.

The book series, which begins with the 2015 novel The Unquiet Dead, follows detective duo Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty and brings a uniquely Muslim perspective within the crime genre.

Malik and Irons are currently seeking producers to help adapt the books into a one-hour television drama that will “centre Muslim voices without looking at Muslims pejoratively,” according to Malik in a statement. “Khattak and Getty have all the familiar characteristics of your favourite detective duos, albeit with layers of depth and dimension that elevate and innovate the genre,” he added.

Based in Edmonton, Malik has worked in the writer’s rooms for CTV drama Transplant and Super Channel’s Streams Flow from a River, as well as serving as co-writer on the feature film Peace by Chocolate. He was recently selected for the Canadian Film Centre’s 2022 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program.

Irons founded META, the first Black-owned film and TV literary agency in Canada, in 2021.