‘The Good Daughter’ Author Karin Slaughter Reveals How Faithful the Show Is to Her Book

Nearly 10 years ago, Karin Slaughter released her thriller The Good Daughter, and she’s now adapted the novel into a six-episode series for Peacock, which premieres on November 12. With Slaughter at the helm to write the series, she had complete control over what stayed the same and what changed from the book.

“There’s changes just by necessity, but the heart of the book is the heart of the show,” Slaughter told TV Insider. “And that’s the family, the relationships, the humor, the twists and turns. I made sure all of that stayed intact through the script.”

Steph Green, who directed all six episodes, teased what to expect from the characters, adding, “This is what appeals to me about Karin’s writing, is that nothing’s black and white. People are nuanced and they’ve been hurt and they cause pain. And I think Karin has a way of looking at characters like that from all sides. I think it’s too easy on television … we find the bad guy and we assign everything to that assailant or that person, but in this case, we have a real character coming forward about what they really went through, their pain, and then the suffering they caused because of that pain.”

Mark Hill/PEACOCK

The series stars Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy as sisters Sam and Charlie, who went through a traumatic experience as children and come back together amid another violent crime in their hometown. The sisters have a strained relationship throughout the show, but Byrne teases that it “does end with hope” for them.

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She also recalled a “suspenseful” finale scene involving Fahy that had her on the “edge of [her] seat” when she read it in the script. “You think it can’t get any more intense … and it did,” Byrne confirmed.

The Good Daughter, All Episodes, Thursday, November 12, Peacock