Stacey Abrams’s book While Justice Sleeps has been on the shelves for a barely a day, and it has already been chosen to be adapted for a series. Abrams has agreed to a deal with Working Title Television who is part of NBCUniversal International Studios after a long and relentless bidding war.
Aside from her memoirs, While Justice Sleeps is the first of Abrams’s novels to have her real name listed as her first eight romance novels are all listed under her pseudonym, Selena Montgomery. She wrote most of this thriller while serving as minority leader in the Georgia State House of Representatives.
In this political thriller, Avery Keene is thrown into a role she never anticipated as a young law clerk for Justice Howard Wynn. After Justice Wynn has slipped into a coma, Avery is notified that she is his legal guardian and power of attorney. While holding her own life together, Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases brought before the court and how he suspected some of the highest powers of Washington. Avery begins to unravel some of the clues and reveals Justice Wynn’s personal stake in the case while Washington begins planning his potential replacement.
According to an interview with The Atlantic, Abrams got the idea during lunch back in 2008 when she wondered, “what if a Supreme Court justice were permanently incapacitated but didn’t die?” It took until 2019 for an agent and publisher to pick up the novel.
Abrams will serve as an executive producer of the project along with Tim Bevan who told Variety, “After weathering the competitive storm to secure Stacey’s novel, we are elated to have come out on top. This is one of those rare moments when the opportunity feels right, and we look forward to developing this thrilling project with the multi-hyphenate Abrams.”