Keighley crime writer Sophie Hannah has signed a lucrative deal to bring her novels to the small screen before one of them is even written.

Sophie, who lives in Utley, last month (February) saw her third novel, The Point of Rescue, published by Hodder and Stoughton.

Now major production company Hat Trick have decided to adapt it and its predecessors, Little Face and Hurting Distance, for TV.

The company's previous hits include Drop the Dead Donkey, Father Ted and The Kumars at No 42.

And Sophie, 36, has only just started writing her fourth novel, The Other Half Lives, but Hat Trick have snapped that up as well.

A married mother-of-two Sophie has been in talks with the production company about how the psychological thrillers will be adapted.

Her publishers say the novels will get the "Prime Suspect-style television series" treatment, probably split into two one- or two-hour episodes to run over successive nights.

Sophie said: "It's very exciting. Hat Trick do seem to have the same vision as I do, and we have been having discussions recently about who they might be casting in the main roles."

So far those discussions - and which channel will pick up the series - are being kept close to Sophie's and Hat Trick's chests.

Sophie made her name as a poet but always wanted to write novels and her big break came with Little Face two years ago. The story of a woman who discovers her baby has been swapped - but no-one, not even her husband, believes her - has sold more than 100,000 copies.

Her second novel, Hurting Distance, is about a woman who is convinced the man she is having an illicit affair with has disappeared - but no-one, not even the man's wife, will take her seriously.

The latest is about a married woman whose past comes back to haunt her when a man she met on a holiday without her husband turns up dead.

Sophie, whose book of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets, is out now through Sort Of Books, said: "I am a huge fan of the crime genre and knew I wanted to write crime fiction. Some can get terribly snobby about crime fiction, but for me the suspense and strong plots can't be beaten."

The Point of Rescue is out now in hardback, priced £12.99.