SINGAPORE – Book fans can be the most unforgiving audiences, especially when their favourite story gets translated into another medium. As an avid reader, I, too, get judgmental about film and television adaptations.

When I stumbled on the Will Trent series (2023 to present) on Disney+ recently, my first thought was that Puerto Rican lead actor Ramon Rodriguez looked nothing like American author Karin Slaughter’s character. Rodriguez is Latino and compactly built, and definitely prettier than the lanky blond investigator with the facial scars of the books.