EDMONTON — American TV news magazine Dateline NBC will feature my forthcoming book on the Mark Twitchell case and trial during a two-hour special to air this Friday.

Dateline has released a teaser trailer for Friday night’s episode, titled “Deadly House of Cards”:

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I was interviewed extensively by the program, detailing my initial reporting as a police reporter at the Edmonton Journal to conducting years of research as I completed the upcoming true crime narrative.

In April 2011, aspiring filmmaker Mark Twitchell was convicted in the first-degree murder of Johnny Altinger, a crime that blended reality and fiction, and became known as the “Dexter” slaying. Elements of one of Twitchell’s own movie scripts (House of Cards) had been re-enacted in real life in a plot that drew inspiration from Dexter Morgan, the fictitious serial killer profiled on the Showtime television series.

Twitchell is currently serving a life sentence in Saskatchewan and is not eligible to apply for parole for 25 years. He is appealing his conviction.

The book will cover the entire case and trial, focusing on the lives of both Twitchell and Altinger, as well as the police investigation that unravelled the bizarre motive. It will be published across USA and Canada by McClelland & Stewart and Random House.

A release date has been tentatively scheduled for February 2012 (pre-orders of hardcover or eBook available).