HBO has greenlighted a pilot from True Blood creator Alan Ball for a dark comedy-drama based on Charlie Huston's crime novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Deadline reports.

Sporting the abbreviated title All Signs of Death, the show centers on Webster Fillmore Goodhue, a Los Angeles grade-school teacher turned full-time slacker who stumbles into a job as a crime-scene cleaner, only to become entangled with a a femme fatale and a murder mystery.

Stephen King described Huston's 2009 novel as "a runaway freight that feels like a combination of William Burroughs and James Ellroy" while remaining "fiercely original." Huston, who's best known for novels like Caught Stealing, Already Dead and The Shotgun Rule, rebooted Marvel's Moon Knight in 2006.

Ball discovered Huston through Charlaine Harris, the author of The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels on which was True Blood is based. He'll executive-produce and direct the All Signs of Death pilot from a script by Huston. Production is expected to begin next month in Los Angeles.