Tilda Swinton is set to lead another literary adaptation: Ottessa Moshfegh’s psychological thriller “Death in Her Hands,” with auteur David Lowery directing. Swinton, who most recently led Pedro Almodóvar’s English feature debut “The Room Next Door,” will star as widow Vesta Gul, who may or may not have stumbled upon a crime scene. The character finds a handwritten note while walking in the woods, with the letter reading, “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” Yet without a corpse in sight, recluse Vesta becomes obsessed with solving the would-be murder.

The book’s official synopsis reads, “As her inner world begins to eclipse reality, the mystery of Magda threatens Vesta’s grip on her own life — until, in a spellbinding operatic climax, we realize that Magda’s death may finally allow Vesta to live.” The...