Here Anderson speculates on which actor might best portray MacLeod, who the Guardian's reviewer called "a complex and engaging protagonist," in a film adaptation of the novel:Easy Kill is the latest book in my crime thriller series starring forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod. Readers tend to stay with a series because they grow fond of the characters and want to know what happens to them next. The crime is important but essentially a crime book is about the character rather than the crime. Being asked to come up with someone to play Rhona is intriguing but fraught with difficulty. Let me tell you why. Nowhere in the books does it tell you what Rhona looks like. When I ask my audience at author events, everyone has their own Rhona MacLeod and they often argue with one another’s version. They’re all in agreement with her character traits but not what she looks like. That’s great, because if you give your readers room to put a bit of themselves in a character they make her their own. When Ian Rankin’s Rebus was first adapted for television it went spectacularly wrong with the casting of John Hannah as Rebus. A second series with Ken Stott proved a winner. As I said, its fraught with difficulty. Most readers seem to agree Rhona is sexy and arresting but not necessarily conventionally pretty (neither was Sophia Loren). In her thirties Rhona’s a woman with a lot of emotional depth. Helen Mirren made a wonderful job of such a character in the Prime Suspect series. I recently saw The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and thought Vera Farmiga’s performance as the mother was outstanding. She would make a great Rhona. The British actress Catherine McCormack who starred in the excellent thriller Midnight Man and was Mel Gibson’s true love in Braveheart would be ideal too. And last but not least Juliette Binoche who can portray strength and vulnerability so well.Read more about the author and her work at Lin Anderson's website and the official Rhona MacLeod website.
The other members of the gang, Chrissy McInsch, Rhona’s sidekick – a gallous Glaswegian (a New Yorker would do just as well), Rhona’s mentor DI Bill Wilson, modelled on my own detective father and not unlike Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon and last but not least Sean Maguire, Rhona’s Irish lover who plays the saxophone as well as he plays his woman (Sean Bean perhaps?)…. I think I’ll leave their casting up to you.
The Page 69 Test: Dark Flight.
--Marshal Zeringue
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