Gail Bowen's "12 Rose Street"

Gail Bowen's first Joanne Kilbourn mystery, Deadly Appearances (1990), was nominated for the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada Best First Novel Award, and A Colder Kind of Death (1995) won the Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel. In 2008 Reader's Digest named Bowen Canada's Best Mystery Novelist; in 2009 she received the Derrick Murdoch Award from the Crime Writers of Canada. Bowen has also written plays that have been produced across Canada and on CBC Radio.

Here Bowen dreamcasts an adaptation of the latest Joanne Kilbourn mystery, 12 Rose Street:

The first six books in the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve series are already made-for-TV movies. They were filmed about ten years ago by Shaftesbury Films, a Canadian production company that has gone onto great success. My books were Shaftesbury's first venture into television, so Christina Jennings, Shaftesbury's CEO, and I took those first baby steps together, and we remain friends -- not always the case in the movie industry.

The Joanne Kilbourn movies continue to pop up on television here, there and everywhere, and people still seem to enjoy them Because the series has continued -- 12 Rose Street is the 15th book in the series and #16 is already at my editors -- the movies continue to seem current to viewers.

The movies were distributed internationally and although I did not write the movie scripts, some very progressive countries continue to send me cheques because I was the source writer.

Wendy Crewson, a Canadian actor played Joanne in the movies and because Joanne ages in the course of the books and Wendy, like all of us, has aged in real life, I would be content to have her reprise the role of Joanne. Victor Garber, also a Canadian, had a role in the first two movies, but it was not a role that existed in the books, so if I had a chance, I'd like to write him a role he could really get his teeth into.

I was asked to write the scripts for the first movies, but I felt that I really wasn't up to the task. I don't regret that decision. I don't believe I really was ready to write for film, but now, in addition to the novels, I write for theatre, so I'd like to take a crack at bringing Joanne et al on screen.

Visit Gail Bowen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue