Stephanie Gayle’s "Idyll Threats"

Stephanie Gayle’s fascination with crime stories began when she first met a policeman at the age of 4 and outsmarted him. After flirting with the idea of becoming a defense attorney and then suffering through a few years as a paralegal, she decided writing crime fiction would be a lot more satisfying -- and fun. Gayle’s first novel, My Summer of Southern Discomfort, released in 2008 (William Morrow). By day, she's a financial assistant at MIT’s Media Lab.

Here Gayle dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Idyll Threats:

I’m not an author who usually thinks about casting actors for the film adaptation of my books - mostly because the odds of the book getting optioned and made are very slim. Plus, I know how much say an author has in the casting process (zero). But I’m game to play this round of My Book, The Movie.

My Idyll Threats protagonist, Thomas Lynch, is 44, a cop, tall, with brown hair and eyes. Big but buff. My first thought was Tom Selleck but he’s too old. Damn you, time! So then I thought of Joe Manganiello. He’s a bit younger than the Chief, but with that salt and pepper beard of his, he could pass, and I think he could project the combination of moody/smart/sexy that the Chief embodies.

For the secretary, Mrs. Dusnmore, with whom the Chief often argues, I’d cast Kristin Scott Thomas. I think she’d be great at giving as good as she gets. And the detective pair of Wright and Finnegan? Ooh. Maybe Don Cheadle for Wright and Paul Giamatti for Finnegan. They’d make a great team.

For director I’ll choose François Ozon who directed a great film called The Swimming Pool. So I know he can handle suspense/mystery. And he’s worked with Kristin Scott Thomas before. Wow, this movie is really coming together! Now let’s just sit back and wait for Hollywood to call…

Visit Stephanie Gayle's website.

--Marshal Zeringue