Robin Blake is the author of the Cragg & Fidelis series, including A Dark Anatomy and Dark Waters, in addition to acclaimed works on the artists Van Dyck and Stubbs. He has written, produced and presented extensively for radio, is widely published as a critic.Here Blake dreamcasts an adaptation of Skin & Bone, the fourth Cragg & Fidelis mystery:
Unlike some novelists I don’t spend much time fantasizing about my Cragg and Fidelis stories being turned into Hollywood films. However, just for the sake of argument, to cast the right actor in these roles would mean forming a proper understanding of their characters. Cragg is no tough guy, but a lawyer with a humane heart, a sharp eye for injustice and a serviceable intelligence. Atticus Finch as played by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird comes to mind. Also James Stewart’s performance as Paul Biegler in Anatomy of a Murder, or, in British terms the defence lawyer Sir Wilfred Roberts in Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, wonderfully played by Charles Laughton. The perfect actor of today would, I suppose, be Tom Hanks. I was struck how Cragg-like his lawyer character was in the recent film Bridge of Spies. Luke Fidelis is a handsome, clever young doctor who is impulsive, a little obsessive and temperamentally unconventional. A younger Daniel Day-Lewis would do the job admirably.Visit Robin Blake's website.
The Page 69 Test: Skin & Bone.
--Marshal Zeringue
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