Andrew Pyper's "The Only Child"

Andrew Pyper is the author of eight novels, including The Only Child and The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Hardcover Novel and was selected for the Globe and Mail’s Best 100 Books of 2013 and Amazon’s 20 Best Books of 2013. Among his previous books, Lost Girls won the Arthur Ellis Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Killing Circle was a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year. Three of Pyper’s novels, including The Demonologist and The Damned, are in active development for feature film.

Here Pyper dreamcasts an adaptation of The Only Child:

The Only Child is a gothic thriller, which is to say it requires the casting of a monster. The monster of my novel isn't outwardly disfigured in any way, his troublesome aspects lying within him - and therefore startling when they appear. This co-lead part in The Only Child movie would require a man capable of charm and threat, and the ability to pass between the two smoothly, even compellingly. So who would I pin to the casting board for The Only Child's monster? How about Tom Hardy? Or Michael Fassbender?

But this isn't only the story of a monster. It's a two-hander, as they say, and the other hand in this case belongs to Dr. Lily Dominick, a forensic psychiatrist who may, or may not, be a blood relation to the monster. In the novel, Lily is described as physically small, severe, professional, intense. But also, over the course of the story, she's revealed to be possessed of surprising (to her) strength, passions, resourcefulness. Could I ask for a Rooney Mara? Kate Mara also, for that matter? To be sure, we should consider all the Maras.

Visit Andrew Pyper's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Wildfire Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Wildfire Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Killing Circle.

--Marshal Zeringue