Michael Cannell's "Incendiary"

Michael Cannell is the author of three non-fiction books, most recently Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling. The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit was published in 2012. The Sundance Channel/AMC has optioned The Limit to be made into a television series. I.M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism was published in 1995. Cannell was editor of the New York Times House & Home section for seven years.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of Incendiary:

In the pages of Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling lives a real-life roster of big personalities befitting the glory days of 1950s New York. Here’s my wish list for leading actors:

George Metesky: A paranoid schizophrenic who planted some thirty-two bombs in New York’s most crowded public places — trains stations, a library, movie theaters. He was a perfectly nondescript middle-aged man with a homicidal rage burning inside. He was placid, but deadly. My pick for actor: Kevin Spacey.

Dr. James Brussel: In desperation, detectives solicited Dr. Brussel’s help in catching the George Metesky, the serial bomber who terrorized New York for more than a decade: Dr. Brussel was almost as crazy as the bomber, but brilliant. My pick for actor: Michael Keaton.

Seymour Berkson: When the New York Journal-American began losing advertising to television, its handsome and worldy publisher, Seymour Berkson, knew that he would have to do something to keep his newspaper alive. His solution was to engage the Mad Bomber in a secret correspondence. My pick for actor: Colin Firth.

Learn more about the book and author at Michael T. Cannell's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Limit.

The Page 99 Test: The Limit.

--Marshal Zeringue