Monday, March 3, 2025

Clea Simon's "The Butterfly Trap"

Before turning to a life of crime (fiction), Boston Globe-bestselling author Clea Simon was a journalist. A native of New York, she came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and never left. The author of three nonfiction books and 32 mysteries, most recently the psychological suspense The Butterfly Trap, her books alternate between cozies (usually featuring cats) and darker psychological suspense, like the Massachusetts Center for the Book “must reads” Hold Me Down and World Enough. She lives with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick (another Boston Globe alum), and their cat Thisbe in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Here Simon dreamcasts an adaptation of The Butterfly Trap:
If The Butterfly Trap is made into a movie, the main thing I’d be looking for is chemistry. On the surface, Greg and Anya are very different. He’s a science guy who ultimately decides to abandon research and go into surgery. She’s a painter, and her whole life revolves around the art world. Physically, he’s a nice-looking but somewhat beefy guy. Maybe a younger Ben Affleck, or even Chris Evans, if he put on a few pounds. Anya, on the other hand, is a stunner: a petite woman with arresting eyes. I wasn’t thinking of Anya Taylor Joy when I wrote her, but I am now.

But casting The Butterfly Trap should not about star power or who visually resembles the characters as I’ve written them. This is a pas de deux between two very different people who, against all odds, come together…at least for a while. Again, it’s all about chemistry. I was thinking about the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie film, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in which despite all their differences you could feel there was an attraction between the two. And, sure enough, the actors ended up married and are now dealing with a messy divorce. I’m not saying that’s what happens in the book – I don’t want to give anything away. But that tension? That “will they or won’t they fall in love? Will they or won’t they make it? That would be perfect for The Butterfly Trap!
Visit Clea Simon's website.

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Q&A with Clea Simon.

--Marshal Zeringue