appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Suspense Magazine, and Noir Nation, and her short films have been screened in festivals around the world.
Here Limoncelli dreamcasts an adaptation of her debut mystery novel, The Four Queens of Crime:
The Four Queens of Crime takes place in 1938. The best selling authors of the decade, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham, are hosting a gala to raise money for the Women’s Voluntary Service to help Britain prepare for war. Baronet Sir Henry Heathcote has loaned Hursley House for the event, and all the elites of London society are attending. The gala is a brilliant success, despite a few hiccups, and the four writers witness quite a bit of dramatic family dynamics and political intrigue that pervade the event. The next morning, Sir Henry is found dead in the library. Detective Chief Inspector Lilian Wyles, the first real life woman detective at Scotland Yard, and her partner DCI Richard Davidson are assigned the case and discover a cluster of potential suspects among the weekend guests, including an upset fiancée, a politically ambitious son, a reserved but protective brother, an irate son-in-law, a rebellious teenage daughter, and the deputy home secretary. Quietly recruiting the four queens of crime, DCI Wyles must sort through the messy aftermath of Sir Henry’s death to solve the mystery and identify the killer.Visit Rosanne Limoncelli's website.
As I was writing the book, since I am also a filmmaker, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the story as a movie or TV series. There are so many wonderful English actors that could fill the roles, especially at the age of the these real people in 1938. Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Ngaio Marsh were in their late 40’s and Margery Allingham was 34. And the real life first woman DCI Lilian Wyles was 52. I wanted to keep these real ages in mind as I developed their characters. So often, in movies, women’s roles are given to actors much younger than the character’s physical age, it seems older women are just not always celebrated the way older men are. I would not want that to happen in the movie of my book. And why should it with so many great choices? Agatha could be played by Kate Winslet, and Cate Blanchett could play Ngaio since she is from down under. Dorothy L Sayers could be portrayed by Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts would make a great Margery Allingham. And I would love to see Emily Blunt play Lilian Wyles, she has the subtlety and the spunk. As far as directing the movie, I have strong opinions on that too! I could see Susanna White as the director, as she so brilliantly directed Parade’s End ten years ago and has gone on to do more wonderful projects. Someone who is also very skilled as a director is Rebecca Hall, who did such brilliant work as the director of Passing. I honestly can’t decide if The Four Queens of Crime novel should be a movie or a mini series. Perhaps I’ll have to survey the readers!
--Marshal Zeringue
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