Mary Anna Evans's "The Dark Library"

Mary Anna Evans is an award-winning author, a writing professor, and she holds a PhD in English literature, a background that, as it turns out, was ideal for writing her new standalone, The Dark Library, the story of a woman still menaced by her dead father whose rare book collection holds the secrets she needs to escape him.

Here Evans dreamcasts an adaptation of The Dark Library:

The Dark Library is set in 1942, and it is heavily influenced by books and movies of the area, especially the brooding and atmospheric movies of Alfred Hitchcock and the dark suspense novels of Daphne du Maurier. If, like me, you love Hitchcock’s adaptation of du Maurier’s Rebecca, then you know exactly the vibe I had in mind.

My protagonist, Estella Ecker, who would much prefer that you called her E, is a scholar of Gothic literature, which she says are stories of “unhappy people in big houses,” so The Dark Library also nods to even earlier novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. (I almost called the book Unhappy People in Big Houses.) These are novels that are incredibly cinematic, so I hope you read The Dark Library with mental images of old stone mansions surrounded by overgrown gardens, brooding over the wind-tossed Hudson River.

Because this is a book that has one foot in the present and one foot in the past, I’m going to cast the movie twice, once with actors who are currently working and once with actors working in or around 1942. That’s twice the fun!

The Cast of The Dark Library, Now/Then

Dr. Estella “E” Ecker: Brie Larson/Veronica Lake at 32

Mother: Nicole Kidman/Veronica Lake at 52

Father: Kenneth Branagh/Fred Astaire in a rare menacing role

Annie: Frances McDormand/Elsa Lanchester

Leontine: Zendaya/Lena Horne

Marjorie: Hailee Steinfeld/Donna Reed

Devan: Liam Hemsworth/Paul Newman at 33

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Learn more about the author and her work at Mary Anna Evans's website.

The Page 69 Test: Floodgates.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans (October 2010).

The Page 69 Test: Strangers.

My Book, The Movie: Strangers.

The Page 69 Test: Plunder.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans (November 2013).

The Page 69 Test: Rituals.

Q&A with Mary Anna Evans.

My Book, The Movie: The Physicists' Daughter.

The Page 69 Test: The Physicists' Daughter.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: The Traitor Beside Her.

My Book, The Movie: The Traitor Beside Her.

The Page 69 Test: The Dark Library.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans.

--Marshal Zeringue

KD Aldyn's "Sister, Butcher, Sister"

KD Aldyn lives everywhere and nowhere (home is where the Wi-Fi is). She most often wears black (and sometimes red) and sometimes dances like Elaine from Seinfeld.

Here Aldyn dreamcasts an adaptation of Sister, Butcher, Sister, her debut:

I can easily imagine the opening scene of my psychological crime thriller movie.

There will be blood. There will be carnage.

Follow along with me:

The opening scene starts monochrome. The viewer is at the shoulder of someone running through a forest path. It is dusk. There are cliffs on one side of the path, a roiling ocean beyond. We hear: the waves crashing, the wind in the trees, labored breathing.

The screen goes blank. Blood red droplets begin to fall.

The title comes in bursts:

SISTER…boom…BUTCHER...boom…SISTER

Now, in full color, as the opening credits roll:

Kate (played by English actor Carey Mulligan) runs along the beach. She shucks down to her bathing suit and dives through the surface.

A flash shot of hands sharpening a knife.

Aurora (Dakota Johnson) walks swiftly through the pine forest paths and comes to stand at the edge of a cliff.

A flash shot of the knife gripped high, glinting in the sun.

Elle Fanning, as Peggy, wanders past suburban homes, peering into windows, to arrive at a grassy knoll overlooking the beach.

The camera pulls back to an extremely long shot, to reveal that the three women—Kate, Aurora, and Peggy—are all in the same general location.

Words fade in: Three Sisters. Boom. One Killer. Boom.

The knife slashes down and the screen fills with blood.

Who’s directing this masterpiece?

An ideal candidate would be David Fincher, whose film directorial debut was Alien 3. In 1995, he directed one of my favorite films Seven, starring Brad Pitt. And he did a brilliant job with Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

But there’s another director vying for place in my mind. Quentin Tarantino! How edgy would the director of Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, and Django go?

The possibilities are endless.

Visit KD Adlyn's website.

Q&A with KD Aldyn.

The Page 69 Test: Sister, Butcher, Sister.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mark Stevens's "No Lie Lasts Forever"

The son of two librarians, Mark Stevens was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and has worked as a reporter, as a national television news producer, and in public relations. The Fireballer (2023) was named Best Baseball Novel by Twin Bill literary magazine and named a Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball Magazine. His novel Antler Dust was a Denver Post bestseller in 2007 and 2009. Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire were all finalists for the Colorado Book Award (2012, 2015, and 2016, respectively), which Trapline won. Trapline also won the Colorado Authors League Award for Best Genre Fiction.

Stevens’s short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Denver Noir. In both 2016 and 2023, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year. He hosts a regular podcast for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and has served as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter for Mystery Writers of America.

Here Stevens shares some ideas for an adaptation of his new novel, No Lie Lasts Forever:

Dear Hollywood,

Please consider casting the following actors in the main roles for the film version of No Lie Lasts Forever.

By the way, please cast these individuals only in close collaboration with director Stephen Soderbergh. Yes, he’s the perfect person to direct this movie, which will require all the gravitas and tension of his films Traffic and Contagion and The Informant with his sleek, tight storytelling of his latest film, Black Bag. He would be perfect. His work with Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich would be a great stylistic approach for how to roll out the Flynn Martin character, too.

For Flynn Martin, it’s a tough choice but I’d go with Charlize Theron. Charlize is clear-eyed and can’t be flustered. I think Charlize could bring that relentless, driven quality to the screen. Flynn is a veteran TV journalist, too, and Charlize is the perfect age. Not a stretch.

For Harry Kugel, we need a kind of Everyman guy who can disappear into a crowd, just as our retired serial killer is hiding in plain sight in the city of Denver (as a government bureaucrat). I’d go with Jared Harris. He can handle an American accent without a problem and his whole demeanor, as in the Chernobyl television series, would be perfect.

Television videographer Tamica Porter, who is as sleek as she is sarcastic and biting, could be played by Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black, The Handmaid’s Tale).

And Flynn’s ex-husband Max McKenna could be played by Channing Tatum. Because he’s been in many Soderbergh movies (including “Magic Mike”) and he’d make for a great, caring cop.

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens.

The Page 69 Test: No Lie Lasts Forever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Martine Bailey's "Isolation Ward"

Martine Bailey studied English Literature while playing in bands on the Manchester music scene. She qualified in psychometric testing and over her career, assessed staff for a top security psychiatric hospital and dealt with cases of sexual abuse and violence. Having written historical crime fiction, Bailey's writing has jumped to a modern setting.

Bailey’s latest novel, Isolation Ward, is her second title about Lorraine Quick, a young psychological testing expert drawn into solving crimes. She pairs up with police Detective Diaz, whose obsession with FBI profiling sparks a fascination with Lorraine.

Bailey’s TV screenplay of Sharp Scratch, in which Lorraine catches a killer using a personality test, is currently longlisted for The Grass Routes Scriptwriting Prize.

In Isolation Ward, it is 1983. Lorraine is sent to the remote the Yorkshire moors to build a new team at scandal-torn Windwell, a locked hospital holding some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. Soon she stumbles on a brutal murder that summons Detective Diaz, and what began as a disturbing project becomes a terrifying hunt. Alone and desperate, Lorraine has to pass the most testing psychological challenges of her life.

Here Bailey dreamcasts an adaptation of the novel:

Director – Sally Wainwright: I wrote the novel with Sally Wainwright in mind, the British writer and director of Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack. She is a brilliant explorer of working class life and tough, flawed and vulnerable women. Isolation Ward is set around Happy Valley’s location of Hebden Bridge, an alternative, edge-of-the-world town, where I also lived in the 1990s. I think Wainwright would appreciate that I drew my story from my own career in psychometrics, assessing staff in one of England’s top security hospitals. We have another connection: Wainwright learned her trade writing the British soap opera Coronation Street, a link to my composer dad, Derek Hilton, the pianist in the show’s nightclub.

Lorraine Quick – Florence Pugh: Pugh’s performances have a raw force on screen that keep viewers glued to her thoughts and moods. I’d love to see Lorraine played with some of the ordinariness and vulnerability she brought to Midsommar - until she gradually realises the horror of her situation.

Detective Diaz – Max Minghella: Diaz is the orphaned son of Italian parents who has got himself shackled to a Catholic fiancée expecting his child. Minghella’s restrained suffering as Nick Blaine in The Handmaid’s Tale has the forbidden love feel of Diaz and Lorraine’s relationship.

Doctor Voss – a young Rutger Hauer: Doctor Voss is the newly arrived Medical Director, a visionary wanting to overturn the asylum’s violent past. Charming, wrong-headed, and the holder of a crucial secret, Voss also shares Hauer’s free-thinking Dutch heritage.

Oona Finn – Anya Taylor-Joy: Oona is one of a group of local teenagers who explore the derelict asylum for drink and mushroom-fuelled parties. A self-professed white witch, I’d love to see Oona’s character reflect Taylor-Joy’s uncertain mix of innocence and cunning in The Witch.

Visit Martine Bailey's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: An Appetite for Violets.

The Page 69 Test: An Appetite for Violets.

My Book, The Movie: A Taste for Nightshade.

My Book, The Movie: The Almanack.

My Book, The Movie: The Prophet.

Q&A with Martine Bailey.

The Page 69 Test: Isolation Ward.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kimberly Belle's "The Expat Affair"

Kimberly Belle is the Edgar Award winning, USA Today & internationally bestselling author with over one million copies sold worldwide. Her titles include The Paris Widow, The Marriage Lie, a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller, and the co-authored #1 Audible Original, Young Rich Widows series. Belle’s novels have been optioned for film and television and selected by LibraryReads and Amazon & Apple Books Editors as Best Books of the Month, and the International Thriller Writers as nominee for best book of the year. She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Here Belle shares some ideas for an adaptation of her new novel, The Expat Affair:

If The Expat Affair finds its way to the screen, in my mind the casting wouldn’t start with the heroine or the villain or even the diamonds at the heart of the plot. It would start with the setting—Amsterdam.

The novel stars two women, both American expats living in Amsterdam. Newly divorced Rayna comes looking for adventure. What she finds instead is a one-night stand that ends in disaster: a dead man in the shower and a missing cache of diamonds that puts her in someone’s crosshairs. Enter Willow, a woman who’s been in the city long enough to learn which rules can be bent. On the surface, she has it all—an old-money marriage, fluency in the language and culture—but she still feels like an outsider. When her path collides with Rayna’s, the cracks in her carefully curated life begin to split wide open.

From a director’s point of view, this book would be a dream to film. Long, moody shots of narrow, cobblestoned streets at midnight. Fog rolling off the Amstel. A chase through the tangled alleys behind Leidseplein. The bikes, the canals, the flower stalls bursting with color but also hiding secrets. It’s a city with big contrasts, and big, main-character energy.

That’s what I think thrillers need when adapted for the screen—not just some great plot twists but atmosphere. Texture. A setting that breathes, where you can fall in love, get lost, or disappear entirely. Or, perhaps, where you can get away with murder.

Amsterdam isn’t just the backdrop of The Expat Affair. It’s the star.

Visit Kimberly Belle's website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram & TikTok (@KimberlyBelleBooks).

The Page 69 Test: Dear Wife.

Q&A with Kimberly Belle.

The Page 69 Test: My Darling Husband.

Writers Read: Kimberly Belle (December 2021).

The Page 69 Test: The Paris Widow.

Writers Read: Kimberly Belle (June 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Expat Affair.

--Marshal Zeringue

Leslie Gray Streeter's "Family & Other Calamities"

Leslie Gray Streeter is an award-winning journalist and columnist for the Baltimore Banner. She is the author of the memoir Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title, the cohost of the podcast Fine Beats and Cheeses, and a frequent speaker on grief. She is also a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook, and a fan of Law & Order.

Here Streeter dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Family & Other Calamities:

Dawn Roberts is a widowed entertainment journalist who returns home with her husband’s ashes and 30 years’ worth of secrets. The big newspaper story that launched the career of her former friend Joe Perkins? He stole it from Dawn, because she made it easy by trusting him. And for decades she’s kept his secret out of shame and necessity, until she comes home and discovers that Joe is making a movie out of the stolen story…and she’s the villain.

Here are my dream actors:

Dawn: Regina Hall. I think she can play both drama and broad comedy, and you have to believe her as a both a distinguished professional and someone who can get wacky if she has to.

Joe: Morris Chestnut. I wrote the character with him in mind; a handsome, deep-voiced charmer who can seductively get his way and be gone before you ever notice.

Eddie: Larenz Tate. Eddie is a photographer that Dawn worked with when they were younger, who holds the key to something crucial in her current life and she doesn’t even know it. It had to be someone with an easy smile. That’s Larenz Tate.

Dale, Dawn’s late husband: Ethan Hawke. Again, he’s a guy who in his 50s is believable as having been dreamy all his life. Also there are enough photos and bits of footage of young Ethan that the flashbacks aren’t an issue.

Tonya, Dawn’s sister: Erika Alexander. Smart. Savvy. Will read you if she has to. And she really must.

Anita, Dawn and Tonya’s mom: Phylicia Rashaad. Again, fierce and funny. You would not mess with her.

Brent, Dawn’s brother-in-law: Josh Charles. I really wanted a handsome actor who could play quiet, and then come at you like the lawyer he is. Josh Charles has not only played lawyers, but he’s from Baltimore. Honestly, I would have cast him in my mind as Dale, in this fictional movie, but I already had Ethan Hawke. In fake movies, everyone’s always available.

Miss Vivienne St. Clair, Valerie Pettiford. She’s an R&B diva with secrets. Must be over-the-top but not completely goofy. Must instill fears in critics and backing singers.

Bria James: Raven Goodwin. A younger reporter who clashes with Dawn as she follows the story of Joe’s coverup. Must be formidable. And gorgeous.

Visit Leslie Gray Streeter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Liz Alterman's "Claire Casey's Had Enough"

Liz Alterman lives in New Jersey with her husband, three sons, and two cats. She spends most days repeatedly microwaving the same cup of coffee and looking up synonyms.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Claire Casey's Had Enough:

It would be a dream come true to see Claire Casey’s Had Enough turned into a film. So, while I’m dreaming, here’s a look at the cast I’d love to watch bring these characters to life on the big or small screen.

Kristen Bell would make a fabulous Claire as we’ve just seen her do a fantastic job as the flawed but lovable Joanne in Nobody Wants This. I think she’d nail the harried mom who wants and deserves more from her life and her relationships perfectly.

I had actor Paul Rudd in mind while writing Claire’s husband Paul. Going beyond the same name, I think Paul Rudd is charming and adorable enough that you could almost forgive him for asking where the ketchup and toilet paper are over and over again as fictional Paul does.

As Alex, Claire’s former boyfriend who is well-intended but a bit of a know-it-all, I envision actor Aaron Eckhart. I feel like his voice matches the one I hear in my head for Alex and he always comes off as authoritative.

I’d love to see Judi Dench as Claire’s friend Bea. I could envision Dench hitting it out of the park when it comes to Bea’s mix of humor, wisdom, and wistfulness.

For Maggie, Claire’s college roommate, I’d cast Isla Fisher for her comic timing.

Kristie, the friend who invites Claire to be her “wingwoman,” would be a great role for Jane Krakowski.

Catherine Keener would be wonderful as Abby, the neighbor who seeks Claire’s help while also subtly (and not so subtly) insulting her.

If I can continue dreaming a moment longer, I'd love Sharon Horgan to direct and Aimee Mann to write and perform the soundtrack.

Visit Liz Alterman's website.

Q&A with Liz Alterman.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

My Book, The Movie: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

Writers Read: Liz Alterman (August 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

Gurjinder Basran's "The Wedding"

Gurjinder Basran is the award-winning author of four novels: Everything Was Goodbye, winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and a Chatelaine Magazine Book Club pick; Someone You Love Is Gone; Help! I’m Alive!; and The Wedding. A Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio alumna hailed by the CBC as one of “Ten Canadian women writers you need to read,” Basran lives in Delta, BC, with her family.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of The Wedding:

The Wedding, an episodic novel told from fifteen unique perspectives about a lavish week-long Indian wedding would require a dream ensemble cast that was capable of portraying a high maintenance bride, an unsure groom, a conflicted wedding party, frenemies, gossiping aunties, a local bad boy, and a host of ever-watchful event staff. Since the novel is set in Canada and is multi-generational, and there are not a lot of well-known Indian actors, I’ll take some liberties in casting and draw from Bollywood and Hollywood past and present and cast just a few of the fifteen starring roles:

The Bride, Devi : Alia Bhatt, a British born Indian actress who is known for portraying strong women would be perfect to play the somewhat unlikeable strong willed bride Devi.

The Groom, Baby: If we could go back in time to the early 2000s, I would choose Bollywood heartthrob, Hritick Roshan because he was always able to portray vulnerability and strength.

The Groom’s brother, Gobind: Ishaan Khatter, recently made famous in North America for his role in The Perfect Couple and in the Netflix hit The Royals would be perfect to play the handsome older brother.

The Family Friend, Sonia, aka “Mottu”: Lilly Singh with her authenticity and comedy chops, would be perfect for this character who has loads of personality and is easily the most likeable character in the book.

The Photographer, Rish : Dev Patel would smoulder as the ever-romantic artsy eligible bachelor.

Dream Director would be Mira Nair who brilliantly directed Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala and can we get Mindy Kaling to produce because really, she has her pulse on bringing diverse characters to the big screen.

Visit Gurjinder Basran's website.

Q&A with Gurjinder Basran.

--Marshal Zeringue

Shirley Russak Wachtel's "The Baker of Lost Memories"

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of A Castle in Brooklyn. She is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Wachtel holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and for the past thirty-five years has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. Her podcast, EXTRAordinary People, features inspiring individuals who have overcome obstacles to make a difference. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to three precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur.

Here Wachtel dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Baker of Lost Memories:

My book, The Baker of Lost Memories, is about Lena, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Anya and Josef. Her parents were once bakers in their own shop in Lodz, Poland before World War II. Working alongside them was their young daughter Ruby, who had a club foot but was perfect in every other way. After tragedy occurs and Anya and Josef make a new home in America, their daughter Lena has questions about the sister she never knew, questions which are mostly met with silence. She feeds a desire to be a baker like her sister to gain her parents’ love. She finds herself confiding in her best friend, Pearl, but when Pearl disappears, Lena builds a new life, marrying and becoming a baker in her own right. Yet she still struggles with gaining her parents’ approval. Only when another unexpected tragedy occurs and Lena finds out about some buried truths, can she rebuild the family she has always needed.

Here is how I would cast the movie version of my book:

Lena—Joey King: Joey has wide dimension as an actress, most recently proven in her role as Halina in the TV drama, We Were the Lucky Ones.

Anya—Kate Winslet: She is a fabulous actress who shows depth in movies like The Reader.

Josef—Adrien Brody: Adrien is adept at tackling roles of tormented survivors, as we see in The Pianist and The Brutalist.

Pearl—Elle Fanning: Fanning possesses an ethereal quality and has recently displayed her ability in A Complete Unknown.

Luke—Austin Butler: A handsome and charismatic actor, Butler can be Elvis or the alluring Luke.

Kenny—Jonah Hill: Jonah has the body type to take on this role and can display the sweetness we find in this character.

Of course, I would choose my son, Charlie Wachtel to direct. Charlie won an Academy Award in 2018 as a screenwriter for the Spike Lee film, BlackKKlansman.

Visit Shirley Wachtel's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Castle in Brooklyn.

My Book, The Movie: A Castle in Brooklyn.

Q&A with Shirley Russak Wachtel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Paul Vidich's "The Poet’s Game"

Paul Vidich's seventh and newest novel is The Poet's Game. His previous novel, Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy, was selected by CrimeReads as one of the best espionage novels of 2023. Vidich's debut novel, An Honorable Man, was selected by Publishers Weekly as a Top 10 Mystery and Thriller in 2016. It was followed by The Good Assassin. His third novel, The Coldest Warrior, was widely praised in England and America, earning strong reviews from The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. It was shortlisted for the UK’s Staunch Prize and chosen as a Notable Selection of 2020 by CrimeReads.

Here Vidich dreamcasts an adaptation of The Poet's Game:

The English director, John Madden, would be a good fit to make The Poet’s Game a movie. Madden directed Operation Mincemeat and much earlier in his career, he director the multiple- Oscar winner, Shakespeare in Love with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Both movies had ensembles casts and the story lines blended personal lives into an historical moment. The Poet’s Game shares those qualities: the tense political conflict between Moscow and Washington in 2018 provides the backdrop for a love story. Madden has the light touch of a director who can bring people’s stories alive and still sustain the suspense of a thrilling plot.

My main character, Alex Matthews, could be played by the chameleon-like Damian Lewis, whose remarkable range makes him a good candidate for the role. Lewis is a smart actor and has the right amount of devious sophistication to play a spy moving two steps ahead of surveillance. Against Lewis, I would cast Natalie Portman in the role of Anna, the young Ukrainian-American translator married to Matthews. Portman can move between being loving and vulnerable and cold and determined, the opposing emotional qualities that make up Anna’s personality.

The script could be written by Tom Stoppard, but if he’s not available, I would nominate Stephen Schiff, a friend, who wrote and served as executive producer on the hit TV series The Americans. Schiff understands how to pull off an actor’s seeming and being with artful dialogue.

Visit Paul Vidich's website.

Q&A with Paul Vidich.

My Book, The Movie: The Mercenary.

The Page 69 Test: The Mercenary.

Writers Read: Paul Vidich (January 2022).

The Page 69 Test: The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin.

Writers Read: Paul Vidich (October 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Beirut Station.

The Page 69 Test: Beirut Station.

Writers Read: Paul Vidich.

--Marshal Zeringue