Rosemary Simpson's "Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets"

Rosemary Simpson is the author of two historical novels, The Seven Hills of Paradise and Dreams and Shadows, and the Gilded Age Mysteries, What the Dead Leave Behind, Lies that Comfort and Betray, and Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets.

Here Simpson shares her take on dreamcasting adaptations of her novels:

I have to admit that I rarely picture an actor playing any of the characters I develop in the Gilded Age Mystery series. I think that's because I know them so well and have such a clear picture of them in my head that they don't closely resemble any real individuals. I've also seen enough film adaptations of novels I've enjoyed, and some I haven't, to realize that no matter how good the actor's portrayal, it can never match the scene I imagined as I read the book. That's the beauty of the written word. What the writer writes calls up a slightly different conception of his reality in every reader's imagination.

So I'll back off from trying to suggest who could or should play Prudence MacKenzie or Geoffrey Hunter or even Josiah Gregory. If the Gilded Age Mysteries ever hit the large or small screen I'll happily deposit the check and turn my characters over to someone else. They won't belong to me anymore.

Visit Rosemary Simpson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue