Sunday, December 26, 2021

William Boyle's "Shoot the Moonlight Out"

William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. He’s the author of five novels: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France and shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger in the UK; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, an Amazon Best Book in 2019 and winner of the Prix Transfuge du meilleur polar étranger in France; City of Margins, a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020; and, most recently, Shoot the Moonlight Out. All are available from Pegasus Crime. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Here Boyle dreamcasts an adaptation of Shoot the Moonlight Out:
My new novel, Shoot the Moonlight Out, is an ensemble crime drama set in southern Brooklyn in the summer of 2001 (with a prologue set five years before that). The book revolves around five main characters: Jack Cornacchia, a widower doling out vigilante justice in the neighborhood, who becomes a shell of a man after losing his daughter in a tragic accident; Lily Murphy, who returns to the neighborhood after four years at college, a writer who feels lost and out of place and is searching for connection, which she finds teaching a community writing class in the basement of her childhood church; Francesca Clarke, who just graduated high school and dreams of being a filmmaker, and whose life changes when she meets Bobby Santovasco, an aimless, self-sabotaging neighborhood slacker with ghosts in his closet; and Charlie French, a low-level mob wannabe who crosses paths with all of these characters in unexpected ways. If they make the book into a film, here's who I'd like to play the lead roles:

Jack Cornacchia: Joe Manganiello

Lily Murphy: Sophia Lillis

Francesca Clarke: Amandla Stenberg

Bobby Santovasco: Michael Gandolfini

Charlie French: Jon Bernthal

Directors I have in mind: Alan Rudolph's one of my heroes, and I think this book is indebted to his influence; his underseen, underrated film Ray Meets Helen had an impact on the hopeful and romantic heart of the book. Lorene Scafaria is a director I really admire, and I'd love to see what she would do with something like this. Abel Ferrara is another one of my artistic heroes, and his influence is stamped all over the book--he hasn't made a New York movie in a while, but it'd be pretty damn cool. The coolest long shot of all would be Hong Sang-soo, whose work inspires me so much.
Visit William Boyle's website.

Q&A with William Boyle.

The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Moonlight Out.

--Marshal Zeringue