Sharon Dempsey's "The Midnight Killing"

Sharon Dempsey is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University, exploring class and gender in crime fiction. She was a journalist and health writer before turning to writing crime fiction and has written for a variety of publications and newspapers, including the Irish Times. Dempsey also facilitates creative writing classes for people affected by cancer and other health challenges.

Here Dempsey dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Midnight Killing:

The Midnight Killing is a murder mystery that deals with toxic friendships and long held secrets that refuse to stay buried. A murder, staged as suicide, draws my investigators Forensic Psychologist, Rose Lainey, and Detective Inspector, Danny Stowe, to investigate the cold case of a missing child. The story opens with a crime scene: James McCallum, thirty-five-year-old architect, found hanged in the grounds of his former school, Osbourne College in Belfast. There’s some suspicion as to whether or not it is suicide since there has been no suicide note left as such, but an old friend, Lorcan Burns, contacts the police saying he had a missed call from the victim, and a text message saying: ‘I’m really sorry but I can’t keep going. The reckoning is coming.’

When Rose and Danny dig into James’ life, they discover encrypted files on his computer all about a missing child, Maeve Lunn, in the Donegal town of Mistle.

Emer, Ivy, Lorcan, James were best friends at school and have kept in touch over the years. The remaining three gather to mourn their friend and find themselves drawn back to the past and a secret they have held tight for nearly two decades.

When I write I do visualise the scenes and write as close to a cinematic style as possible without losing the interiority and integrity of a novel. I love story in every format so it’s tempting to think about how my book would look on the screen. The beautiful settings of Northern Ireland and even the city of Belfast, lend themselves to heightened drama so that would be another huge motivator to see it transferred into a screenplay. As for dream casting, I would love to see either Colin Morgan or Jamie Dornan play Danny Stowe. They both have the right look (handsome beyond!) and the perfect build to carry it off, plus they have that emotional intelligence that I hope my character of Danny conveys. And as for Rose, well, actor Valene Kane would be at the top of my wish list. I think she’s mesmerising on screen and has that quiet intelligence and steeliness that suggests you can’t mess with her!

Visit Sharon Dempsey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue