Peggy Rothschild's "Playing Dead"

After losing their home during a California wildfire, Peggy Rothschild and her husband moved to the beach community of Los Osos along the central coast. When not at her desk or out walking, you can usually find her in the garden. Rothschild is a member of Sisters in Crime National and Sisters in Crime Los Angeles.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Playing Dead:

Molly Madison is a former cop and P. I. Three months before the book begins, she relocated from Massachusetts to California to escape the rumors and suspicion about her possible involvement in her husband’s murder. Now working as a dog trainer, Molly is getting to know her new beachside town. She’s thirty-seven and has two dogs of her own, Harlow, a golden retriever, and Noodle, a Saint Berdoodle. When she takes her dogs to Playtime Academy to try out their classes, everything’s going great—until one of her dogs discovers a dead body. The universally unpopular victim was seen having a heated argument with Felicity—another agility handler—earlier in the day. Molly doesn’t believe Felicity is a killer, but her new friend won’t tell her what the fight was about. With a murder charge hanging over Felicity’s head, Molly begins investigating—with the help of her dogs.

I don’t usually picture actors when I’m writing. In Playing Dead, the lone exception was the character of Shondra Davis. The entire time I was writing her, I pictured Erica Tazel. But as I widened my thought process to dream-cast my book, the following actors came to mind:

For Molly Madison, I can easily see the wonderful Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She’s played a range of characters in her career and her portrayal of Nikki Swango in Fargo was perfect. She’s great at messaging inner strength—as well as physical strength—and does so well with light touches of humor.

Miguel Vasquez is a detective in the Pier Point Police Department and Molly’s boyfriend. The two rushed into a relationship and now Molly suspects her smart, sexy man is hiding something from her. Diego Luna Alexander could play this role in his sleep. Like Miguel he’s handsome and has soulful eyes.

Brandon Butler would do a wonderful job portraying Molly’s agoraphobic neighbor. J. D. Lennon is a former surfer-boy who has become largely housebound as a result of PTSD. Butler has the physicality and good looks to bring him to life.

Eight-year-old Ava Greenwood is Molly’s neighbor and a chess and math prodigy. The girl is whip-smart, but socially awkward and Molly is training both Ava and her dog, Butterscotch. Young Dervyn McDowell has the right look and easy charm to carry this off.

The brilliant Christina Ricci would be amazing as Celeste Simmons—she does catty and cutting so well!

The rest of the cast in order of appearance…

Simone Bealieu – Condola Rashad

Felicity Gaines – Becky Newton

Stacy Marinovic – Parker Posey

Quentin Cooke – Jake Cannavale

Deputy Wallace – Nick Offerman

Deputy Alvarez - Adria Arjona

Jemma Greenwood – Hope Davis

Joel DeCarolis – Kevin L. Johnson

Izzy Harmon - Kelly Reilly

Del Kaminski – Rex Linn

Lupe – Carmen Ejago

Maureen – Ana Rey

Mr. Hopkins – Don Johnson

Shondra Davis – Erica Tazel

Visit Peggy Rothschild's website.

Q&A with Peggy Rothschild.

The Page 69 Test: Playing Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue