Simon Toyne's "The Clearing"

Simon Toyne is the author of the internationally bestselling Sanctus trilogy (Sanctus, The Key, and The Tower), The Searcher, The Boy Who Saw, and Dark Objects, and has worked in British television for more than twenty years. As a writer, director and producer he’s made several award-winning shows, one of which won a BAFTA. He lives in England with his wife and family, where he is permanently at work on his next novel.

Here Toyne dreamcasts an adaptation of The Clearing, his second suspense novel featuring forensic expert Laughton Rees:

I kind of think of myself as a failed movie director and whenever I write a book I’m always effectively making the movie in my head then transcribing the action into book form.

With The Clearing, I already had some of the cast as it’s a follow up to my last book, Dark Objects, which also features Dr. Laughton Rees, a young, brilliant academic with a teenage daughter and OCD. DCI Tannahill Khan, half-Irish, half-Pakistani, an outsider within the traditionally predominantly white institution of the London Metropolitan.

Laughton is very much in the mould of Clarice Starling, smart, brave, feisty, a small woman but with a big person’s energy. Laughton is also the smartest person in the room but is often underestimated, particularly by men, because she’s young, pretty and small. She’s also based on my oldest daughter Roxy, who is all of these things too, but to play her on screen I always saw her as Vanessa Kirby, who was amazing as the young Princess Margaret in The Crown and heart breaking in Pieces of a Woman. She’s also about to star as Josephine opposite Joaqhin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon.

For Tannahill I would go for Riz Ahmed, who was amazing in Sound of Metal and is great in everything he does. He’s also Anglo-Pakistani so has the right mixed heritage and experience - and he’s really handsome, which is important for all kinds of reasons.

Laughton and Tannahill work together on the central mysteries of each book and are also very attracted to each other, which adds an extra frisson to the regular thrills. So, if it’s a Vanessa Kirby/Riz Ahmed double hander, I’d definitely watch the hell out of that!

Learn more about the book and author at Simon Toyne's website, Facebook page, Twitter perch, and Instagram page.

My Book, The Movie: Sanctus.

My Book, The Movie: The Tower.

My Book, The Movie: The Searcher.

The Page 69 Test: The Clearing.

--Marshal Zeringue