James Byrne's "Chain Reaction"

James Byrne is the pseudonym for an author who has worked for more than twenty years as a journalist and in politics. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

Here Byrne shares some guidance for casting an adaptation of his new Dez Limerick thriller, Chain Reaction:

I quite literally had this conversation with a Hollywood producer in the spring of 2024.

When asked about casting, here’s what I said:

Yes, Dez Limerick is a strong, powerfully built fighter. But I don’t think anyone producing my books should worry about casting guys with “Marvel Cinematic Universe” muscles. As near as I can tell, most actors, when offered a couple million dollars, can bulk up. I wouldn’t call Tom Holland a gym rat, but he got pretty buff for both Uncharted and Spider-Man. (In Spider-Man, Tom Holland plays a nerdy high schooler who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains the power to attract Zendaya. At least that’s how I remember it.)

And yes, Dez is from the U.K. He moved around a lot as a kid and lived in Ireland, Scotland and near Liverpool. But I wouldn’t worry about casting a Brit. Many great actors can do convincing foreign accents. One of my favorite action TV series from the 2010s was Strike Back, which featured actors Philip Winchester as a British soldier and Sullivan Stapleton as an American soldier. Years later, I discovered that Winchester is from Montana and Stapleton is from Australia.

So what would I suggest, if casting Dez?

The basic thing to understand about this character is that he essentially is a comedic character in a dramatic story. The actor who plays Dez has to be funny.

That would be the key to casting, I told the producer. A guy who can deliver the comedy. Can he also look like he’d win in a fight? And can he carry off a U.K. accent? Then there you go. Enter Dez Limerick, stage left.

Visit James Byrne's website.

Q&A with James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Deadlock.

My Book, The Movie: Deadlock.

Writers Read: James Byrne.

The Page 69 Test: Chain Reaction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kira Jane Buxton's "Tartufo"

Kira Jane Buxton's writing has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, and more. Her debut novel Hollow Kingdom was an Indie Next pick, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the Audie Awards, and the Washington State Book Awards, and was named a best book of 2019 by Good Housekeeping, NPR, and Book Riot.

Here Buxton dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Tartufo:

Tartufo is a funny Italian caper about a dying village, its cast of delightfully eccentric characters and what happens when truffle hunter Giovanni (along with his truffle hunting dogs) unearth the biggest truffle the world has ever seen. There are a lot of characters, so it is a tremendously fun novel to imagine casting. I will focus on the three main characters to avoid this becoming a novella!

For the role of Delizia Micucci, I have only ever envisioned Sabrina Impacciatore. She is a phenomenal comedic actress whom you might have seen steal the show in season two of The White Lotus. I imagine she would be phenomenal at playing the stressed out Delizia Micucci as she tries to save her village from extinction.

Giovanni Scarpazza is the kind, sensitive truffle hunter of the village. He is grieving his partner, and being in the woods with his dogs is where he feels most at home. I can picture Andy Serkis nailing this role—being able to balance Giovanni’s gentle nature, while also upholding the comedic moments he finds himself in throughout Tartufo.

Giuseppina Micucci is the village bartender and has been described as New Year’s Eve if it were a person. She is the estranged wife of Umberto, a world famous chef and snob of the highest order. Giuseppina is a firework, a gorgeous bombshell who believes in the spiritual, consults with psychics and lives life to the fullest. I think Jennifer Coolidge would smash this role with her radiance, her beauty and magnetism, her range as an actress, and her killer comedic timing.

Lastly, Stanley Tucci has a tiny, hilarious cameo in the novel as himself, and it would be tremendous fun if he reprised it for the movie.

Visit Kira Jane Buxton's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kira Jane Buxton & Ewok.

My Book, The Movie: Hollow Kingdom.

The Page 69 Test: Hollow Kingdom.

My Book, The Movie: Feral Creatures.

Q&A with Kira Jane Buxton.

The Page 69 Test: Feral Creatures.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nicholas George's "A Lethal Walk in Lakeland"

Nicholas George is the author of the A Walk Through England mystery series, featuring retired police detective Rick “Chase” Chasen. The second and newest volume in the series is A Lethal Walk in Lakeland.

Although a native Californian, George is an avid Anglophile (perhaps from listening to hours and hours of Beatles records as a teenager) and visits England regularly, usually to indulge in his other passion, country walking.

Before taking up mystery writing, George oversaw communication programs for large corporate clients including Lockheed, Merck and Nissan. He lives in Pasadena, California, with his husband.

Here the author dreamcasts the leads in an adaptation of the mysteries:

Of course, as an author, I dream of my Walk Through England mystery series becoming a movie or TV series. The series is set mostly outdoors, so it is very visual.

My main character, Rick "Chase" Chasen, is an older (70+) man, heavy-set, with a full beard. The celebrity I envision when I think of him is James Galway, the flutist, but not an actor. Perhaps John Goodman might be a good actor choice, but he'd need to grow a beard!

Chase's close friend is Billie, also in that age range. While writing, I envisioned someone who looks like Terry Gross, the host of NPR Fresh Air, but also not an actor. I could see someone like Sally Field playing her brilliantly.

Most of the supporting characters are British, and there are a horde of great British characters actors who could fill those roles. It's always good to dream!

Visit Nicholas George's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael T. Cannell's "Blood and the Badge"

Michael Cannell is the author of five non-fiction books, most recently Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation. His previous books are A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc., Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling, The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit, and I.M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism.

Cannell has worked as a reporter for Time and an editor for The New York Times. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of Blood and the Badge:

Hollywood and the Mafia formed a mutual admiration pact ninety- three years ago when Edward G. Robinson played a character based loosely on Al Capone in the black-and-white movie Little Caesar. The subsequent connections and cross-pollinations are many. In the early 1930s Bugsy Siegel took up residence in a Beverly Hills mansion where he threw debauched parties. Guests included George Raft, Gary Cooper and Jean Harlow. A few years later the Murder, Inc. hitman Gangi Cohen fled Brooklyn for Hollywood where, in an odd twist on art imitating life, he played tough-guy roles under a pseudonym. In the 1970s Joe Colombo extracted concessions from Francis Ford Coppola while making The Godfather.

Not surprisingly, I had the mob-and-movie connection in mind while writing Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation, the true story of two decorated NYPD detectives who secretly worked for the Lucchese Crime family in the early 1990s.

If, by some miracle, I was granted the authority to cast the detectives, I would choose John Goodman to play Louie Eppolito, a stout, loud figure who was born into a mob family and rebelled by joining the police department — only to be draw back into the family’s illicit affairs. He later played small roles in a dozen movies.

Like many enduring partnerships, Eppolito and his sidekick, Stephen Caracappa, were polar opposites. If Eppolito was boastful and excitable, Caracappa was rail thin and reserved to the point of silence. With that in mind, let’s bring Adrien Brody in for a screen test.

The pair plied their dark trade in a South Brooklyn made to order for Martin Scorsese, complete with wise guys swinging deals in social clubs and bodies abandoned in the trunks of stolen cars. Some of which you can glimpse in this trailer.

Visit Michael T. Cannell's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Limit.

The Page 99 Test: The Limit.

My Book, The Movie: Incendiary.

My Book, The Movie: A Brotherhood Betrayed.

Writers Read: Michael Cannell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sam Wiebe's "Ocean Drive"

Sam Wiebe is an award-winning and best-selling author of Pacific Northwest crime fiction.

His Wakeland series includes Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone, Sunset and Jericho, and the upcoming Wrath of Exiles. The series has been praised for its authenticity and social realism. He’s also the author of Ocean Drive, Last of the Independents, Never Going Back, and A Lonesome Place for Dying under the pen name Nolan Chase.

Here Wiebe dreamcasts an adaptation of Ocean Drive:

Meghan Quick is the senior officer at a small police department in White Rock, BC, up against a large-scale criminal conspiracy. I’ve referred to Ocean Drive as a Pacific Northwest Fargo, and of course Frances McDormand would be a great choice to play Meghan. But Thandiwe Newton would be a great choice, too—she really stood out in God’s Country.

Cameron Shaw is fresh out of prison and trying to go straight, but gets caught up in the same conspiracy from the other end. Nicholas Hoult was terrific in Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2, and it would be interesting to see what he’d do with the role.

Visit Sam Wiebe's website.

My Book, The Movie: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Cut You Down.

Q&A with Sam Wiebe.

The Page 69 Test: Hell and Gone.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (March 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Hell and Gone.

My Book, The Movie: Sunset and Jericho.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (April 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sunset and Jericho.

The Page 69 Test: Ocean Drive.

--Marshal Zeringue