Mark Stevens's "No Lie Lasts Forever"

The son of two librarians, Mark Stevens was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and has worked as a reporter, as a national television news producer, and in public relations. The Fireballer (2023) was named Best Baseball Novel by Twin Bill literary magazine and named a Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball Magazine. His novel Antler Dust was a Denver Post bestseller in 2007 and 2009. Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire were all finalists for the Colorado Book Award (2012, 2015, and 2016, respectively), which Trapline won. Trapline also won the Colorado Authors League Award for Best Genre Fiction.

Stevens’s short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Denver Noir. In both 2016 and 2023, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year. He hosts a regular podcast for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and has served as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter for Mystery Writers of America.

Here Stevens shares some ideas for an adaptation of his new novel, No Lie Lasts Forever:

Dear Hollywood,

Please consider casting the following actors in the main roles for the film version of No Lie Lasts Forever.

By the way, please cast these individuals only in close collaboration with director Stephen Soderbergh. Yes, he’s the perfect person to direct this movie, which will require all the gravitas and tension of his films Traffic and Contagion and The Informant with his sleek, tight storytelling of his latest film, Black Bag. He would be perfect. His work with Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich would be a great stylistic approach for how to roll out the Flynn Martin character, too.

For Flynn Martin, it’s a tough choice but I’d go with Charlize Theron. Charlize is clear-eyed and can’t be flustered. I think Charlize could bring that relentless, driven quality to the screen. Flynn is a veteran TV journalist, too, and Charlize is the perfect age. Not a stretch.

For Harry Kugel, we need a kind of Everyman guy who can disappear into a crowd, just as our retired serial killer is hiding in plain sight in the city of Denver (as a government bureaucrat). I’d go with Jared Harris. He can handle an American accent without a problem and his whole demeanor, as in the Chernobyl television series, would be perfect.

Television videographer Tamica Porter, who is as sleek as she is sarcastic and biting, could be played by Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black, The Handmaid’s Tale).

And Flynn’s ex-husband Max McKenna could be played by Channing Tatum. Because he’s been in many Soderbergh movies (including “Magic Mike”) and he’d make for a great, caring cop.

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens.

The Page 69 Test: No Lie Lasts Forever.

--Marshal Zeringue