Martine Bailey's "Isolation Ward"

Martine Bailey studied English Literature while playing in bands on the Manchester music scene. She qualified in psychometric testing and over her career, assessed staff for a top security psychiatric hospital and dealt with cases of sexual abuse and violence. Having written historical crime fiction, Bailey's writing has jumped to a modern setting.

Bailey’s latest novel, Isolation Ward, is her second title about Lorraine Quick, a young psychological testing expert drawn into solving crimes. She pairs up with police Detective Diaz, whose obsession with FBI profiling sparks a fascination with Lorraine.

Bailey’s TV screenplay of Sharp Scratch, in which Lorraine catches a killer using a personality test, is currently longlisted for The Grass Routes Scriptwriting Prize.

In Isolation Ward, it is 1983. Lorraine is sent to the remote the Yorkshire moors to build a new team at scandal-torn Windwell, a locked hospital holding some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. Soon she stumbles on a brutal murder that summons Detective Diaz, and what began as a disturbing project becomes a terrifying hunt. Alone and desperate, Lorraine has to pass the most testing psychological challenges of her life.

Here Bailey dreamcasts an adaptation of the novel:

Director – Sally Wainwright: I wrote the novel with Sally Wainwright in mind, the British writer and director of Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack. She is a brilliant explorer of working class life and tough, flawed and vulnerable women. Isolation Ward is set around Happy Valley’s location of Hebden Bridge, an alternative, edge-of-the-world town, where I also lived in the 1990s. I think Wainwright would appreciate that I drew my story from my own career in psychometrics, assessing staff in one of England’s top security hospitals. We have another connection: Wainwright learned her trade writing the British soap opera Coronation Street, a link to my composer dad, Derek Hilton, the pianist in the show’s nightclub.

Lorraine Quick – Florence Pugh: Pugh’s performances have a raw force on screen that keep viewers glued to her thoughts and moods. I’d love to see Lorraine played with some of the ordinariness and vulnerability she brought to Midsommar - until she gradually realises the horror of her situation.

Detective Diaz – Max Minghella: Diaz is the orphaned son of Italian parents who has got himself shackled to a Catholic fiancée expecting his child. Minghella’s restrained suffering as Nick Blaine in The Handmaid’s Tale has the forbidden love feel of Diaz and Lorraine’s relationship.

Doctor Voss – a young Rutger Hauer: Doctor Voss is the newly arrived Medical Director, a visionary wanting to overturn the asylum’s violent past. Charming, wrong-headed, and the holder of a crucial secret, Voss also shares Hauer’s free-thinking Dutch heritage.

Oona Finn – Anya Taylor-Joy: Oona is one of a group of local teenagers who explore the derelict asylum for drink and mushroom-fuelled parties. A self-professed white witch, I’d love to see Oona’s character reflect Taylor-Joy’s uncertain mix of innocence and cunning in The Witch.

Visit Martine Bailey's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

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--Marshal Zeringue