Nolan Chase's "A Lonesome Place for Murder"

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Murder is his second book featuring Ethan Brand.

Here Chase dreamcasts an adaptation of the new novel:

A Lonesome Place for Murder is about cross-border smuggling in a small Washington town, and how family secrets come back to haunt the town’s new chief of police.

Chief Ethan Brand stumbles on an abandoned smuggling tunnel, with a body lying inside. The dead man is somehow connected to Ethan’s childhood friend Tyler Rash. What was Tyler doing in the tunnel, and who wanted to killed him? Ethan and his senior investigator, Brenda Lee Page, have to find answers before the killer finds them.

This is a more personal story for Ethan Brand, and it’s also a story about brothers.

Ethan is confident but slightly reckless, and new to the job of chief. A young Kris Kristofferson would be a good choice to play Ethan. Kristofferson’s performances in Cisco Pike, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore show that combination of affable confidence and vulnerability.

For Brenda Lee Page, I’d chose Tyne Daly. She’s most famous from Cagney & Lacey, and I think she’s Dirty Harry’s best partner in The Enforcer.

In keeping with the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid theme, James Coburn would be good casting for Tyler Rash, who’s older and more dangerous than Ethan.

Visit Nolan Chase's website.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase.

The Page 69 Test: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

My Book, The Movie: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

--Marshal Zeringue