Reed Farrel Coleman's "Sleepless City"

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times-bestselling author of over thirty novels—including six in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series—short stories, poetry, and essays.

In addition to his acclaimed series characters, Moe Prager and Gus Murphy, he has written the stand-alone novel Gun Church and collaborated with decorated Irish crime writer Ken Bruen on the novel Tower.

Coleman is a four time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories: Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Short Story. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Sleepless City:

Sleepless City is my thirty-second published novel and I can say in all honesty that the only ones I ever wrote with a preconception of who might play the role in the movie(s) were my Gulliver Dowd books. In writing him, Gulliver, a PI who is a distinctly handsome little person, I could not help but think of Peter Dinklage. But I never thought of who I might cast as Moe Prager, Gus Murphy, Dylan Klein or any of the protagonists of my stand-alones. The same was true of Nick Ryan, the protagonist of Sleepless City.

However, during the pandemic, suffering from a severe case of reader’s block, I spent a lot of time streaming. I stumbled upon a series called The Last Kingdom, essentially the story of the how the Vikings/Danes played a role in the evolution of England. The lead actor, playing the role of Utred of Bebbanburg, was a German named Alexander Dreymon. I was totally captivated by his presence, his rugged good looks, his abilities at doing his own stunts. And though I had already written both Sleepless City and its sequel Blind to Midnight, I was hooked and thought if I ever had a say in it, Dreymon would be my man. In his way, Utred is a kind of Mediaeval Nick Ryan.

Oddly, the Nick I wrote in the books wouldn’t actually resemble Alexander at all. He would, I suppose, bear a much closer resemblance to a taller Daniel Craig. But Dreymon’s screen presence is so powerful that I find the disparity unimportant. He also speaks perfect English and have no doubt he could do a Brooklyn accent (Nick’s from Bay Ridge). As his ex, Shana, I would cast Mila Kunis. As his friend Lenny, I’d cast Peter Lorre and as his “handler” Joe, I’d cast Anthony Hopkins.

Visit Reed Farrel Coleman's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Hollow Girl.

The Page 69 Test: Where It Hurts.

The Page 69 Test: What You Break.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kate Robards's "The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard"

Kate Robards holds a degree in journalism and works in communications at a nonprofit organization. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and children.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard, her first novel:

Before I wrote The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard, I sketched out the characters in great depth. Some of my notes made it into the novel, while others were simply for me to create multi-dimensional characters. As part of my process, I located a photo depicting my vision of each character. While not a celebrity, looking back at the photos guides me in dreamcasting my novel.

My debut thriller follows Sawyer Stannard, who’s grappling with the unexpected death of her sister, Willa. To understand Willa’s last days, she begins to retrace her footsteps, diving deep into a mysterious cold case of a missing toddler that Willa, an investigative journalist, was writing about.

The novel alternates between Sawyer’s perspective in the present day and Willa’s point of view in the past, so I consider them both leading ladies. Despite sharing their childhoods, these sisters have very different personalities.

Sawyer is extraverted, enthusiastic, and bubbly. A spin instructor in her late twenties, she’s bounced from job to job. Though she intends to find out what happened to her sister, she’s not a detective; she’s a grieving sister battling her own demons. I’d cast Lili Reinhart, best known for her role in the TV series Riverdale, in this role. I think she could capture Sawyer’s scattered-yet-naïve and bright, passionate personality. Sawyer has a lot of heart, and I’d love to see her played by an actress who is emotive and endearing.

Willa, on the other hand, is a high achiever who cares more about being right than kind. She’s a blunt perfectionist. At the time of her death, she was in her early thirties. I think Evan Rachel Wood would play Willa well, depicting a serious, sharp, yet troubled, woman. Evan Rachel Wood has played a wide range of independent and mainstream film and television roles, at times depicting a woman struggling with pressure.

Together, Lili Reinhart and Evan Rachel Wood are my dreamcasting for Sawyer and Willa Stannard, as I think both would bring complexity and depth to these characters.

Visit Kate Robards's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christina Lynch's "Sally Brady's Italian Adventure"

Christina Lynch’s picaresque journey includes chapters in Chicago and at Harvard, where she was an editor on the Harvard Lampoon. She was the Milan correspondent W magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, and disappeared for four years in Tuscany. In L.A. she was on the writing staff of Unhappily Ever After; Encore, Encore; The Dead Zone, and Wildfire. She now lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. She is the co-author of two novels under the pen name Magnus Flyte. She teaches at College of the Sequoias. The Italian Party is her debut novel.

Here Lynch dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Sally Brady’s Italian Adventure:

Castles! Villas! Luxury Hotels! But also air raid shelters, prison cells, and POW camps. And hats! Lots of hats! These are the first things that come to mind when I think of Sally Brady’s Italian Adventure: The Movie.

I love books and movies with a fast pace, gorgeous settings, a mix of dark comedy, romance, drama, reframed history, and characters forced into excruciating choices--so of course I made those the central ingredients of Sally Brady’s Italian Adventure. And I have a background in TV writing, so the novel is intentionally very cinematic. It moves from humor to drama and back again as Sally, an intrepid and irreverent young American orphan-turned-gossip columnist, gets stuck behind enemy lines when Italy slides into World War II. I was thinking of 1930s screwball comedies like My Man Godfrey when I wrote it, but also of course Casablanca. I was fascinated by the idea of how life in all its complexity carries on in wartime—not to mention the echoes for our own era. No one tone was enough to tell Sally’s story—and in fact the real life WWII diaries of women like Iris Origo and Hermione Ranfurly weren’t soppy or tearstained; they were resourceful, funny, pragmatic, and able to manipulate the male ego as needed. Enter Sally, stage left…

Coming of age stories are demanding, but Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) has the smarts and range for Sally, and Elle Fanning (The Great) would be Sally’s pal Lila. Sally is a tricky role—we follow her from being a homeless redheaded 11-year-old urchin on the streets of Los Angeles in 1931 to a glamorous platinum blonde undercover gossip columnist in Rome in her late teens, and then a plucky POW turned resistance agent behind enemy lines in Italy in her early 20s. Sally’s got some great scenes—mocking the aristocracy at parties while blending in, bantering for her life with Fascist officials, and finding love in a destroyed wine cellar hideout.

Michelle Yeoh would be perfect as Sally’s adopted mom Patsy, an Anna Mae Wong-inspired actress who escapes to Europe to avoid typecasting and has an affair with the legendary partygiver Elsa Maxwell, who would be played (of course) by Margo Martindale.

Rufus Sewell, who was so convincing as Italian detective Zen, would be Lapo, the Italian writer selling his soul to keep his family and friends safe. Timothée Chalamet would be suitably heartbreaking as Alessandro, a teenage anti-Fascist who finds himself posted to Prague and who eventually intersects with Sally when they are both on the run.

If Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) were still alive, he’d probably be my first choice to direct the movie, because I think he could capture the glamourous ironic fizz of costume balls as well as the terror of an air raid in a topiary garden, but even better would be Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag). I think she’d nail Sally’s satirical gaze—plus she could cast herself in the role of Alba, a narcissistic princess who resorts to cannibalism (dark times). Maggie Smith would be a perfect Clio, the 92-year-old resistance fighter who enlists Sally, and Corey Mylchreest (Queen Charlotte) would steal the show as Favagrossa, the reluctant Fascist officer with a crush on Sally.

And of course, Jungle Red for the lipstick!

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jane L. Rosen's "On Fire Island"

Jane L. Rosen is an author, screenwriter, and Huffington Post contributor. She lives in New York City and Fire Island with her husband and three daughters.

Here Rosen dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, On Fire Island:

On Fire Island is a project I have been working on for many years, and I am thrilled to finally be sharing it with the world. The story mostly takes place over one summer on Fire Island and, just like life, toes the line between comedy and tragedy. I first wrote this story as a screenplay, so I have cast and recast it in my head, many times.

But today, for this exercise, may I present my dream cast.

Ben Morse—the novel’s brooding widowed protagonist would be perfectly played by Ryan Reynolds. For his wife, Julia, who narrates the story from the afterlife, and would only appear in flashbacks, I choose a lesser known beauty, Emilia Clarke. And since this is a dream cast, for Ben’s foil, a cantankerous old man named Shep, who lives for their weekend softball games, I think that Robert Redford would be “The Natural” choice.

Then we have Matty, a sixteen-year-old boy, and his best friend Dylan who wants to lose her virginity before going off to college. I would cast Timothée Chalamet as Matty, because to me he can play young and do no wrong. For Dylan I would choose Mia Rose Frampton. She is everything I picture for Matty’s mermaid-like love interest. For Matty’s mom Renee, I would choose Jennifer Aniston and for the hot drummer she takes up with—Nick Robinson.

There are a lot more characters to cast in this novel, especially the ball players. For them, I would love to mix in some of the actual ball players who I based my characters off of. I picture placing a bunch of these real guys, including my husband, scattered across the outfield of our town’s very own Field of Dreams.

Follow Jane L. Rosen on Facebook and Twitter.

The Page 69 Test: Eliza Starts a Rumor.

My Book, The Movie: Eliza Starts a Rumor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mary Anna Evans's "The Traitor Beside Her"

Mary Anna Evans is an award-winning author, a writing professor, and she holds degrees in physics and engineering, a background that, as it turns out, is ideal for writing her new series, the Justine Byrne series. Set in WWII-era New Orleans, the first book, The Physicists’ Daughter, introduces Justine Byrne, whom Mary Anna describes as “a little bit Rosie-the-Riveter and a little bit Bletchley Park codebreaker.” When Justine, the daughter of two physicists who taught her things girls weren’t expected to know in 1944, realizes that her boss isn’t telling her the truth about the work she does in her factory job, she draws on the legacy of her unconventional upbringing to keep her division running and protect her coworkers, her country, and herself from a war that is suddenly very close to home.

Here Evans dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Traitor Beside Her, the second title in the Justine Byrne series:

Three of the four primary characters in The Traitor Beside Her are fairly straightforward to cast. The protagonist, Justine Byrne, is very young, only twenty-one, and the key characteristic that would drive a casting agent looking for the perfect Justine is her fierce intelligence. I describe her as small and thin with bright red hair, but the plot depends on none of these things. In fact, early in the book, she is directed by her boss to bleach her hair to a platinum blond. Justine is an undercover agent, so the most important thing about her appearance is that she be able to change it. I think that Hailee Steinfeld would do an excellent job with both Justine’s intelligence and the rather charming social awkwardness that can come from being blindingly intelligent.

Justine’s best friend Georgette Broussard, also twenty-one, comes from a rural background where education was hard to get, and she is only beginning to learn to let her natural intellect shine. She has a brash boldness that I think Florence Pugh would capture well.

Justine’s love interest, the mysterious and mononymous Paul, is a tall, dark, and handsome man whose secrets have secrets. Ethan Peck exudes that quality in his role as the young Mr. Spock in the Star Trek prequel Strange New Worlds, and I have a lifelong passion for his grandfather Gregory Peck that only a time machine could solve, so he would make an excellent Paul.

Jerry Jenkins is more difficult to cast than he should be. Jerry is a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair and works as a mechanic, and I feel strongly that the actor who plays him should be someone who uses a wheelchair. I have been keeping my eyes open for the right actor for Jerry, and I haven’t seen him yet. I hope that Hollywood’s casting agents are aware of, and cast frequently, actors who could do the role justice.

The supporting cast for The Traitor Beside Her would be key to any movie made from the book, as the plot revolves around the search for a traitor selling war secrets and the culprit must be among the small circle of people surrounding Justine at her code breaking job. Linda is a young woman with few priorities other than being pretty and attracting men. Hollywood actresses are not known for being ambitionless, but I think Elle Fanning could pull it off. Anya Taylor-Joy would be right for the bitter, icy Thelma. Nicholas Hoult has the dangerous edge that Ike needs, while Josh Hutcherson would do well as Ed, who might be hiding a dangerous edge of his own. Maya Hawke would be convincing as Sally, a brilliant woman with a sunshiny personality capable of hiding a lot. Kate Winslet’s performance as Mare of Easttown showed that she can pull off the middle-aged sullenness of the grieving Nora. And presiding over them all is Karl, an elderly man for whom I would cast John Lithgow. Karl has spent decades earning the trust of the American government, which is willing to ignore the fact that he is German, because he is just so damn good at what he does.

And last, there is the small but key role of Gloria, Justine’s godmother. Gloria came alone to America from Poland in the early twentieth century when she was fifteen, and she bears the psychological scars of that experience. I would love to see Meryl Streep use her Polish accent from Sophie’s Choice again as Gloria passes her hard-earned wisdom down to Justine.

Learn more about the author and her work at Mary Anna Evans's website.

My Book, The Movie: Strangers.

Q&A with Mary Anna Evans.

My Book, The Movie: The Physicists' Daughter.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans.

The Page 69 Test: The Traitor Beside Her.

--Marshal Zeringue

Adam Mitzner's "Love Betrayal Murder"

Adam Mitzner is the acclaimed Amazon Charts bestselling author of Dead Certain, Never Goodbye, and The Best Friend in the Broden Legal series as well as the stand-alone thrillers A Matter of Will, A Conflict of Interest, A Case of Redemption, Losing Faith, The Girl from Home, and The Perfect Marriage. A practicing attorney in a Manhattan law firm, he and his family live in New York City.

Here Mitzner dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Love Betrayal Murder:

Love Betrayal Murder is the second of my books in which a very close friend generously allowed me to use his name (The Best Friend being the other). I’m sure that my Matt Brooks would have his own thoughts about the Hollywood A-lister to play his fictional alter ego, but in my mind it’s someone with tremendous charisma, but not traditional leading man looks. I’m thinking Seth Rogan or Paul Dano.

For Vanessa Lyons, I go the other way. Someone truly beautiful, but who uses her intelligence, and not her looks, as her calling card. I’ve been hoping Nina Dobrev would take an interest in my work for a while now, and she would indeed be an excellent Vanessa. But I just saw Riley Keough in Daisy Jones and she’d be great too.

Bradley Lyons is older and as handsome as his wife is beautiful, but with a dark side. Bradley Cooper, Colin Farrell or Jake Gyllenhaal, call your agents.

For the lawyers, Erica Sanders was based on an ex-girlfriend, so I primarily see her, but she’s not an actor (or a lawyer), so I’d cast Jennifer Hudson. I love Jessica Williams in Shrinking, and she would also give Erica the depth she needs. Zoe Kravitz is a little young, but in a few years she’d be perfect, not to mention that it would give the movie a Batman connection, which is very important to me.

Erica’s legal adversary, J.R., is described as resembling a young Larry Hagman, which might be hard for casting agents. If you google -- what actor looks like Larry Hagman -- the internet will tell you that it’s Neal McDonough of Yellowstone. He’s about ten years older than J.R., but if the movie is made soon, he could do it.

Learn more about the book and author at Adam Mitzner's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Conflict of Interest.

My Book, The Movie: A Case of Redemption.

My Book, The Movie: Losing Faith.

My Book, the Movie: A Matter of Will.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Marriage.

Q&A with Adam Mitzner.

Writers Read: Adam Mitzner.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bryn Turnbull's "The Paris Deception"

Bryn Turnbull is the internationally bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis and The Last Grand Duchess. With a master of letters in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews, a master of professional communication from Toronto Metropolitan University and a bachelor's degree in English literature from McGill University, Turnbull focuses on finding stories of women lost within the cracks of the historical record.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Paris Deception:

This is the first novel that I’ve written with fully fictional main characters, and when I started envisioning the novel I struggled with picturing my two main characters, Sophie and Fabienne. In my previous two books, I wrote historical heroines, meaning that I had photographs and newsreels to draw upon when picturing the character in my mind, but with this project I had difficulty envisioning the characters: they wavered on the edge of my mind’s eye, sometimes shifting into focus before blurring, frustratingly, once more.

I have Pedro Pascal to thank, in fact, for helping me solidify my characters. I was listening to an interview where he talked about developing scrapbooks to get himself into his character’s mindset, and I thought it sounded worth trying. In the course of developing my scrapbooks, I gravitated towards images that felt like one character or the other. I found their clothing – for Sophie, worn tweeds and pleated trousers; for Fabienne, rich velvets and flowing silks. Furniture for their apartments – a wrought-iron bed for Sophie, and a bathtub filled with pillows for Fabienne. The tools of their trades: palette knives and paintbrushes, coffee cups and champagne coupes. Finally, with a hundred different aspects of the characters down in the scrapbook I took a stab at their physical appearance.

To me, Sophie is Holliday Grainger, beautiful and strong with a cut-glass accent and victory curls. Having played queer historical heroines in the past, I think she would do wonderfully navigating the many levels on which Sophie has to hide her true self.

Fabienne, meanwhile, would be played to perfection by Aubrey Plaza: changeable and unpredictable, who could embody Fabienne’s empty bravado and grief like no other.

I continued this exercise of scrapbooking – and dream casting – for other characters in my book: Dietrich would be played, ideally, by Joe Alwyn, serious and steady yet dreamy enough for a romantic lead; Sebastien, meanwhile, I envision as Tom Sturridge, who could capture Sebastien’s reticence and hard exterior before unfolding and letting Fabienne, and the reader, glimpse his true nature.

Gerhardt Hausler, Sophie’s confidante and co-conspirator within the Jeu de Paume, I could see played by Torben Leibrecht, a German actor known for his role in Altered Carbon.

The most difficult castings, of course, would be the antagonists. Konrad Richter, Hermann Goering’s right hand man, is the main villain of this story: I see him as Daniel Bruhl, chewing the scenery as he embodies both Richter’s smirking elegance and brutal rage.

I pictured Christoph Waltz as Colonel Bohn, however he’s played plenty of characters in this ilk before; perhaps he’d prefer to take a pass on this project (and it’s terribly obvious casting given his work in Inglorious Basterds, I know) so let’s give the role to someone else: Alexander Skarsgård, who would do a masterful job playing the character’s weakness.

Finally, I would cast Helena Bonham Carter as Rose Valland, the real-life historical heroine who protected the Jeu de Paume, and the treasures within it, for the long years of the German occupation.

Visit Bryn Turnbull's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tanis Rideout's "The Sea Between Two Shores"

Tanis Rideout’s internationally acclaimed first novel, Above All Things, was a national bestseller, named to numerous best books of the year lists, and published in several languages around the world. It was awarded the Premio ITAS del Libro di Montagna and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her new novel is The Sea Between Two Shores. She is also the author of the poetry collection Arguments with the Lake, and, in 2006, she was named the “Poet Laureate for Lake Ontario” by the environmental advocacy group Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. Born in Belgium, she grew up in Bermuda and in Kingston, Ontario, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Here Rideout shares some thoughts on what a film adaptation of The Sea Between Two Shores might look like:

The writing of The Sea Between Two Shores was inspired by a brief paragraph I read in a left-behind guidebook while sitting overlooking the Pacific on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu.

The story stayed with me throughout the remainder of my trip and beyond and eventually after much reading and research developed into the first draft of a novel about two families, The Stewarts and The Tabés, who come together to reckon with their collective pasts.

I didn’t really dream cast the Stewart family while I was writing. They were much like people I knew, people I might run into at the supermarket or the library. I did however return to a film called Tanna a number of times while I was writing.

My husband and I saw the film while we were in Vanuatu. It is a tragic love story set on the island of Tanna and stars ni-Vanuatu actors, performing in Nauvhal, one of the many languages spoken on the islands.

The performances in the movie are luminous with Marie Wawa and Mangua Dain as star-crossed lovers and Marceline Rofit as Wawa’s younger sister Selin.

It was not so much that I imagined these specific actors playing roles in my novel, but rather the film worked to ground the characters for me, allowing me to hear the rhythm and tone of language and songs from Vanuatu, remember the landscape and the sounds of the islands.

The film, which went on to be nominated for an Oscar, showcases a sliver of the incredible talent in Vanuatu.

In my daydreams, when I do imagine the possibility of The Sea Between Two Shores as a film, it would be a collaboration, as Tanna was, with people – artists, actors and storytellers – from Vanuatu.

Learn more about the book and author at Tanis Rideout's website.

My Book, The Movie: Above All Things.

Writers Read: Tanis Rideout.

--Marshal Zeringue

Verlin Darrow's "Murder for Liar"

Verlin Darrow is currently a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near the Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary. Darrow is a former professional volleyball player (in Italy), unsuccessful country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign spiritual organization. Before bowing to the need for higher education, a much younger Darrow ran a punch press in a sheetmetal factory, drove a taxi, worked as a night janitor, shoveled asphalt on a road crew, and installed wood flooring. He missed being blown up by Mt. St. Helens by ten minutes, survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (8 on the Richter scale), and (so far) has successfully weathered his own internal disasters.

Here Darrow shares some ideas for the above-the-line adaptation of his new novel, Murder for Liar:

I didn't have any specific actors in mind when I wrote Murder For Liar, but I definitely pictured each character in detail, and if I think about which actors match up to those images... Let's see.

I guess the psychotherapist protagonist, Tom, who is a big guy with a rugged, scarred face, could be portrayed by a fortyish Nick Nolte. He'd need to be a bit more bewildered than usual. Zig-zag, the waif-like twenty-year-old daughter of a deceased spiritual leader could be played by a young Natalie Portman. Dizzy is a strong African American character who draws Tom into a conspiracy. Thus, Keke Palmer. The quite crazed therapy client--George Arundel--would need to be a bit spooky-looking, and capable of great acting for reasons I wouldn't want to give away here. Anthony Hopkins? Jack Nicholson? Ian McKellen? I'm not sure about this one.

There's a dog I know who'd be perfect for the one who provides Tom a major clue as he tries to solve a series of murders, but I doubt she can act.

I guess that covers the main characters. I wouldn't want the sort of director who puts a characteristic stamp on his work. People like Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, and Guy Ritchie would distract from what I believe is already a compelling story. After all, who gets singled out as a possible angel? Who encounters meaningful coincidences by the dozen? Who has to figure out whether they've lost their mind as outrageous events keep up a breakneck pace?

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Emily J. Edwards's "Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River"

Emily Edwards earned her degree in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College and took the long road to becoming an author, working for over a decade as a wine and spirits journalist, radio producer, and creator of the podcast, F*ckbois of Literature. She currently resides in Connecticut with her husband, and several quadrupeds.

Here Edwards dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River:

Before the first book in the Girl Friday mystery series came out, I mused for My Book, The Movie about who I’d love to see play the three main characters of Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man: Viviana Valentine, Tommy Fortuna, and Tally Blackstone. My dream casting for those three characters hasn’t changed, so be sure to click over to that piece to see who I’d love to see in the roles!

All three characters appear again in Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River, but in this “country mansion” mystery novel, there are a new crop of faces that need casting!

Without a doubt, Buster Beacon– the eccentric millionaire hiring Viv and Tommy– would be played by Cameron Britton, most notably of Mindhunter and The Umbrella Academy. He has the incredibly unique combination of height and gentility needed to play the imposing and eccentric scientist.

In my head, while writing, Richard Paloma was played by Eddie Cibrian. Paloma is also a scientist, and in the employ of Buster Beacon, and they have a contentious relationship. But Paloma is a man who is much more accustomed to flirting his way out of trouble than pushing someone around with money and influence. I think Cibrian would fit the bill!

Hazel Olmsted is another house guest, a wealthy woman in her late 30s. She’s a blue-blood society gal with a mind of her own but a pretty hefty secret– and I could see Danielle Panabaker pulling her off with aplomb.

There’s an older, married couple in the book as well, Edward and Evelyn Allen. They have more money than they know what to do with, and government connections. Both in their late 60s/70s, I feel like I’d love to see them played by Karen Allen (Marion Ravenswood in Indiana Jones) and one of my truly favorite actors of all time: John Lithgow.

A neighbor is also stranded at the house, a man by the name of Chester Courtland. He’s aloof and distant, and avoids Viv almost every time she tries to talk to him. She’s intrigued by what he’s hiding, and wants to get to the bottom of why he just, doesn’t, you know, go home. The only thing we know about him is that he was invited to the party by Richard Paloma, and he’s got on a cheap suit. I’d love to see a more enigmatic actor in the space, someone like Dane DeHaan.

Another scientist in the story is Stanley Swansea, who is described in the novel as looking a bit like Kirk Douglas, which is a pretty tall order. It’s someone who has a chin dimple for sure– but I can’t think of who that person is just yet!

And so much of the story hinges on Arnold, Buster’s butler. Talk about a man with a secret! He’s Hungarian by birth, but it’s been years and years since he lived in his home country. He’s eminently capable– for every task. While there are a few actors I think could do the role well, I think the multi-faceted Arnold would be done justice by Victor Garber.

And finally, though she’s mostly Viv’s lifeline over the phone, I have to finally cast Betty, Viv’s housemate. She’s the word “bubbly” personified, but never loses her head. I think Kiernan Shipka could give her a real three-dimensional presence in the story!

Tell me, readers: who would you put into the cast to play our mysterious Stanley Swansea?

Visit Emily J. Edwards's website.

My Book, The Movie: Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man.

Q&A with Emily J. Edwards.

--Marshal Zeringue