Margarita Engle's "The Lightning Dreamer"

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American winner of the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino. Her award winning young adult novels in verse include The Surrender Tree, The Poet Slave of Cuba, Tropical Secrets, and The Firefly Letters.

Here Engle dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The Lightning Dreamer, Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist:

As a Cuban-American poet, I love writing novels in verse about the island’s history. I feel most inspired when I am writing about someone who was far ahead of his/her own time, yet has been forgotten by history. My newest book is a biographical novel in verse about Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, one of the world’s earliest feminist/abolitionist writers. Celebrated during her lifetime, she is now practically unknown outside of Cuba, and deserves to be re-discovered. Unlike male abolitionists in Latin America, Avellaneda--also known by her childhood nickname, Tula--paired her pro-emancipation stance with a daring campaign against arranged marriage, which she viewed as the marketing of teenage girls.

Tula’s real life was as dramatic as her works of fiction. After refusing an arranged marriage, the young author was sent to a country estate as punishment for hysteria. There, she met the real people who inspired her interracial romance novel, Sab, which was published eleven years before Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and was far more influential in Europe.

For a movie version of The Lightning Dreamer, I would choose America Ferrera to play the role of Tula, who was intelligent, emotional, and bold. Writing in defiance of the wishes of her strict mother, she had to destroy her early poems and plays, yet she still managed to create and direct a theater for orphans.

I hope that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba are soon restored, so that Hollywood can film The Lightning Dreamer in an authentic setting. In the event of continued political intransigence, the Dominican Republic would be my second choice. March would be the perfect release date, since Tula’s life story is such a meaningful addition to the literature of Women’s History Month.

Learn more about the book and author at Margarita Engle's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Margarita Engle & Maggi and Chance.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Conaway's "Nose"

James Conaway is a former Wallace Stegner writing fellow at Stanford University and an Alicia Patterson journalism fellow, and the author of three novels, The Big Easy, World’s End, and the newly-released Nose.

About Nose:

In a gorgeous wine valley in northern California, the economic downturn has put a number of dreams on hold. But not so for wine critic Clyde Craven-Jones, a man whose ego nearly surpasses his substantial girth. During a routine tasting in advance of his eponymous publication’s new issue, he blindly samples a selection of Cabernets. To his confounded delight, he discovers one bottle worthy of his highest score (a 20, on the Craven-Jones-on- Wine scale), an accolade he’s never before awarded.

But the bottle has no origin, no one seems to know how it appeared on his doorstep—and that's a problem for a critic who’s supposed to know everything. An investigation into the mystery Cabernet commences, led by the Clyde’s wife, Claire....

Here Conaway shares his choices for the leads in an adaptation of the new novel:

When Nose is made into a film I'd like to see Alec Baldwin as Craven-Jones (if he can master an English accent) and Scarlett Johansson as his wife, who's both smart and hot.

Learn more about the book and author at James Conaway's blog.

Writers Read: James Conaway.

--Marshal Zeringue

D. A. Mishani's "The Missing File"

D. A. Mishani is an Israeli crime writer, editor and literary scholar, specializing in the history of detective fiction.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of The Missing File, his first novel and the first in a series featuring the police inspector Avraham Avraham:

The setting of The Missing File is my Israeli home town, Holon, but it was written far away from there. I wrote my first detective novel, in which a teenage boy goes missing, in a small peaceful village in England during a long and very cold winter. And I think it was that cold weather, unfamiliar to an Israeli used to short warm winters, which made me look in Iceland, of all places, for the right music to listen to while writing.

That's how I discovered two musicians – young Cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir and composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds. Their albums were the soundtrack of writing The Missing File and the first fantasy of how "The Missing File: the movie" would look like, or to be exact, would sound.

Their music is haunting. Guðnadóttir's cello is emerging from depth, as if from dark forests, and leaves you with an unsettling sense of fear, exactly like good crime novels do. Arnalds's piano is just as haunting, full of sadness and hope, as if reminiscent of a better world that once existed.

This was the first thing I knew (or imagined) about the adaptation of The Missing File. It should open with Arnald's "Lost Song", which would accompany my detective, Inspector Avraham Avraham's search for the missing boy, and would end with Guðnadóttir's "Unveiled", which erupts like a cry with the movie's last scenes, as the solution of the investigation is revealed.

The fact that my fantasy of the cinematic adaptation of the novel starts with the soundtrack is not coincidental. Although books fill my life in many ways - I not only write but also teach literature – I always thought cinema's advantage over the novel wasn't the moving true-image (a good novel can be just as descriptive) but the use of music.

Since one of my favorite cinematic moments is the final scene of David Fincher's Fight Club - the couple (Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter) hold hands while the whole world collapses to the sound of the Pixies singing "Where is my mind?" - I thought Fincher would be the perfect director for my novel, which also ends with a new couple facing a tragedy (Fincher also directed a great realistic thriller – Zodiac - and lately The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). But what about Martin Scorsese, my favorite American film-maker, who brilliantly adopted Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island? One of the characters in my novel, a strange schoolteacher who tries to tell the police something about the missing boy and gradually becomes a suspect, was influenced by a character in a Scorsese movie: Rupert Pupkin, the protagonist of his The King of Comedy, played by Robert De Niro. Only later on, after the book was finished, I saw Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin, and thought he would also be a perfect director for the film. I felt that just as I tried to do, he created a thriller that emerges from the deepest mystery, that of the human soul.

And who could be my protagonist, Inspector Avraham? There's a small scene in Clint Eastwood's Absolute Power that I like very much. It's a wonderful investigation scene: it takes place in an art museum, of all places, and both the investigator (Ed Harris) and the suspect (Eastwood) are enjoying themselves, clearly fond of each other. I can see Ed Harris doing Inspector Avraham – his sensitivity and wisdom are manifest in his eyes and smile, his passion to know the truth. When I come to think about it, maybe it's even the other way around and my Inspector Avraham is doing Ed Harris in the novel?

Learn more about the book and author at D. A. Mishani's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

Margaux Froley's "Escape Theory"

Margaux Froley grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and attended not one, but two boarding schools during her high school years in California and Oxford, England. She studied film at University of Southern California, and has worked for such television networks as: TLC, CMT, Travel, MTV, and the CW. She currently lives in Los Angeles and still loves Nutter Butters.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of Escape Theory, her first novel:

I always imagined Escape Theory as a TV show while I wrote it. Since that's more of my background, that's where my head goes more easily. The first five chapters or so of the book would be almost the pilot episode, with a few adjustments along the way. While I was writing the early drafts of Escape Theory, The Killing was in its first season on AMC, so tonally I was heavily influenced by The Killing. In terms of actors, I imagined people like Dave Franco as Hutch and Lily Collins as Devon our main character. But, in world of having a darker more grounded TV show, I would happily take the everyman version of both Dave Franco and Lily Collins. Someone relatable that's maybe not quite as stunningly beautiful as those two. Directors? I actually ran into a director the other day and didn't quite realize until later how perfect he would be. It was Roger Kumble who wrote and directed Cruel Intentions. While the YA audience these days might not have grown up on Cruel Intentions like I did, that sinister noir while still being sexy vibe that Kumble achieved in Cruel Intentions would be a great fit for Escape Theory. I'm still kicking myself for not talking to him more, but hey, maybe Roger Kumble will read this and we can make the thesis of your blog come true?

Learn more about the book and author at Margaux Froley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Escape Theory.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeanine Cummins's "The Crooked Branch"

Jeanine Cummins is the author of A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath, published in 2004 and a surprise bestseller. The Outside Boy, published in 2010, was her first novel.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Crooked Branch:

When my memoir, A Rip in Heaven, came out in 2004, the publication generated a lot of film-rights interest , but I didn’t feel comfortable selling the movie option. I have no such qualms about my new novel, The Crooked Branch. I would love to see a film adaptation of this book. Here is my dream cast:

Majella – this is the contemporary female lead. Majella is a feisty, successful, thoroughly modern woman, who is struggling to find her way after the birth of her first daughter. Majella has a dark sense of humor and a potty-mouth, which are not the most agreeable characteristics for a new mama with a tiny, helpless, adorable little baby. So I think her character has to be played by someone who is incredibly likable no matter what, like Jennifer Garner, who, as far as I can tell, can do no wrong.

Ginny – this character is Majella’s ancestor, who is living during the famine years of the 1840s in western Ireland. I think it’s important for this woman to be played by an Irish actress. Ginny’s character is pretty naturally sympathetic, given her dire circumstances, and the impossible choices she faces, in trying to keep her children alive during the worst years of the potato famine. The part of Ginny should be played by someone who can perform acrobatics of nuance without evening opening her mouth. Someone like Olivia Wilde.

Supporting cast – I’d like to see Kathy Bates play Majella’s mother because she is both hilarious and incredibly talented, and she could deftly handle both the comic and serious sides of that complex mama character. I would like the therapist, Dr. Zimmer, to be played by Janeane Garofalo because she is New York. I would like Leo (Majella’s husband) to be played by Edward Norton, and the historic Irish male part, Seán, to be played by Cillian Murphy, because my strong female leads deserve only the best supporting eye candy. The part of baby Emma should be played by some very cute baby who screams a lot.

Learn more about the book and author at Jeanine Cummins's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Crooked Branch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tanis Rideout's "Above All Things"

Tanis Rideout’s work has appeared in numerous publications and has been shortlisted for several prizes, including the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award and the CBC Literary Awards. Born in Belgium, she grew up in Bermuda and in Kingston, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of Above All Things, her first novel:

I totally admit to casting characters in my head while I’m writing them – it’s part fantasy, part useful characterization, part easier to do than actually writing.

Above All Things was so long in the writing process that my imaginary movie version has had to be recast at least once. So, who would I imagine in the roles? Who should write it? Direct it? Where to even begin?

Let’s start with the writing – without a decent script you can’t have a good movie. You can have a great script and still a terrible film, but I don’t think it can ever go the other way, so... I’d take a jab at the first draft, alongside my husband, who actually is a screenwriter, just to try my hand at it. And then I’d happily pass it to Alex Garland. I like Garland a lot – both as a novelist and screenwriter. He certainly knows how to ratchet up the tension – but is also great with quiet intimacy. There’s something about the tone of Never Let Me Go – that I think would suit Ruth’s sections of the story particularly well.

So – clearly we’ve got a great script – which means it’s easier to get a fantastic director. I’d love to see what Danny Boyle would do with Above All Things. Boyle’s a master at the hallucinogenic and using light and shadow that I’d love to see his version of the oxygen deprived climbers high on Everest.

The role of George Mallory has already resulted in some fierce debates at book clubs I’ve attended and if you believe the Hollywood hype machine Tom Hardy’s already been cast as George in the Jeffrey Archer take on this story. But my money for an ideal Mallory is on Michael Fassbender. He’s a spectacular actor and also has the physicality that would work for George – all sharp angles and long limbs.

And for the love of his life, Ruth – I imagine Carey Mulligan. There’s something about the softness of her face that seems to be right for Ruth. She’s probably a little young right now, but these things take a while to get off the ground. By the time we’ve got a green light she’ll be perfect.

Ever since watching The Social Network I’ve known that Armie Hammer would make a terrific Sandy Irvine. Physically his Winklevoss twins were the spitting image of him – blonde, athletic rowers. Can he do an accent? Well, let’s hope so! If not there’s always Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens.

On Ruth’s side of the story there are only a couple more characters I can imagine casting. For Will, Ruth’s support and friend I can see someone like James D’Arcy – good looking, charming, seemingly rock solid. And for Hinks – the bullying head of the Mt. Everest Committee – Geoffrey Rush could no doubt craft a wonderfully unappealing version.

So all that’s left is a few more of the expedition members. Teddy Norton the head of the expedition could be played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes – who truth be told was my choice for George back before I was even writing a book, followed for a while by Jude Law. And maybe to round out the team – Dominic West as the occasionally antagonising Noel Odell and David Thewlis as Howard Somervell.

I’d go see that movie! Even if it wasn’t based on my book.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Marshall's "Margaret Fuller: A New American Life"

Megan Marshall's first biography, The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism, won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography and memoir. Marshall spent twenty years researching and writing the book, traveling to archives in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, Ohio, California, and Washington, D.C., and finding answers to longstanding mysteries in the Peabody and Hawthorne families.

Here Marshall shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her second biography, Margaret Fuller: A New American Life:

Margaret Fuller was born thirty years before the invention of photography, but she lived the most cinematic of lives. An intellectual prodigy and brilliant conversationalist, she talked her way into the genius cluster centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in mid-nineteenth-century New England. But the life of the mind wasn’t enough for her. At thirty-five she took a job as front-page columnist for Horace Greeley’s New-York Tribune. The only woman in the newsroom, she sought out the seamy side of the great metropolis, visiting its prisons, mental asylums, and orphanages, interviewing prostitutes, Irish immigrants, and the insane, and made these characters the centerpiece of her passionate advocacy journalism.

After two years in New York, she persuaded Greeley to send her to Europe as a foreign correspondent, reaching France and Italy during the 1848 revolutions, where she befriended all the important radicals of the time. She was the lone American journalist in Rome during the brutal 1849 siege, and she tended the wounded revolutionaries as a hospital nurse while carrying on an affair with a young soldier who became the father of her son, conceived out of wedlock and born in secret in a hill town outside of Rome. When the short-lived Roman Republic collapsed, the three sailed for America only to be drowned in a shipwreck 300 yards offshore at Fire Island in a near-hurricane. Margaret and her lover’s bodies were never found; two-year-old Nino washed to shore where the few surviving sailors buried him in a trunk in the sands.

These brilliant lives deserve a brilliant, slightly eccentric cast. Rebecca Hall would make a perfect Margaret–not a classic beauty, but luminous, wry, infinitely captivating. Her young lover: Emile Hirsch. The emotionally guarded Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man of vision and orphic pronouncements: Jon Hamm. Giusseppi Mazzini, the ascetic Italian soldier-intellectual who led the revolution and relied on Margaret to promote his cause in the American press: Adrien Brody. And Adam Mickiewicz, the sybaritic Polish poet-in-exile who tempted Margaret to fulfill her earthly passions: Javier Bardem.

In Europe Margaret had two significant older female mentors–the brilliant French novelist (and Chopin’s lover) George Sand, a charismatic woman who liked to wear men’s suits: Meryl Streep; and the refined radical, Princess Belgioioso of Rome, who appointed Margaret to run the ancient hospital on the Tiber Island during the siege: Helen Mirren.

“The scrolls of the past burn my fingers still,” Margaret wrote of an intimate series of letters she’d exchanged with Emerson. The story is as hot today as it was in 1850, when the whole world mourned and was scandalized by Margaret Fuller.

Learn more about the book and author at Megan Marshall's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Peabody Sisters.

Writers Read: Megan Marshall (October 2007).

--Marshal Zeringue

Linda Olsson's "The Memory of Love"

Linda Olsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948. She graduated from the University of Stockholm with a law degree, and worked in law and finance until she left Sweden in 1986. What was intended as a three-year posting to Kenya then became a tour of the world with stops in Singapore, the U.K., and Japan, until she settled in New Zealand with her family in 1990. In 1993 she completed a bachelor of arts in English and German literature at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2003 she won the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. Olsson's first novel Astrid & Veronika became an international success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in Scandinavia, Europe and the United States. It was followed by the heartbreaking and moving Sonata for Miriam.

Here Olsson dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The Memory of Love:

Because I write in English, rather than my native Swedish, I often get the question: When you write, do you think in English or in Swedish? I always reply that I don’t think in words, I think in pictures. Now, as two of my novels are under option to be made into films, it is a little like waiting for the re-make: I have already seen the original.

The Memory of Love was written here in New Zealand where I have lived for over twenty years. I have not severed the links with my native country, though, and it returns in my books, too. In The Memory of Love, one of the two main characters, Marion, was born in Åland, a cluster of islands in the Baltic, now a province of Finland. Like my character, I have fond memories of childhood summers there. Marion moves to Stockholm, where I was born and lived for almost forty years, and then on to London where I came to live for a few years in the late 80’s. And, just like me, she ends up in New Zealand. But unlike me, Marion settles in a remote, desolate place on the west coast. So, place is a central part of the casting of my film, in fact I think it is one of the main characters.

Marion is a woman without proper roots. She is insular and comes across as self-contained, I think. But she carries a weighty emotional burden. The little boy she encounters one day, Ika, is in many ways similar to Marion, shy and introvert, with poor social skills. But unlike Marion, he dares to reach out. When he physically throws himself in Marion’s way one day, his act comes to trigger an emotional journey for both of them.

In the background, there is George, a man whose life has been put on hold since the death of his wife. It is when he, too, gets pulled into Marion’s and Ika’s world that his life finally stirs again.

Here is my dream casting for the film based on The Memory of Love:

Marion -- Lena Endre

Swedish actress who projects the integrity and strength of character required for the part.

Ika -- Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu

Just how I saw Ika in my mind – shy and vulnerable, yet with an unbeatable inner strength. We may have to hurry up to get this film made, though, or he will be too old for the part.

George -- Harvey Keitel

One of my absolute favourite actors. I would like to see him in a part like this – requiring subtle acting and a measure of restraint. Oh, and I would really like to meet him!

With a cast like this, I think success is a given.

Learn more about the book and author at Linda Olsson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Sonata for Miriam.

--Marshal Zeringue

Glenn Frankel’s "The Searchers"

Glenn Frankel is director of the School of Journalism and G.B. Dealey Regents Professor in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a longtime Washington Post reporter, editor and bureau chief in Jerusalem, London and Southern Africa, and he won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for “balanced and sensitive reporting” of Israel and the first Palestinian uprising. He also served as editor of the Washington Post Magazine, deputy national news editor and Richmond, Va., bureau chief. His first book, Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel, won the National Jewish Book Award. His second, Rivonia’s Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience in White South Africa, was a finalist for the Alan Paton Award, South Africa’s most prestigious literary prize.

Here Frankel shares some ideas for adapting his new book, The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend, for the big screen:

My book has an unusual issue when it comes to casting: it’s a non-fiction book about a classic movie, so it’s been cast once already. Truth is, unlike True Grit or 3:10 to Yuma, no one’s ever had the nerve or foolhardiness to try to remake The Searchers. For many cinephiles, it’d be as sacrilegious as rewriting the Bible. The one time anyone tried to remake a John Ford Western, a woebegotten version of Stagecoach, the tragic results merely proved the point.

Still, since we’re having fun--and no Hollywood studio would ever take us seriously--it’s worth a discussion. John Wayne gives one of the most towering performances in the history of cinema as Ethan Edwards, the avenging uncle seeking to reclaim his niece Debbie from the Comanches who abducted her. Ethan is a force of nature--charismatic yet capable of murder. He doesn’t plan to restore his niece to their shattered family, but to kill her because she has grown into a young woman and has been polluted by marrying a Comanche. The actor must make us identify with Ethan yet at the same time reject his hatred.

A number of actors wanted the Wayne role, most notably Kirk Douglas, who lobbied John Ford for the part and certainly would have brought a manic intensity to it. Among modern actors, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Costner and Tom Hanks all have the gravitas, but none of them quite bring the anger. Harrison Ford comes closer (see Cowboys and Aliens). An actor who has all of these qualities in abundance is Denzel Washington. He can play hard and soft in the same character. And what about Brad Pitt? John Wayne was 48 when he took the role, roughly the same age Pitt is now.

The other searcher, Martin Pauley, is a callow youth when the movie begins who grows into the moral center of the quest. On the surface this is an easier part, but the actor has to be able to hold his own against the Wayne character. Jeffrey Hunter did his best in the original--his performance has a rugged realism and aggressive quality that endures despite some flaws. Still, in recent years I’ve wondered if Montgomery Clift, who fought Wayne to a draw in the classic western Red River (1948), would have brought more subtlety to the role.

Fess Parker and Robert Wagner each wanted the part (thank heavens, neither of them got it).

I find it hard to imagine a modern young actor who could handle it. Ryan Gosling’s a bit too old. Taylor Kitsch has the dark features and can play young (see Tim Riggins of Friday Night Lights). But since Martin represents the feminine side that seeks to restore Debbie to her family, why not go all the way in the 2013 version and cast a woman? Jennifer Lawrence would be a natural. The only problem would be in convincing Ethan to take her along on the quest.

As for director, no one alive would be foolish enough to take John Ford’s chair. But my vote would go to Martin Scorsese, who’s already made Taxi Driver, the modern, urban version of The Searchers. He’s got the talent and reverence for the original needed to pull off this impossible remake.

Learn more about the book and author at Glenn Frankel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lisa Black's "Blunt Impact"

Lisa Black spent the five happiest years of her life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now she’s a certified latent print examiner and CSI for the Cape Coral Police Department. Her books have been translated into six languages. Evidence of Murder reached the New York Times mass market bestseller’s list.

Blunt Impact, Black's latest novel featuring forensic scientist Theresa MacLean, debuts on April 1st. Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of the novel:

Blunt Impact is the 5th in the Theresa MacLean series, and my opinion on casting my main character has not changed: Julianne Moore. Her aura of intelligence, common sense and modesty would bring Theresa to life. And I’m sure she can take dangling from the 31st floor of a skyscraper under construction since she handled dangling over a cliff so well in the second Jurassic Park movie. As for Theresa’s first cousin, homicide detective Frank Patrick, my thoughts sometimes waver. I’d love Bruce McGill if he were 10 years younger. Thomas Kretschman, if he could do an American accent. Ooohh—Tim DeKay of White Collar. He’d be perfect. Or perhaps Nicholas Bishop of Body of Proof, for that ‘basically a good guy but you know he has some issues that will eventually crop up’ vibe.

And lush but sensible Valerie Cruz as his partner Angela Sanchez.

But the fun of casting Blunt Impact would be in the guest stars. For the first time I had a child in the story: fearless, irrepressible but shockingly vulnerable eleven-year-old Anna, nicknamed Ghost. As the story begins Ghost witnesses the murder of her mother, a hot young construction worker (picture one of the GoDaddy girls). Ghost has made a habit of roaming the inner city in the wee hours, looking for the father whose identity has never been revealed to her. I would love the best child actress ever, Dakota Fanning, but at eighteen she’s far too old for the role, so I would ask for younger sister, Elle. She’s three years older than my character, but so talented.

Construction manager Chris will have to be played by his namesake, Chris Bauer, with whom I fell completely in love as he played the doomed union leader in season two of The Wire.

But my favorite character is homely but intelligent prosecutor Ian Bauer. (I poach names, yes.) Ian has spent a lifetime ignored or outright avoided by the opposite sex, but he senses in Theresa an ability to see past the surface. I wrote the character after falling in love (I tend to do that a lot, yes) with Zeljko Ivanek on the first season of Damages. He played the defense lawyer for the scumbag rich guy, and yet seemed to be the only character in the series who possessed an actual soul. It was a meaty role for him after playing largely psychos or sad sacks (and the loyal representative from Pennsylvania in the HBO miniseries John Adams).

Now if Hollywood would only call….

Learn more about the book and author at Lisa Black's website.

Black's previous Theresa MacLean novels include Trail of Blood and Defensive Wounds.

My Book, The Movie: Trail of Blood.

The Page 69 Test: Trail of Blood.

Writers Read: Lisa Black (September 2010).

My Book, The Movie: Defensive Wounds.

The Page 69 Test: Defensive Wounds.

Writers Read: Lisa Black (October 2011).

Writers Read: Lisa Black.

--Marshal Zeringue