"Suspicious Circumstances," the movie

Sandra Ruttan is the latest contributor to My Book, The Movie.

Here is how she describes the critical elements of her debut crime novel, Suspicious Circumstances:

In Suspicious Circumstances reporter Lara Kelly suspects there’s more to the story than what meets the eye – or in this case, the lens. When Duane Brodie turns up in her office with a video of a woman apparently falling to her death, Lara’s curious. When Duane claims he took the video to the police and they dismissed him, she’s intrigued.

Her article on an apparent suicide could have been the end of the story. Instead, her editor talks about smearing the local police captain. Captain Patrick Collins sends Detective Tymen Farraday to check out Lara’s story. When Lara is attacked Farraday is forced work with her to find out what really happened to the woman on the video.

This is the kind of story where the catalyst is just the tip of the iceberg. It delves into conspiracies, the politics of power and people who manipulate the law for personal gain. At the heart of the story, the issue is one of trust. Lara and Farraday both have reasons to be reluctant to trust each other, and the heart of the book is about the evolution of their relationship, and how they deal with their doubts about each other and all the people around them, while knowing their lives are at risk in a case that’s anything but what it originally appeared to be. Suspicious Circumstances could make a great movie if it had the right director and great writers handling the screenplay.

Read on to see which directors and actors make the author's dream-list.

Visit Sandra Ruttan's website, her blog, and Spinetingler Magazine.

The Page 69 Test: Suspicious Circumstances.

My Book, The Movie: Suspicious Circumstances.

--Marshal Zeringue