Reed Farrel Coleman's "Blind To Midnight," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Blind to Midnight: A Nick Ryan Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman.

The entry begins:

In Sleepless City, book one of the Nick Ryan series, NYPD detective Nick Ryan is recruited, against his will and better judgement, to become New York City’s shadow warrior, cleaning up messes that might throw the city into chaos. In book two, Blind To Midnight, Nick is tasked with solving the decades old homicide that happened on 9/11, the only homicide that day not connected to the terrorist attacks. Simultaneously, he’s dealing with the senseless homicide of his uncle, a long retired uniformed cop, and his second wife.

In writing a series, a good crime writer populates his novels with a strong supporting cast of characters. I don’t believe in “minor” characters. When I write them, all my characters have full emotional lives, so when they appear on the page, regardless of how briefly, they should seem alive to the reader. No one in my novels appears just to say, “Hark, I hear the cannons roar.” While I have done this for thirty plus novels, managing this on screen would depend on the actor playing the role and the director shaping the story.

Let me focus on three crucial supporting characters in the Nick novels and who I might cast in their roles. Nick’s ersatz partner is a tough, mostly silent, Black detective known only as Ace to Nick. The easy choice would be Samuel L. Jackson, but my pick would be Jeffrey Wright. Wright is so gifted and his range is broad. What I appreciate about Wright’s style is his quiet acting. What he does with his eyes, his expressions says a great deal. In the role of Shana, the love of Nick’s life, mother of his child, who is married to another man, I would cast...[read on]

Visit Reed Farrel Coleman's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue