Annie Seymour, a crime reporter in New Haven, Connecticut, is the protagonist of three novels by Karen E. Olson: Sacred Cows, Secondhand Smoke, and the upcoming Dead of the Day.
Olson writes at My Book, The Movie:
When the character of Annie Seymour popped into my head, she was tough, sarcastic and funny and litters her sentences with four-letter words. She is like a lot of newspaper reporters and editors I’ve met through my 20-year career. But I have never actually “seen” her in my head and never describe her physically except that she has wild hair and thinks she’s taller than she is.Read on to see which actors, dead or alive, would make Olson's casting call, as well as who she would have direct the movie(s).
Because of that, I never pictured one particular actress, since I would cast less on physical appearance and more on how the actress could capture Annie’s personality.
About Sacred Cows:
Read the first chapter of Sacred Cows.Yale's stone Gothic buildings tower over the city of New Haven as if they are a part of it. But even though the sidewalks spill into each world simultaneously, there is an invisible line that keeps Yale on one side and the city on the other. When the worlds collide, it could mean murder.
New Haven Herald police reporter Annie Seymour is tough, smart and has a self-deprecating sense of humor. She knows she's too cynical and a workaholic, but she's comfortable with that. She lives in a brownstone in the city's Wooster Square neighborhood, just around the corner from great white clam pizza.
When covering stories for the paper, Annie doesn't let herself get too close to the victims she encounters, so she can keep her objectivity. But when Yale student Melissa Peabody is found dead, Annie's investigation into the girl's secret life brings her closer to home than she expects.
Dick Whitfield, a young reporter, is constantly underfoot, and Annie's boyfriend, Detective Tom Behr, frustrates her with his reluctance to help her get her story. But private investigator Vinny DeLucia is also on the case. They join forces, and Annie realizes it could be the most dangerous story she's ever had to write.
About Secondhand Smoke:
When a Wooster Square Italian restaurant burns down, all that's left is some rubble and the body of an unidentified woman. The restaurant owner is missing, and Annie's father unexpectedly comes to New Haven from Las Vegas.
To complicate things even further, the restaurant owner's wife hires Vinny DeLucia, a private investigator, to find her husband. Annie and Vinny have some unfinished business, but police detective Tom Behr is also in the picture.
Mysterious chickens, a black Cadillac with New York plates, and close-mouthed neighbors cause Annie to take pause and realize she's an outsider in her own back yard.
But despite cub reporter Dick Whitfield's best efforts to steal it away, Annie is determined to get her story — even if it means facing some truths about her own family and risking her life to do it.
Read the first chapter of Secondhand Smoke.
Visit Karen E. Olson's website to learn more about her and her books.
My Book, The Movie: The "Annie Seymour" mysteries.
--Marshal Zeringue
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