If Death and the Final Cut makes it to the screen, I can predict the opening shot: the ancient stones of Cambridge’s Round Church faintly glowing in nightlight, its peace about to be shattered by ambitious actors, a frazzled camera crew, and bloody murder.Visit G. M. Malliet's website, Facebook page, and Instagram home.
Hollywood has descended on the University of Cambridge to film Viking Bride, starring once-famous actress Agnes Dermont in what’s meant to be her big comeback. But the project quickly dissolves into farce—an overworked script, an overwrought leading lady, and a general disregard for historical accuracy.
Then a prop Viking knife turns out to be real, and poor Agnes is found with it buried in her chest.
Enter Detective Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just. A stalwart, quietly decent policeman in his forties, St. Just tries to apply a steady moral compass to a world gone mad. Assisted (and sometimes challenged) by his fiancée, criminologist Portia De’Ath, he navigates a minefield of jealousies and tabloid-worthy secrets as he searches for the truth. Though set in present-day Cambridge, the tone is Golden Age / Agatha Christie whodunit.
My Dream Cast
St. Just should be easy to cast, as I’ve described him vaguely as a large policeman with a head full of dark hair! While my choices have had to change over the years, Chris Evans might now make a good St. Just. He has that rare mix of intelligence, restraint, and quiet wit—a man whose stillness makes people underestimate him.
For Portia, I picture...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: A Fatal Winter.
The Page 69 Test: The Haunted Season.
Writers Read: G.M. Malliet (April 2017).
Q&A with G. M. Malliet.
My Book, The Movie: Death and the Final Cut.
--Marshal Zeringue
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