Stephan Talty's "Black Irish"

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In Black Irish, Stephan Talty's debut thriller, "a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage. Absalom 'Abbie' Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts."

Here Talty dreamcasts an adaptation of Black Irish:

Casting a film of Black Irish would actually be strange for me. I don't see a face when I picture Abbie, I only think of a mood. Restlessness, pugnacity, and a desire for something that's always out of reach. That's how I think of Abbie, as always being in this permanent state of searching and getting desperate when she doesn't find what it is she wants. I would imagine that's a fairly common description of people who never knew their own parents. Abbie is an orphan and an exile and that's what drives her.

I think Jennifer Lawrence would be super. There's one scene in Silver Linings Playbook where she's standing behind a door listening to Bradley Cooper talk about her, and the range of different kinds of pain and hope that flit across her face - well, that would be perfect for Abbie.

Her father? I wish I could say Morgan Freeman, because he's so damn good that he can tell a thousand-year-old story with his eyes alone, and he hasn't had a decent part in ages. But the actor has to be white, for obvious reasons, so I'd go with the British actor Jim Broadbent. I'd like to see him play a tough guy who's got secrets.

The killer couldn't be a pretty boy. I'd love for it to be an unknown, because the character has been in darkness, literally lived in darkness and solitude, his whole life. An unknown, a guy from my old neighborhood, who plays the role and is never seen again would be ideal. A real-life Boo Radley. And I know some guys back there who need the work.

Learn more about the book and author at Stephan Talty's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue