Monday, August 20, 2007

Sam Reaves's "Homicide 69," the movie

The current feature at My Book, The Movie: Sam Reaves's Homicide 69.

Here's the set-up, from the author:
Homicide 69 ... tracks a Chicago homicide dick through the turbulent summer of 1969. So who do we go with?

Mike Dooley is middle-aged and starting to get worn down by the job, a man who in his youth spent three long years out in the Pacific fighting the Japanese and has twenty hard years on the job. I can see him clearly: a sturdy, athletic man (he played a year of minor league baseball in that last idyllic summer before the war) a shade over six feet tall, broad in the shoulders and steady on his feet, starting to thicken a little around the waist but still a formidable opponent in a fight. The hair is going gray at the temples and the eyes have a bit of a heavy-lidded, hooded look; they’ve seen it all. Dooley is a man with a mission in a department with too many cops for sale. “My job is to catch killers, and I don’t expect anything for it but a paycheck,” he says.

There are probably a lot of actors who could do a jaded homicide dick to perfection, so let’s narrow the field a little. Homicide 69 is a Chicago book, deeply rooted in the city’s history and culture, and it deserves Chicago actors. Nothing steams me like movies supposedly set in Chicago in which all the actors sound as if they’re from New York. If Homicide 69 gets to the big screen, I want to see Chicago guys up there.
Read on to see which Chicago director and actors get the nod.

Sam Reaves was raised in small Midwestern towns but has lived in Chicago or its environs for most of his life. He was president of the Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America from 2001 to 2003. He published eight novels prior to Homicide 69, five as Sam Reaves and three as Dominic Martell.

Visit Reaves's website and his blog.

The Page 69 Test: Homicide 69.

My Book, The Movie: Homicide 69.

--Marshal Zeringue