A Favorite Book on the Big Screen

Monument Rocks in western Kansas.

By Julie Tollefson

Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of seeing one of my favorite novels, The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard, come to life on the big screen. The movie—screenplay by Jeff Robison and Casey Twenter, directed by Blake Robbins—played to two sold-out crowds at the Kansas City Film Fest and won the festival's "Best Narrative Feature Film" award.



The film richly portrays the secrets and lies swirling in rural Oklahoma after a convicted murderer’s release from prison causes the daughter of his victims to question whether he actually committed the crime. It’s dusty and full of suspense and captures the cracks radiating through a community when tragedy strikes a close knit and influential family.

Q&A after first screening of the film at the Kansas City 

Film Fest (Nancy Pickard, third from left).

In a Q&A session after the first Kansas City screening, Pickard spoke about her inspirations for the book, including her desire to explore the idea that children of murderers and children of the murdered have much in common. It’s a thought-provoking insight and, in my opinion, it’s the basis of one of the most poignant relationships in the movie, that between Jody Linder (daughter of the murder victims) and Collin Croyle (son of the man convicted of the murder).

The cast is excellent and includes Maika Monroe, Brad Carter, Justin Chatwin, Maggie Grace, Bonnie Bedelia, and Will Patton.

Mid- to late-1970s teenaged me (left) with my parents at Monument Rocks.

The movie is terrific, though it strays from Pickard's original story in one very important (to me) aspect. The film may be set in Oklahoma, but Pickard’s novel takes place in a fictionalized version of my beloved western Kansas, specifically at Monument Rocks (called Testament Rocks in the book). Monument Rocks, if you’re not familiar, are unusual buttes that rise above the Kansas prairie. They’re the eroded remnants of chalk formed in a massive inland sea millions of years ago, and they’re full of fossilized marine creatures. I have many fond memories of long summer afternoons scrambling over the chalk monoliths with my cousins.

Pickard’s novel portrays that little-traveled part of the state with a deep affection for its people and their way of life. Her story embodies two of the recurring themes that crop up in my own fiction and in my posts for Writers Who Kill: small towns and Kansas landscapes.

“The Scent of Rain and Lightning” is playing the film festival circuit now. Keep an eye out for it!

Scent of Rain and Lightning on Facebook

Nancy Pickard’s website, with complete film festival screening information

What are your favorite movies based on books?