Rink Rat options Scott Henderson’s gothic novella The Name in the Stone

Newfoundland, Canada-based Rink Rat Productions has optioned the TV and film rights to The Name in the Stone: The Lost Journal of Henry Collier, a gothic novella written by former Bell Media communications executive Scott Henderson.

Scott Henderson

The book, published today via Henderson’s Muckleston House Press imprint, takes place in Kingston, Ontario in autumn 1875 and follows a young bank clerk drawn into a mystery after 12-year-old orphan Alfred Shaw disappears from a prominent household.

The story centres on a real inscription – the name “Alfred” – that is carved into the limestone exterior of Henderson’s Georgian heritage home. No surviving records explain who the name refers to or when it was carved.

Rink Rat, which is led by president Mary Sexton, is behind projects including unscripted series Cold Water Cowboys and the 2016 feature film Maudie starring Ethan Hawke and Sally Hawkins.

The option deal comes almost six years after Henderson, who was the longtime communications head at Bell Media, exited the company and turned his focus to writing, with The Name in the Stone serving as debut novel.