Guest Post & #Giveaway – Venetian Bind by Lawrence E. Rothstein
Venetian Bind
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Venice
Publisher : Wild Rose Press (May 15, 2024)
Paperback : 236 pages
Synopsis
In Venetian Bind, Detective Marko Korb and his associate Kelan Su, a Chinese-American woman, must hunt down a murderer and prevent a devastating terrorist attack in the romantic city of Venice.
Korb, a fat, egotistical, and brilliant detective, and Kelan Su, a former Chicago police officer, licensed attorney, and martial arts expert, arrive in Venice to investigate the murder of Stefan Pakulić, a former Serbian paramilitary leader and accused war criminal.The daughter of a Bosnian expat who had rescued Korb from Pakulić’s clutches during the war is a suspect in the killing. Korb is torn between finding the murderer and his sympathy for the Serbian’s killer—the Venetian bind.
The investigation leads to Pakulić’s connection with Italian neo-fascists planning a terrorist action in Venice. It takes Korb’s genius and the intrepid sleuthing of Su to find the murderer, forestall the terrorist action, and protect the daughter of Korb’s rescuer.
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Guest Post
Cultural Ramblings
I recently returned from the Normandy American Military Cemetery and the superbly curated museum covering the D-day landing. It was a very moving experience. I was privileged to be standing before the crosses and Stars of David as well as other religious markers for the 9300 Americans dead in that massive assault while the flag was being lowered and TAPS was being played. Although my now deceased father was in the Pacific during WWII, and he survived the conflict, I somehow felt his presence looking over my shoulder.
I had been at the 40th anniversary of the Normandy landing with a French and a British friend. I learned something about the long-lasting sensitivities with regard to the war. In speaking to my French friend, I called the event the Normandy invasion. He was very upset. “No, No, No,” he corrected me. “It was the Normandy landing, not invasion. You can’t invade an ally.”
My British friend then told me he had asked his father, who had been at Dunkirk, to join him in France for the Normandy commemoration. His father refused, saying, “I will never set foot in France.” When my friend asked his father, “Why?” the response was, “Because they surrendered.”
As I am in the process of writing my third Tri-Star Investigations mystery which will take the reader from the mean streets of Chicago to the history-saturated south of France, I am trying hard to capture French sensibilities about their culture, cuisine, and war record in a humorous, but respectful way. Not an easy task even though I have been to France frequently and have many friends there.
The task is made even harder because the plot concerns a hidden trove of art confiscated by the Nazis from Jewish families. The French treatment of Jews during the German occupation is a very sensitive subject. The French had denied for many years that any French Jews were rounded up and sent to the death camps by French officials.
However, having lived in France in 1981-2 for a year and a half and having traveled back regularly to renew my connections with friends and colleagues, I am definitely a francophile. I love the cuisine, the wine, the culture, and the countryside. Speaking of the countryside, I still have the bike I bought there in 1981 with which I toured much of Provence and the Dordogne. I took leisurely promenades in these areas, stopping frequently to sample food and wine.
The main character in my Tri-Star Investigations novels, Marko Korb, is a gourmet who also revels in French cuisine and wine although he is enticed by any and all well-prepared dishes from many cuisines. Korb has a Tortolan associate who, in addition to his military and IT skills, is a talented chef specializing in Caribbean cooking. In my recently published mystery Venetian Bind, the first novel of the Tri-Star series, the massive detective indulges in the delights of the classic cookery of Venice. No stranger to the whisk and chef’s knife, Korb assists a renowned chef in preparing an exquisite dinner. In the third in the series work I am writing now, Korb, on the phone with a colleague in France, drools over the description of a traditional Provençal Réveillon meal with thirteen desserts.
Of course, Marko Korb is not the only one who craves these scrumptious dishes. My family and I decided to prepare some of the dishes that appear in Venetian Bind. It was great fun. The six of us managed to recreate the dishes in our condo kitchen without anyone being stabbed by an errant chef’s knife or scalded with boiling water. I must say they were delicious. I have attached some pictures of the sausage and lentils in balsamic vinegar, the tuna salami, and the torta rustica.
I hope you have enjoyed this ramble from the solemnity of the commemoration of the Normandy landings to the delights of gastronomic experiences.
About the Author
I am a retired lawyer and university professor who has published in constitutional law, privacy law, political theory and labor law. Born and raised in Chicago, I am now residing with my wife and family in beautiful southern Rhode Island. I have lived and traveled widely in Europe. As an avid reader of crime fiction, I have always wanted to write detective novels. As a lover of food and cooking, I include many scrumptious meals and some recipes in my novel and on my website.
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