“Do not miss Red Riviera” New Review Praises David Downie’s Latest
The Part-Time Parisian's new review of Red Riviera praises the tactfully drawn history and landscape of Italy's coast in Downie's new thriller.
David Downie made his career as a travel writer, penning famous and popular guides to European cities like Paris and Amsterdam. Not only is he obsessed with traveling, but like any writer he is as much a researcher as a chronicler. For this reason, the Italian Riviera (his current home), feels unique and alive in Red Riviera. In their review of the new thriller, The Part-Time Parisian delves into the unique history of the Italian coast that works under the hood to help make the novel a compelling read.
Excerpts Below. Read the whole review Here. And buy the book Here.
"Like the best of mysteries, Red Riviera has deep roots in the tumultuous past, World War II.
The war was not kind to Italy, which had fallen under the spell of a bombastic leader...
Some of the people and much of the philosophy lived on. This book is the story of a talented police commissioner from Genoa, a woman rising toward the pinnacle of the police establishment at the same time she fears approaching spinsterhood, and her efforts to learn why a retired American spy, a native of Genoa, disappeared at the same time Canadair water bombers were trying to extinguish fires in the forests and brush overlooking the Ligurian Coast.
That’s not the only problem she has. HER vice questor is a couple of notches more diabolical than the one Guido Brunetti must deal with in Venice and he’s not convinced modern Italy is ready for democracy."
Earth Day Reflections: To See for the First Time
“Our communications are profuse and immediate, as is our consciousness of the interrelationship of all that exists. We’ve seen what we often leave in our wake—homeless populations, spoiled wilderness. We can see the way the decisions and investments that we make, here, everyday, can effect just how much milk a baby in Uganda gets. Our world is a teeming, mysterious, multi-cultural mousetrap of a place where everything seems to hinge on something else. We share a new concept of this planet as a finite space, dense, and more difficult than ever to navigate. We live in an environment fraught with hazard, and it is important to have good guides, guides with insight—those who tread softly.”
Joanna Biggar’s Picks for NPM (Week 3)
Week three of National Poetry Month is here and we are still celebrating! So as the champagne continues relentlessly foaming for party-goers catching their tipsy mid-air, we asked author, Joanna Biggar, to select three poems she thinks are worthy of applause between wassails.
James J. Patterson’s Picks for NPM (week 2)
In honor of National Poetry Month, We asked author and essayist extraordinaire, James J. Patterson, to select three poems he’d like to see celebrated. Along with Walt Whitman’s “On the Beach at Night Alone” (featured above), he chose Wordsworth’s “The World is too much with Us”, And Last but not least, the famed American Poet Robert Bly performing the poem “On Being a Man” by the famed Spanish poet, Antonio Machado.