"A wonderfully detailed treat!" Kirkus Reviews David Downie's Long Awaited ROMAN ROULETTE
The American book review magazine and cultural gatekeeper Kirkus Reviews raves about David Downie's new thriller, Roman Roulette, calling it "a wonderfully detailed treat" all while praising it as not just a remarkable thriller but a loving tour of Rome and Italian culture.
Roman Roulette is the continuation of Det. Daria Vinci's adventures first explored in Downie's Red Riviera. A new scene, a new adventure, a new case, follow the intrepid detective to the stunning conclusion of this riveting murder mystery.
For Commissioner Daria Vinci, it was supposed to be a night off, attending a benefit concert for the Institute of America in Rome. But little did the Institute’s wealthy, distinguished guests know that beneath their feet, in the ancient catacombs, a very different kind of gathering was being held. One that would end in murder…
Red Riviera, the first Daria Vinci Investigation, was set on the Italian Riviera. In Roman Roulette, the glamorous and high-principled police commissioner of DIGOS, Italy’s FBI, must investigate what at first seems a simple case of suicide and in so doing attracts the attention of her boss, the Questor of the Province of Rome. He wants her off the case. Why? Suddenly, Commissioner Daria Vinci must solve the murder in 36 hours, while risking her career and, possibly, her life.
Featured Audio: “Letter from Sligo Creek” a poem by Rose Solari
Like the cover photo, the poems in Difficult Weather are timeless and—unlike the poems in many first books—extraordinarily mature. Although the narrative voice is generally that of a young woman in her late twenties and early thirties whose subject matter sometimes ranges back to early childhood, these are poems of adulthood: the discovery and endlessly painful rediscovery of human frailty, sexual and emotional betrayal, bad love in all its familial and romantic varieties, memory, and elegy…
Listen to Grace Cavalieri Interview fmr. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky
Grace Cavalieri is known widely for her stirring and empathic poetry, collected in her Legacy work Other Voices, Other Lives, but did you know that she is also an impressive interviewer? On her NPR show, The Poet and The Poem, she interviews significant poets from the US and around the world, with an aim of interpreting their lives through their poetry. In her tenure on the program, she has interviewed 9 US Poets Laureate (you can find a list with these archived interviews HERE), including the incomparable Robert Pinsky.
Featured Poetry: “Toytown” by Grace Cavalieri
The name Other Voices, Other Lives, is not purely poetical, in fact, for Grace Cavalieri it is a mission statement. In her Legacy Book of the same name there are several sections in 3rd person omnipotent which aim to breathe the same air as famous women who have suffered adversity. Tragic figure Anna Nicole Smith, feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, Cora from William Carlos William’s Kora in Hell. All in all they are an admix of Grace Cavalieri’s poetic life, all brought together in one beautiful volume; so, perhaps, we might figure that Anna Nicole Smith converses with Mary Wollstonecraft for the very first time in the pages of Other Voices, Other Lives.
Today, from the Anna section we have the heart-rending “Toytown”