Author Interview w/Excerpt & Giveaway ($50 GC) - Friend of the Devil by Mark Spivak

Friend of the Devil

by Mark Spivak

GENRE:  Thriller (Culinary)

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BLURB:

In 1990 some critics believe that America’s most celebrated chef, Joseph Soderini di Avenzano, cut a deal with the Devil to achieve fame and fortune. Whether he is actually Bocuse or Beelzebub, Avenzano is approaching the 25th anniversary of his glittering Palm Beach restaurant, Chateau de la Mer, patterned after the Michelin-starred palaces of Europe.

Journalist David Fox arrives in Palm Beach to interview the chef for a story on the restaurant’s silver jubilee. He quickly becomes involved with Chateau de la Mer’s hostess, unwittingly transforming himself into a romantic rival of Avenzano. The chef invites Fox to winter in Florida and write his authorized biography. David gradually becomes sucked into the restaurant’s vortex: shipments of cocaine coming up from the Caribbean; the Mafia connections and unexplained murder of the chef’s original partner; the chef’s ravenous ex-wives, swirling in the background like a hidden coven. As his lover plots the demise of the chef, Fox tries to sort out hallucination and reality while Avenzano treats him like a feline’s catnip-stuffed toy.

Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Several years after the opening of Chateau de la Mer, the triumvirate of Avenzano, Walsh and Ross appeared to be one big happy family, although there were rumors of strains in the relationship. One night, at the height of the Festival of Champagne, there was an incident. Ross, a notorious womanizer, was sipping Cristal with a redhead at the restaurant’s corner table. His wife slipped through the front door of the mansion, unannounced. Walking slowly through the dining room, past the Medieval memorabilia and dramatic cast-iron griffins, she strolled up to Ross’s table, took a revolver from her evening bag, and calmly shot him through the heart.

The ensuing chaos did more to establish Joseph Soderini di Avenzano in the American imagination than his designer pasta, his Bedouin-stuffed poussin, his recipes transposed from Etruscan or Old Genoese, or his library of 10,000 cookbooks. This was more than a good meal, after all. This was sex and death in Palm Beach. Even more intriguing was the Chef’s refusal to comment on Ross after his death, except for informal and effusive eulogies in his famous baritone.

“Watch that Cristal,” David’s friend Bill Grimaldi told him before he left Manhattan to do an assigned story on the 25th anniversary of Chateau de la Mer. “It’s a killer.”

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Talking with author Mark Spivak!

 

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Mint chocolate chip.

Which mythological creature are you most like?

Hopefully, the Sphinx: I try not to give too much away. In real life, just as in fiction, it pays to leave things to the imagination and keep people guessing.

First book you remember making an indelible impression on you.

I read Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, when I was seven. I remember being captivated and intrigued by the idea that someone could create a fictional world based on nothing but their own imagination, populate it with people and creatures they dreamed up, and then control the flow of events in that world. I still think it’s an amazing thing to accomplish.

How do you develop your plot and characters?

I don’t outline or pre-plot, because I try to let the story tell itself. This is a dangerous approach because you always run the risk of the story blowing up in your face, but it’s a more interesting and exciting process.

Describe your writing space.

We downsized from a house into a condo last year. I do have a small office space, but usually take my laptop into the living room and write from a comfortable position.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Mark Spivak is an award-winning writer specializing in wine, spirits, food, restaurants and culinary travel. He was the wine writer for the Palm Beach Post from 1994-1999, and was honored by the Academy of Wine Communications for excellence in wine coverage “in a graceful and approachable style.” Since 2001 has been the Wine and Spirits Editor for the Palm Beach Media Group; his running commentary on the world of food, wine and spirits is available at the Global Gourmet blog on www.palmbeachillustrated.com. He is the holder of the Certificate and Advanced diplomas from the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Mark’s work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Robb Report, Men’s Journal, Art & Antiques, the Continental and Ritz-Carlton magazines, Arizona Highways and Newsmax. He is the author of Iconic Spirits: An Intoxicating History (Lyons Press, 2012) and Moonshine Nation: The Art of Creating Cornbread in a Bottle (Lyons Press, 2014). His first novel, Friend of the Devil, is published by Black Opal Books.

Website: http://www.markspivakbooks.com

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4659831.Mark_Spivak?from_search=true&search_version=service

https://www.facebook.com/mark.spivak.3

Amazon author page URL: http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Spivak/e/B007QASMAC/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1458677775&sr=1-2-ent

Barnes and Noble Author URL: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/mark+spivak?_requestid=552756

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