Friend
of the Devil
by
Mark Spivak
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE:
Thriller
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
In
1990 some critics believe that America’s most celebrated chef,
Joseph Soderini di Avenzano, sold his soul to the Devil to achieve
culinary greatness. 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 ten thousand 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 twenty-fifth
anniversary of Chateau de la Mer. “It’s a killer.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
**SPOILER FREE**
This book is so much more than what you may think! It's intriguing but yet so much suspense. This is a really good book that will have you escaping reality from a hard day or just to get away from reality for awhile... this is the book to do it with! Page turning to see what would happen next. Guessing... Oh you have no clue! This is a fantastic read!
*received for an honest review*
This book is so much more than what you may think! It's intriguing but yet so much suspense. This is a really good book that will have you escaping reality from a hard day or just to get away from reality for awhile... this is the book to do it with! Page turning to see what would happen next. Guessing... Oh you have no clue! This is a fantastic read!
*received for an honest review*
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