The Fortune Teller of Nice - a historical mystery

This is what I am working on at the moment. It will be published in december 2027.

What a joy to bring to life a city that has had its past numerous times erased by France. I do pride myself on writing historical mysteries that speak of the least spoken.  

The book can be added now to your shelves via Goodreads. 

See you in 2027!

Nice, 1854. The coastal city, governed by Turin, gleams under a pale winter sun. It promises respite for the weary and a leisurely playground for the wealthy who sojourn from all over Europe. But beneath its blue skies and its welcoming hotels, Nizza as it is known, conceals a darker heart.

When detective Maurice Leroux arrives in Nice for the winter, hoping to seduce witty English actress, Madeleine Armstrong, he expects languid days strolling along the promenade by the sea and evenings at the opera. Immersed in a city with a strong Italian heritage, all he has to do is surpass his rival, the young, smooth-talking, Carlo Rocco. Instead, the glitter turns to nightmare when a guest at the lavish Hotel de Rome is brutally murdered.

Among the hotel’s exotic residents are Countess Sofya Smyrnova, a Russian noble who once escaped the flames of Moscow in 1812; Baroness Alexandra Ivanova, a gossip-inclined Russian widow; Antoine Grasset, a French journalist with too many secrets; and Professor Milton Hayward, a linguist whose scholarship conceals a tragic obsession. When death claims them one by one, Maurice is drawn into a grim mystery that stretches from Nice’s stately establishments to the hidden warrens of its underworld, all the way to the candlelit salon of famed fortune teller, Madame Zora.

To unmask the web of deception, Maurice must navigate Nizza’s labyrinth of depravity, its debauched parties, its seedy port, and human markets, and even seek counsel from Giuseppe Garibaldi, the city’s native hero. But as the truth unravels, he discovers that all the victims shared a bond forged long before their arrival… a bond written in fire and betrayal.

A sumptuous, atmospheric mystery where vice, ghosts from the past, and vengeance converge bringing to life long-forgotten Nizza.

The Game of Life

 

Excel in the game of life

Game of keys, clean ebony notes, young prodigy, acclaim

Game of pawns, of bishops and queens, chess genius, strategy

Game of dance, lithe spins, nimble star, artful muse

There are many ways.

 

Shine in the game of life

Gift of words, hidden meanings, ideas, storyteller, philosopher

Gift of numbers,

Those you own, in comfort, in luxury - the zeros, the glittering estates, the dividends

Those you probe, play with, in ecstasy - the curves, the charts, the rates…the vision. The vision!

Those that own you, the friends, the contracts, the fame…family, those you serve in joy, 

In sweat

There are many ways.

 

Or else the game of life, the game of life in depth,

Gift of seeing

Gift of hearing

Gift of healing,

By touch, by knife, by poetry, by divine intuition.

Or by love.

Be in love with the game.

There are many ways.

 

And yes, the game of life in laughter,

Gift of humour,

Through courage, through wisdom, through hope

Stoic and fearless is this game.

There are many ways.

 

Oh, the game of life in beauty,

Gift of sensitivity,

By light, by color, by song, by imagination.

Moved by the magic.

One with the game.

There are many ways.

 

A game of life in the unrelenting,

Gift of battle,

Gift of winning,

By race, by wit, by grit, by force, by endless striving.

Driven, often revengeful, this game of life.

There are many ways.

 

The game of life that longs to live,

Gift of quiet endurance,

By health, by joy, by resilience, by curiosity

Endless learning and discovery.

Endless shifting.

There are many ways.

 

But of all the ways, of all the ways…

One way remains...

Fail the game of life.

Fail and feel, all there exists to feel.

Fail and rise, slow rise, astound, surprise.

Fail and learn, be open, grow wise.

Fail, and then fail again, transcend the game of life.

Fail and accept to fail.

Fail and let go of the game.

Fall,

Fall low so you might fly above the game of life.

Such is the game.

Calista - latest news on movie magic

 

My Victorian horror mystery, Calista, is now a movie !! 

Not quite. 😉 It has been optioned but that is a nebulous future considering that these film projects take decades to take off. Only the most enduring will play at that game. I’ve indeed seen options renewed yearly over a span of a decade while directors change and nothing gets up. Sigh.

For now I am creating art for the novel because it deserves it. ♥️ Plus it’s fun for those who love visuals.

I love this early scene where French detective Maurice Leroux steps out of the carriage that has brought him to Alexandra Hall. The thing with employing Sora for imagery is that you end up blending your historical fiction writing with both art direction and an entirely different cinematographic language. It is intensive but well worth it. It took me three hours to get this picture just right. I love being able to share my world, and give a more vivid glimpse into a gothic story that I hold dear.

This next image is straight from the first chapter of the novel. In which we find, a terrified Vera Nightingale attempting to get some shuteye while reminiscing on the last years, not least, of knowing her brother's strange Greek wife, Calista. Dearest Calista is a village girl from Corfu and to Vera she will always be a peasant, despite her regal appearance in the portrait. The night in Alexandra Hall promises quite a few surprises for Vera. And what is it with those silver spoons on the staircase? Well, you'll have to read the novel to find out.

Next up we have this kitchen scene depicting Maurice Leroux as a child...

I admit, I was itching to feed this idea into Sora. It is Maurice Leroux's dream sequence. Here we find a childhood memory back in Paris, growing up in the post-terror. Save that the terror is domestic...

As with all dreams, the imagery here departs from the gothic and enters surrealism. 

Thérèse Leroux wears her French cockade well, don't you think? In the novel, she even threatens Maurice with the guillotine.  

Well that is all from me. Short and sweet!

Calista is available in Kindle, paperback and audiobook format from all Amazon territories. It can be purchased almost anywhere online. Alternatively, readers can borrow it from the National Library of Australia and from the BnF in Paris.