Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Thursday, November 1, 2012

Why This Cover?

I talked about the cover design to Killer of Killers yesterday, so I thought I might explain why I came up with it. To be clear, it was the Melange Books cover artist who came up with it, but it was based on an idea of mine that I got from an online image.

I posted it some months ago, thinking it would make a good cover, but as it turned out, Melange came up with an even better one. This one.

But what I was thinking at the time was that since the title of the book was Killer of Killers, a skull image would be appropriate because skulls symbolize death. And being a killer, the main character, Trent Smith, is a bringer of death. Of course, only to those killers who deserve it. He's not some mad dog murderer, no, he's more like a seeker of justice, a vigilante, or maybe more accurately, an executioner. And again, only to those who should have already been executed, or at the very least, imprisoned for life.

It's the story line that makes this concept intriguing, because even in real life we've seen murderers go free, or escape the justice that screams for them to be put away for life, or executed for their brutal crimes against innocents. Heck, it seems to happen regularly, and over the years, it seems to be getting worse.

And in the story of Killer of Killers, it is worse. And it's because of a drug. A drug? Yes, a drug. But this is a very special drug. One that you might think was a miraculous drug. But as it turns out, it's not so special at all.

Buy a copy of Killer of Killers. It's an exciting adventure of a man who wants justice. And he does make a habit of bringing justice to those who thought they had dodged it.

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