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.




Monday, October 27, 2014

John Wick--the Kind of Movie I Like

I finally took my family to the movies this past weekend, but it wasn't Fury we saw, because the wife went with us, and she doesn't like war movies. So we chose to see John Wick instead. And that was the kind of movie I like. It fits into the same genre that my book Killer of Killers is in. An action thriller. The main character, John Wick, even had some martial arts skills. It was my kind of movie.

Yeah, John Wick was an assassin, and yeah there was near-non-stop action, just like Killer of Killers. But in Killer of Killers, Trent Smith isn't an assassin. He is a killer of killers, however, and he is the best at it, at least when it comes to hand to hand combat. Because he's not an assassin, he doesn't use guns, or sniper rifles with scopes, or anything like that. When he kills, he's up close and personal, like I explained in an earlier blog post.

So did Keanu Reeves play a believable assassin? Well, yeah, since he used a gun. Anyone can use a gun, pull a trigger, and shoot someone. Anyone. But there were some believable hand to hand fights in there, and it was all choreographed well. I liked it. It was a good movie. My kind of movie.

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