Friday, July 22, 2016

Friend of the Devil Blurb Blitz

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.”


a Rafflecopter giveaway



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. 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.


Buy Links:
B&N     |     Amazon

23 comments:

  1. Many thanks for hosting me on your blog today. I look forward to meeting your readers and answering any questions they might have.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Friday! Thank you for the giveaway and chance at winning

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congrats of the tour and thanks for the chance to win :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What is the hardest thing about writing?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great post, I enjoyed the excerpt! Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wishing everyone an awesome Saturday. Enjoy your weekend and thanks for the giveaway!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What's the easiest thing about writing?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good Sunday Morning! Thanks once again for the opportunity to win and enjoy your day!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good Monday Morning, have a great day and thanks for the opportunity you have given us to win

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks so much for the terrific giveaway and al the work you have put into bringing it to us

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm back saying thank you for the chance at winning this great giveaway

    ReplyDelete
  12. A bright good morning to you! I really appreciate you offering us this giveaway. Thanks and have an awesome day!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello! Stopping by and thanking you for the giveaway. Have yourself one terrific day!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good Morning! Have a great weekend and thanks once again for a great giveaway

    ReplyDelete
  15. Good Sunday Morning to you and thankig you once again for the opportunity you've given us to win.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hope you had an awesome weekend. Let's keep it positive as we start the week by saying it's gonna be a great one for all.. Thanks for the giveaway!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for the chance at winning, you're awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Good morning and thank you for brimging us this great giveaway

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm back and hoping you're not getting tired of hearing from me. I DO appreciate the opportunity to win this giveaway, Thank You!

    ReplyDelete
  20. It's Friday! We made it through another day and looking forward to the weekend. Have a great day and thanks for the giveaway

    ReplyDelete