Nelson
Richard DeMille, a #1 New York Times bestselling author,
was born in New York City. He was a first lieutenant
in the United States Army (1966–69) and saw
action as an infantry platoon leader with the First
Cavalry Division in Vietnam. His first major novel,
By the Rivers of Babylon, is still
in print, as are all his succeeding novels. He attended
Hofstra University, where he received a degree in
political science and history. He is the author of
By the Rivers of Babylon, Cathedral, The Talbot
Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Charm School, The Gold
Coast, The General’s Daughter, Spencerville,
Plum Island, The Lion’s Game, Up Country, The
Gate House, Night Fall, Wild Fire, and
The Lion. He also coauthored Mayday
with Thomas Block and has contributed short stories,
book reviews, and articles to magazines and newspapers.
A member of the Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers
of America, and American Mensa, he holds honorary
doctorates from Hofstra University, Long Island University,
and Dowling College.
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PLOT: The Cuban Affair
Daniel Graham MacCormick—Mac for short—seems
to have a pretty good life. At age thirty-five he’s
living in Key West, owner of a forty-two-foot charter
fishing boat, The Maine. Mac served five years in
the Army as an infantry officer with two tours in
Afghanistan. He returned with the Silver Star, two
Purple Hearts, scars that don’t tan, and a boat
with a big bank loan. Truth be told, Mac’s finances
are more than a little shaky. One day, Mac is sitting
in the famous Green Parrot Bar in Key West, contemplating
his life, and waiting for Carlos, a hotshot Miami
lawyer heavily involved with anti-Castro groups. Carlos
wants to hire Mac and The Maine for a ten-day fishing
tournament to Cuba at the standard rate, but Mac suspects
there is more to this and turns it down. The price
then goes up to two million dollars, and Mac agrees
to hear the deal, and meet Carlos’s clients—a
beautiful Cuban-American woman named Sara Ortega,
and a mysterious older Cuban exile, Eduardo Valazquez.
What Mac learns is that there is sixty million American
dollars hidden in Cuba by Sara’s grandfather
when he fled Castro’s revolution. With the “Cuban
Thaw” underway between Havana and Washington,
Carlos, Eduardo, and Sara know it’s only a matter
of time before someone finds the stash—by accident
or on purpose. And Mac knows if he accepts this job,
he’ll walk away rich…or not at all. Brilliantly
written, with his signature humor, fascinating authenticity
from his research trip to Cuba, and heart-pounding
pace, Nelson DeMille is a true master of the genre.
JONATHAN
LOWE: To what extent are Sutter and Bellarosa
based on real people you’ve known living on
Long Island, and what’s your attraction to them
as characters of fiction?
NELSON
DeMILLE: I’ve never used a single real
person as a character in my novels, but I do base
my characters on composites of people I know or have
met, or who are public figures. John Sutter is a type
that I’ve known among the old families of Long
Island, but, of course, I’ve given him some
quirks, and a self-awareness that is not all that
common in this class of people. Frank Bellarosa as
a Mafia don could have easily been a stock figure
from Central Casting, but I gave him a lot of brains,
a good eduation, and he, too, has a self-awareness
that would be unusual in his profession. Both characters
– Sutter and Bellarosa – have a good sense
of humor, and together they are more than the sum
of their parts.
JONATHAN:
I once interviewed Ronald Kessler about his book “The
Season,” which described the social
undercurrent of billionaires living in Palm Beach,
Florida near Trump. One of your characters makes a
comment of disdain toward those “living in Florida,”
so I’m wondering what are the similarities and
differences between these playgrounds of the world’s
super wealthy. Is there a rivalry there, as between
those living in New York and Los Angeles?
NELSON:
New Yorkers take some pleasure in looking down on
other New Yorkers who move permanently to Florida.
Maybe, though, it’s jealousy. In any case, it
isn’t rivalry as it is with Los Angeles because
these “Floridians” are, for the most part,
New Yorkers who’ve chosen to leave New York.
As for Palm Beach, this is a seasonal town, and becomes
New York South from Christmas to Easter, then empties
out.
JONATHAN:
Do you listen to audiobook performances of your novels,
and if so, in what ways do you think the personalities
of the characters are illuminated by the actors? Any
which have nailed the way you perceived a character
by voicing him or her, as in films?
NELSON:
Yes, I listen to all my audiobooks, and I think that
Scott Brick has nailed down my character of John Corey
in PLUM ISLAND, THE LION’S GAME, NIGHT
FALL, WILD FIRE, and THE LION. |
Footnote: My first new book in several
years is out November 1 as an ebook, Judge Jury:
Hybrid Stories. Includes scifi, suspense, romance,
mystery. The two hybrid stories are both story and
script, one an alternate universe look at the Johnny
Depp movie Transcendence, and the other a
prequel to the Tom Cruise movie Collateral,
set in the Florida Keys in 1985, including smuggling
of Cuban cigars and eco-terrorism, “The Key
to Vincent.” A Hollywood actor has just contracted
to record my novel Postmarked
for Death on audio, which will be out in
January. It is now available in ebook and paperback
formats. |