Monday, March 25, 2013

Interview - Robert B. Lowe - Divine Fury





Please describe your novel twitter style 140 characters or less.

SF gay candidate runs for governor.  Extremists target campaign and him with it.  Reporter reluctantly starts to unravel, becomes target, too.  “Gripping, great characters, sights, sounds, smells of SF.” 

What to you is the best part of being a writer and what is the part you wouldnt mind giving up?

It’s great when you’re in the throes of a scene you really want to portray that has your juices going, whether it’s a chase, sad, romantic, whatever.  Just trying different things and feeling it getting closer and closer to what you want while trying all the while to avoid the cliché.  The part that is the hardest for me is just the isolation.  If that is all you’re doing, you can feel your world shrinking around you and when things aren’t going well in that tiny world, it gets depressing. 

Vampires, Shifters, Zombies, Angels - who wins the final ultimate battle?

Zombies.  Not even close.  They’re the cockroaches of that set – most disgusting and almost impossible to kill.  And there’s so darn many of them.

If you could witness any historical event past, present or future what would it be and why?

Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation.  It blows my mind to think about millions of people finding out they have gone from slavery to being free, or at least it’s well within reach. 

If you were going to cowrite a new book, who would you want to write it with?

Bob Woodward.  Would just love to see the guy in action working his sources.

What books are currently on your nightstand?

A Beautiful Mind.  Thomas Jefferson.  State of Wonder (Patchett).  A Jeeves and Wooster.


DIVINE FURY
By
Robert B. Lowe

BLURB:  

Candidate Andrew Harper was a college basketball star, a crusading prosecutor and a beloved Congressman.  He is also openly gay.  When the San Francisco politician gets the inside track to become California’s next governor, it sends shockwaves through the political and religious establishment.

Reporter Enzo Lee is cajoled into leaving his comfortable niche covering fluffy features for the San Francisco News to cover the historic campaign.  A series of campaign events are mysteriously and dangerously disrupted.  A key endorsement is scuttled at the last minute.  An earlier murder takes on new significance when it is linked to a Watergate-style break-in involving computer spying.

But, finding the culprits behind political sabotage and high-tech hacking take a back seat when it’s discovered that a troubled war veteran armed with guns and explosives has begun a violent journey from small-town Montana to the City by the Bay.

When Lee becomes a target himself he must dodge attempts on his own life while trying to expose the conspiracy and, with the help of police allies, foil an assassination plot.
 
Divine Fury is the newly released second book in the Enzo Lee series from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert B. Lowe.  The series was kicked off by the best-selling Project Moses, the bioterroism thriller that made the Amazon Top 20 Mysteries list and was a finalist in the Best Indie Books of 2012 competition. 

Divine Fury is a page-turning thriller with suspense, action, romance and enough twists to keep the reader guessing.  It also focuses on a timely theme as the issues of same-sex marriage and gay rights become a major cultural battleground in America.    

 
EXCERPT:

When he saw the red Ford in the distance heading toward him, he knew he was right. It took another two minutes before they were where he wanted them – right in front of his position completely exposed on the mountain side.

The first shot took out the left front tire and brought the Ford to a halt. The second shattered the windshield. When he took out the rear left window, they finally realized someone was shooting at them and they ducked down. Two more shots took out all the glass on the left side.

Walberg saw the doors on the right side – away from him – open and then close. He could hear them shouting and screaming hysterically.

“Stop! Stop! Stop shooting at us! Help! Somebody help!”

He pulled off three more shots, hitting the side of the truck. Maybe they couldn’t hear the rifle with the suppressor on but they’d certainly hear and perhaps feel the impact of the bullets.

Then the driver’s side door opened. The big one. He must have been too bulky to drag himself over the console with the gear shift in the way and get out the other side. As he stepped hurriedly to the pavement beneath the truck, he immediately slipped and went sprawling on this face beneath the open door.

Through the scope, Walberg could see his face clearly as he pulled his head up and, still sprawled on the ground, searched the hillside. He seemed so close, Walberg felt that he could pick which side of his face to shoot if he wanted.

“Bang,” he said softly. “Bang. Bang.”


REVIEW SOUND BYTES

“Gripping…with an adrenaline-filled climax combined with compelling characters.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A fascinating and fast-paced mystery/thriller.  It is a thought provoking and extremely captivating story." – Kindle Book Review




AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Robert B. Lowe is a Pulitzer-prize winning author whose fiction is based in San Francisco, his adopted home.
His past experiences – a 12-year career in investigative journalism and a Harvard Law School degree – enable him to write gripping mystery thrillers in both the legal and journalistic fields. Lowe draws his inspiration from John Grisham, Dick Francis and Lee Child and adds his own San Francisco twist. Readers will enjoy his references to the city’s landmarks such as Chinatown, North Beach and Pacific Heights  and the Bay area’s foodie culture.
Divine Fury is Lowe’s second novel.  His first was the best-selling Project Moses which reached the Amazon Top 20 Mysteries list and was a finalist in the Best Indie Books of 2012 competition hosted by the Kindle Book Review. 
Divine Fury continues the adventures of Enzo Lee, a jaded journalist rehabilitating his career as a feature writer in San Francisco who stumbles into scandals and criminal conspiracies that require his investigative expertise to unravel.
When Lowe isn’t writing he enjoys a day at the golf course and spending time with his wife and daughters.


LINKS:


Twitter: @authorRobBLowe

 

10 comments:

  1. Which of the books you mentioned, did you like best?

    lyra.lucky7 at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lyra,

      Thanks for visiting. I really enjoyed all of them but I think I'd have to give the nod to Beautiful Mind. In addition to the story about Nash, the Nobel prize-winning schizophrenic, the book describes well the world of mathematicians and what it was like being part of that world at some key universities in the 50s and 60s.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for having me on the blog today. I'll check back to answer any questions!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great interview, I think I'd like to visit the time of Roman Empire.

    moonsurfer123 AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have Project Moses and loved it. I didn't realize it was going to be a series. I am really excited to read this new book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks again for following the tour. Working the third Enzo Lee book at present. Some people have suggested letting Bobbie Connors have a lead role in a book so may have to consider that in the future.

      Delete
  5. It's nice that this is a series, with good books I come to care about the characters and it's nice to see them again in the sequels :)

    lennascloud(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  6. You can't beat a Jeeves and Wooster read for a good laugh.

    I love how the excerpt ended.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Woo we've got a zombie fan here! I think you're underestimating the vampires speed and immortality though...what do they care if they get a zombie bite...they'll just rip out their brain stem with their bare hands :P

    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete