Please welcome Victoria Weisfeld to Sapphyria's Books, where she talks about She Knew Too Much protagonist, Eugenia "Genie" Clarke.
The main protagonist in my new destination thriller, She Knew Too Much, is a character I developed some years ago named Eugenia Clarke, called Genie. She’s an American travel writer who goes on assignment to interesting places—in this book, Rome.
I’ve published several short stories involving Genie, but after I was last in Rome, I decided to set one there. In the Borghese Gardens, I’d seen a children’s fair, with small-sized replicas of various amusement park rides—the teacups, a carousel, a train—and thought it would be an interesting place for a crime to occur (sadly, that’s how crime writers think!). But when I started working on the story, I soon realized the idea that was forming was too big—it was going to be a novel. Many complications ensued, as you can imagine.
The fair does appear in She Knew Too Much, but not as the scene of a crime. Pursued by an assassin, Genie hides out there one night amongst the teacups. I took other inspiration from that trip too. She stays in two hotels near the Spanish Steps, which is where I stayed, and a significant crime occurs at Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the papal basilicas I visited.
For a lot of the specifics, though, I had to rely on research—maps, photos, travel guides. Too many people have been to Italy and Rome for me to risk making a mistake in my descriptions of where things are or how they work!
Some of my characters are young gangsters, and not only are they a different generation than I am, but also they speak their own slang. I wanted to capture the flavor of their speech, even though I wasn’t going to use it verbatim. I found an Italian-English language forum online that lets users ask language questions of exceedingly patient native Italian speakers. An example was wanting my fictional police detective to say something-or-other was “like looking for a needle in a haystack.” My contact on the forum said Italian has an exact duplicate of that idiom and gave it to me: Un ago in un pagliaio.
The Italian court system operates somewhat differently than ours, and I corresponded with a Welsh professor who is an expert on those differences, to make sure I was portraying the prosecutor’s role correctly. Reading Douglas Preston’s non-fiction book, The Monster of Florence, was also quite helpful.
Naturally, it was more fun thinking about what my characters were going to eat for dinner! Genie—lucky her!—is staying with a woman who is a terrific cook. As a result of all this, what you read in She Knew Too Much is as accurate as I can make it linguistically, procedurally, and culinarily!
About the Book:
Travel writer Genie Clarke arrives in Rome seeking inspiration, but her trip turns deadly when she overhears two mafia operatives discussing a secret "Project." Before she can escape, she's attacked and left for dead. Awakening in a hospital-alive but hunted-Genie finds the police unwilling to believe her. Only Detective Leo Angelini takes her seriously, uncovering ties between her assault, a murdered woman, and a powerful criminal network.
With the threat escalating, Leo moves Genie into hiding, where she becomes both key witness and prime target. Cut off from safety and unsure who to trust, Genie must outthink the conspirators determined to silence her.
From Rome's bright piazzas to its shadowed alleys, she faces a terrifying fight for survival-and an unexpected connection with the detective risking everything to protect her. She Knew Too Much is a lean, suspenseful psychological thriller about fear, courage, and the price of knowing too much.
Read an Excerpt:
I crossed the one-way traffic to reach the Piazza del Popolo’s spacious central rectangle. People ambled toward one or another of the half-dozen streets that converged on the Piazza or to the steps leading up to the Villa Borghese Gardens, where I’d spent the afternoon. I was aiming for the Via del Babuino, street of the Baboon, which got its name from a particularly hideous sculpture. In a few blocks, that street ended at the Piazza di Spagna and the always-crowded Spanish Steps, a half block from my hotel.
On the far side, I again negotiated the circling rush of traffic and chanced a look behind. What the hell? The spiky-haired blond had crossed the first stream of traffic. Now he jostled through the crowd, coming straight my way. He was tracking me, and he didn’t care if I knew it. I was in trouble. And, if I didn’t want to believe my eyes, the hair on the back of my neck confirmed it. I picked up my pace, walking as fast as I could in my flimsy sandals.
Dozens of times I’d traveled the few blocks connecting the two piazzas. Now this familiar street radiated hostility, and the stones of the Sunday-shuttered buildings reflected no warmth. Surely something, some business, would be open. I sped past my favorite stationery store, the gallery whose owner I’d interviewed. Shut tight as oysters.
Why hadn’t I asked someone near the piazza for help? Could I have made myself understood? Would they have agreed to get involved? I shook my head in frustration.
Meet the Author:
Website: http://www.vweisfeld.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Victoria-Weisfeld/author/B07J1X2B48
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6815763.Victoria_Weisfeld
Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/She-Knew-Much-Victoria-Weisfeld/dp/B0G56LHLLS/
Thank you for featuring SHE KNEW TOO MUCH.
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DeleteThank you so much for the chance to meet your readers!
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