Upon This Rock

David Perry

Description

Intrigue, terrorism, history, art, and the secrets of the Church collide in a relentless page-turning thriller

"An elegant, twisty thriller in which a gay couple investigates a mysterious suicide in a scenic Italian hill town. It's not hard to imagine that this book could do for Orvieto what Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil did for Savannah." (Armistead Maupin, author of the internationally acclaimed Tales of the City)

An American couple in Italy investigate the suicide of a cleric in the picturesque Italian city of Orvieto—and find themselves plunged into a conspiracy that may destroy the Catholic Church. In the stunning thriller Upon This Rock, San Francisco business executive Lee Maury and his husband Adriano come to Orvieto to soak in the city's beauty and rich history, but Lee becomes fascinated with a local tragedy, the suicide one year earlier of Deacon Andrea, a much-loved candidate for the priesthood.

Growing obsessed with learning the truth behind Andrea's death, Lee and Adriano stumble upon a conspiracy of terrorism, human trafficking, and a plot to destroy one of the Church's most sacred shrines—all somehow linked across 500 years to Renaissance Pope Clement VII, who escaped to Orvieto after the sack of Rome in 1527. Before they know it, Lee and Adriano's dream vacation becomes a race to save innocent lives—and not get killed in the process.

Sujets

• Page Turner
• Human trafficking
• Topical
• Umbria
• Terrorism
• Pope Clement VII
• Italy
• Catholic
• My Last Duchess
• Mystery
• Conspiracy
• Orvieto
• Suspense
• Gay
• Thriller
• Dan Brown
• LGBT
• Suicide
• Noir
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610353748
• Langue: English

Extrait

Advance Praise for
Upon This Rock
Perry has written an elegant, twisty thriller in which a gay couple investigates a mysterious suicide in a scenic Italian hill town. It s not hard to imagine that this book could do for Orvieto what Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil did for Savannah.
- Armistead Maupin , author of the internationally acclaimed Tales of the City
Upon This Rock is for those readers who love Italy and who love crime fiction. David Perry evokes the spirit of the ancient Italian town of Orvieto, in a 21st-century thriller that takes in several centuries of history.
- Lucinda Hawksley . author of Dickens s Artistic Daughter, Katey
The gay DaVinci Code , but a lot better.
-Fenton Johnson, Guggenheim Fellow and award-winning author of The Man Who Loved Birds ; Scissors, Paper, Rock ; and At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
You will not be able to put this book down. It is page-turner from the first sentence until the unexpected twist ending. Upon This Rock by David Eugene Perry has everything you could possibly want: intrigue, suspense, history and characters so real they almost jump off the page. If you like mystery, suspense and intrigue, drenched in local Italian history, this is the book for you.
- Lynn Ruth Miller , author of Getting the Last Laugh and the oldest stand-up comedienne in the world
This is a wild read. David Perry s ability to build suspense is impressive and the denouement of this thriller will not just surprise you, but literally stun.
- Erika Atkinson , author of Ode to the Castro and Miles of Memories
You will not find a more exquisite, captivating, well-written first novel than David Eugene Perry s Upon This Rock . I was literally hooked from the first chapter. A wonderfully addictive and engrossing story with brilliant characters and an ending that will have you perusing your favorite bookstore looking for Perry s next novel.
- Dennis Koller , author of The Rhythm of Evil
This fast-moving thriller spans several centuries of papal history, Vatican politics, black market smugglers, human trafficking, terrorism, the secretive organization Opus Dei, prostitution and the everyday life in a small northern Italian village. David Perry weaves a suspenseful story that is a real page-turner and a fascinating tale a great read.
- Robert Walker , Frank and Eva Buck Foundation
Perry s novel sparkles with campy wit, but it is also written with serious clues that keep you reading.
- Will Snyder , former editor of The Bay Area Reporter
David Perry s tale brings to life a cast of characters and settings that powerfully dramatize the plot and draw the reader toward each new page-turning twist.
- Linda Frank , author of the Lily Kovner Jewish Miss Marple novels After the Auction, The Lost Torah of Shanghai , and The Nice Little Blonde Girl
After reading Upon This Rock I want to dance the tarantella. What a read! I learned more Latin than I remembered Hebrew from my six years of Hebrew School. Who knew Popes had so much fun. Lee s love of his friend and mentor Brian comes through so strong. And the little niceties of Lee s love for Adriano are so warm and real. I would love to meet these men and you will too. From the Castro in San Francisco to the underbelly of Umbria s ancient Orvieto, and from the 16th century to the 21st, you are in for quite a ride. And with all the twists and turns, be happy that you re not in the driver s seat.
- Darryl A. Forman , author of The Unleavened Truth
Come for esoterically fascinating Vatican history and centuries-spanning ecclesiastical skulduggery, stay for a delectably rewarding, genre-spanning tapestry of romance, mystery, and literary tourism. Perry is no armchair explorer: this inventive debut blends evocative travel journalism with engrossing story-telling.
- Richard Labonte , general manager, A Different Light Bookstores
Upon This Rock

Upon This Rock
A Novel
by David Eugene Perry

Pace Press Fresno, California
Upon This Rock
Copyright 2020 by David Eugene Perry. All rights reserved.
Published by Pace Press An imprint of Linden Publishing 2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721 [phone] / [phone] PacePress.com
Pace Press and Colophon are trademarks of Linden Publishing, Inc.
cover design by Tanja Prokop, www.bookcoverworld.com frontispiece image courtesy of Diego Tolomelli book design by Andrea Reider
The cover image (courtesy Shutterstock) for Upon This Rock is a detail from Luca Signorelli s masterpiece, Last Judgment (1499-1503) in the Duomo of Orvieto. It is believed that Michelangelo traveled to Orvieto to study these frescoes as inspiration for the famous The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. In this section, the Devil is whispering in the ear of a man who appears to be Jesus, but is in point of fact the Antichrist, a warning to all to not be deceived as Evil can sometimes mask itself as Goodness.
ISBN 978-0-941936-06-4
135798642
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
T his is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental .
DEDICATIONS
For my grandmother who taught me to read
For my mother: Ego amo te
For Aunt Helen for lessons in gratitude and patience
For Aunt Blanche whose smile echoed beauty and music
For Aunt Margaret for days spun with Camelot and The Sound of Music -you set my feet on the decks of many ships
For our friend Tom whose life gave us a new life
For Felipe and Otis and Anthony you know
In gratitude for C.S. Lewis (November 29, 1898-November 23, 1963) and The Baroness P.D. James of Holland Park (August 3, 1920-November 27, 2014)
To the Orvietani: friends and friends yet to meet.
And most especially, as with all things, for Alfredo. I love you.
In Memoriam:
Luca Seidita 1981-2010
Prologue
H e stood on the cliff and prayed.
Useless, he thought, to turn my mind to God.
Behind him, the evening lights of Orvieto reflected in a million icy crystals. Snow had come early this year. It wasn t yet December.
Below, the road would be deserted. He wondered who would find him. Someone would, of course, and for that he was sorry. What a horrible thing to discover: the body of a reprobate, crushed against the rock and never to see forgiveness. Never to see the face of God. Never to see another sunrise.
It should be beautiful, and he smiled. He had often come here to sit near the altar and wait for the dawn. Tomorrow, its rays would reach out to warm the city across a quilt of virginal frost. He had seen it before, prisms of color in the ice. Like a miracle, it had seemed to him as a child.
No more. No more dawns, no more rainbows, no more miracles.
Don t!
He heard the scream, but too late. He had already stepped off the cliff, arms outspread like a cross, and dived for the tombs below.
Contents
Prologue
Part I
CHAPTER I
Death Takes a Sabbatical
CHAPTER II
Refugee
CHAPTER III
Of Expats and Paintings
CHAPTER IV
Upon This Rock
CHAPTER V
A Crooked Cross
CHAPTER VI
A Voice in the Wilderness
CHAPTER VII
Magda
CHAPTER VIII
Vescovo
CHAPTER IX
Andrea
CHAPTER X
Fallen Angel
CHAPTER XI
The Rupe
CHAPTER XII
The Swiss Guard
CHAPTER XIII
Fall from Grace
CHAPTER XIV
Imprisoned
CHAPTER XV
De Perfundis
CHAPTER XVI
Schism
CHAPTER XVII
Nonna
CHAPTER XVIII
At Sea
CHAPTER XIX
Reunion
CHAPTER XX
Puzzle
CHAPTER XXI
Dinner with a Medici
CHAPTER XXII
Strangers on a Train
CHAPTER XXIII
A Conspiracy of Shadows
CHAPTER XXIV
The Eternal City
CHAPTER XXV
Doctor, Heal Thyself
CHAPTER XXVI
Parrots, Porn Stars, and Popes
CHAPTER XXVII
Family History
CHAPTER XXVIII
Repentance Denied
CHAPTER XXIX
Curious Curia
CHAPTER XXX
Papal Audience
CHAPTER XXXI
Baked Goods
CHAPTER XXXII
Conception
CHAPTER XXXIII
Clement s Fountain
CHAPTER XXXIV
Luke
CHAPTER XXXV
Brother and Sister
CHAPTER XXXVI
The First Snow
Part II
CHAPTER XXXVII
Excavation
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Brave New World
CHAPTER XXXIX
Time to Say Goodbye
CHAPTER XL
Dress Rehearsal
CHAPTER XLI
Sanctuary
CHAPTER XLII
Solstice
CHAPTER XLIII
The Longest Night
CHAPTER XLIV
Dead Man Walking
CHAPTER XLV
Death Comes Knocking
CHAPTER XLVI
The Tower of Secrets
CHAPTER XLVII
Time Grows Short
CHAPTER XLVIII
Songs from the Grave
CHAPTER XLIX
Camorena
CHAPTER L
What Child Is This?
CHAPTER LI
Black Market Art
CHAPTER LII
Nativity of Truth
CHAPTER LIII
Bridge of Cries
CHAPTER LIV
Revelation
CHAPTER LV
Coronation
CHAPTER LVI
Purgatory
CHAPTER LVII
Repeat Performance
CHAPTER LVIII
All the News that Fits
CHAPTER LIX
Deus Ex Magda
CHAPTER LX
Befana
CHAPTER LXI
Resurrection