WHEN THE SMILE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS FAKE ... THAT'S CAMERA OBSCURA

Rosanne Dingli’s Camera Obscura – released today, March 23, in paperback and all ebook editions by BeWrite Books – is a thriller reader’s dream, and one photographer’s nightmare.

The very title sets the scene, hinting that behind what the innocent lens sees lies dark mystery, evil and death.

Pages turn at shutter speed as characters snap into life in their desperate bids for discovery and truth and their yearning for understanding and love.

                      
 So, without further ado, here’s what Camera Obscura is about:

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Photojournalist Bart Zacharin’s camera doesn’t lie … but his mysterious new lover Minnie Cuff lies for a living.

Love-struck Bart can’t get that into focus until he follows her from Australia on her flimsily excused trip to Europe and becomes embroiled in an obscure web of international organized crime, deception and murder.

Minnie’s a fake. Her humdrum job as a computer programmer, her deceptively carefree style and her passionate affair with Bart merely provide a plausible front for her sinister role as key player in a ring of ruthless museum raiders and smugglers of priceless artifacts.

Bart tries to take charge in a lover’s fierce hope to reform her on a dash around some of Europe’s most colorful port cities that becomes a frantic race for life itself, with deadly danger throwing its shadow at every twist and turn.

Fast moving yet poignant, Camera Obscura is one hapless man’s struggle with obsessive love that competes with a million-dollar crime empire: a search for meaning and belonging, thwarted by everyday happenstance and misfortune.

As in her previous novels ‘Death in Malta’ and ‘According to Luke’, the characters in ‘Camera Obscura’ become as real as Dingli’s meticulously researched locations. True paintings, stamps, and rare antiquarian books delicately spice pages that seem to turn in the wind as her breakneck-speed story keeps the reader in chair-edge suspense, right up to a startlingly unforeseen and unforgettable climax. NM

A plot as convoluted as the winding streets of Malta; a breath of the Mediterranean from various venues; two people – one abandoned, one exploited – searching for a primal need: the love of a father. And each, in his own way, finding it.

Particularly telling are the author’s descriptions: “Their red tail lights tunneled away through the narrow street,” and “He needed silence: he needed noise;” and, “… he spoke into the square ahead of him, the words entering the narrow street before him, ahead of the clatter of his feet.” Lovely, graceful sketches, each with a definite edge, intrigue the reader at every turn.

Reading such lines is very much like wading into a pond and stepping into an unexpected hollow, over one’s head, into depths never imagined. Dingli’s use of language does not impede the flow of her story; rather, it lends richness to the narrative, calling upon sensory and philosophical reader-identification that propels the story forward on several multilayered levels.

A sophisticated, smart, and deeply engaging novel that should attract readers everywhere.
                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                             Simon Lang
                  (Simon Lang is the nom de plume of acclaimed US author and script writer Darlene Artell Hartman)

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Camera Obscura is available in print and ebook editions now from all major online bookstores. A free thirty-page mini-book brochure including cover, book notes, reviews, author biography and picture, and a generous extract can be read, downloaded or printed out HERE.

Rosanne Dingli, who has a personal blog, is the award-winning author of six collections of short stories. Her previous novels – each published by BEWRITE BOOKS – are Death in Malta and According to Luke. They are available in print and ebook editions everywhere and details and free mini-book brochures are at the BeWrite Books BOOKSTORE.

Author Rosanne Dingli

Born in Malta and extensively traveled, full-time author Rosanne is dedicated to the thorough historical and location research that pepper her spell-binding work to add that vital dash of irrefutable authenticity. She now lives in Western Australia.

For those interested in the details: Author: Rosanne Dingli. Editor: Hugh McCracken: Cover art, text design and technical preparation: Tony Szmuk. Extra input: The BeWrite Books team. Print Distribution: Ingram: Ebook Distribution: BeWrite Books Digital Distribution Division.

Happy reading and a relaxing weekend, folks. Neil, Tony, Hugh and Sam at BeWrite Books,