DeMille Intros New Thriller at Book Revue
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Author Nelson DeMille and son James, 10, with Stephanie Bontempi, James’ teacher at the Green Vale School at last week’s book-signing event in Huntington. Long Islander news Photo/Peter Sloggatt
By Peter Sloggatt
editor@longislandergroup.com
A book signing to introduce his new novel was a family affair for bestselling author Nelson DeMille. The Long Island native introduced his just-released thriller, “The Cuban Affair,” in Huntington to a crowd that included not only fans, but his wife and son.
Speaking from a podium in the back of Book Revue bookstore before signing books upstairs, DeMille introduced his wife Sandra and their 10-year-old son, James, to the rest of his family… the fans who have fueled his consistent return to the best seller lists.
“The Cuban Affair” is DeMille’s 40th book and his first with new publisher Simon & Schuster. In addition to leaving his former publisher after 27 years, DeMille introduces a new leading man, Daniel Graham “Mac” MacCormick, a 35-year-old charter boat captain and decorated war veteran who sails out of Key West. In need of cash, Mac agrees to take clients on a 10-day fishing excursion to Cuba for a $2-million fee. Suspicions that there’s more at stake than fishing come to fruition as he learns his clients, a beautiful Cuban-American woman named Sara Ortega, and a mysterious older Cuban exile, Eduardo Valazquez, are chasing a $60-million stash of cash hidden when Fidel Castro took power.
Researching the book brought DeMille to Cuba, which he described to his wife as “a tropical paradise” in trying to convince her “We should go.” On their 12-day trip, they found “a repressed society – the pictures of buildings collapsing, the old American cars, are all true,” DeMille said. But he added the Cuban people poses “a joy of life in their music and culture. People stroll, they sing, they dance. If you didn’t know it was a communist society, you would think it was any tropical paradise.”
DeMille took questions from the audience, many of whom had encyclopedic knowledge of his books and characters, in particular, John Correy, the intriguing, adventurous protagonist of many DeMille stories. The author explained he had retired Correy’s character, for now, as a television network had purchased the rights and a deal to produce a pilot was imminent. Rather than get tangled in legalities, he explained, he developed Mac.
