Belinda by Mark Zvonkovic Book Tour! Review and Interview! #Belinda #bookstagram #NewFiction #Baja #Houston #legalthriller #thriller and #PRbytheBookVBT #MarkZvonkovic

 

Set in the conference rooms of a white-shoe Houston law firm and the stunning coastline of Baja California, Belinda is the story of a woman’s bravery and resourcefulness at the end of her brilliant career. Her decision to fight her firm’s men in suits who demand her retirement is called into question when a man once her lover appears after a long unexplained absence. Against a backdrop of romance and legal drama, the novel explores questions about love, the law, and the anxious precipice of life change. Is it ever too late to be swept away by romance? Can true justice ever be attained when the law’s practitioners are corrupt? And when your work is what defines you, what’s left after retirement? During a week of surprises and abstruse events, Belinda sees the once presumed greatness of her life flicker as she forces the moment for her decision to a crisis.

Interview

What was the inspiration for this book?

Character development is a focus of all of my writing. I think every person is a story of sorts, and I enjoy telling the story. I practiced law for thirty five years so I had a lot of material to use in the creation of the stories of the characters in Belinda. It was like combining all the ingredients in a very complicated recipe.

And what about Belinda Larkin? Is there a real life version of her?

Oh no! She is an amalgam of many peoples I’ve known, some for many years and some only casually. Many of them weren’t even lawyers. But that’s how all of my characters are created. They start as fused together impressions and evolve with their story into people. And, of course, sometimes creative license leads to exaggeration. I mean, could a man, even a lawyer, be as entirely despicable as Patrick Brashner? But Belinda Larkin is a modern woman who is not going to make a life transition on account of anyone telling her what to do.

How long did it take you to write Belinda?

A little more than two years. But I was wading my way through being a recovering lawyer during that time. I worked with an excellent editor for most of that time. At one point the novel was twice as long as it turned out. That was how I learned about the principal characters, by writing much more background material about them than was needed in the end.

Where can readers find out more about you?

Information about me and my earlier novels can be found at www.markzvonkovic.com. The site also contains book reviews I have written, most of which have been published in Midwest Book Review. I have an author’s page on Facebook and also one on Goodreads.

How did your past as a lawyer affect your writing of Belinda?

Primarily it was a hindrance. My editor said more times than I can remember, Stop Writing Like a Lawyer. Exactitude was definitely not my friend. It wasn’t always necessary to say how many coffee spoons were on the table. And I certainly didn’t approach it like I was writing a contract. One thing I never did as a lawyer was put my head back, close my eyes, and imagine dialogue. Perhaps, if I had, I might have been a better negotiator?

What do you like most about your novels?

What keeps me writing is my love of making up characters that I hope readers will connect with. I want my characters, like Belinda Larkin, Raymond Hatcher and Larry Brown in my three novels, to move readers and get invested in what they think and feel. It’s a reason why some of these characters appear in several novels. None of the novels is meant to be a sequel of another, except to the extent that a reader is granted access to more about the lives of the characters who reappear. 

Do you have a favorite character?

My favorite character changes when my curiosity leads me back to their personalities and life events. Obviously, Raymond Hatcher is the one I’ve thought about the most. He is the common element across the novels. But I’ve been thinking a lot about Larry Brown lately, as well as Vera, the young Croatian woman who was Raymond’s first love. In everybody’s life feelings and past events come to the surface, and the insights that accompany them can be both exhilarating and painful

Mark Zvonkovic is a writer who lives in Rosarito Beach, Baja California Mexico with his wife Nancy and their two dogs. Finn and Cooper. He has written three novels, and he also writes book reviews and essays that appear in online publications. Before retiring to Mexico, Mark practiced law for thirty five years at three multinational law firms in Houston, Texas and New York City. He attended college at Southern Methodist University and Boston University, and his law degree is from SMU School of Law. Mark grew up as an oil company brat and lived in Latin America, Texas and New York.

My Thoughts

Belinda by Mark Zvonkovic is a story of Belinda, a lawyer who will most likely be asked to retire as she is of a certain age from her law firm in Houston, Texas. She is not happy with that as the law is what she knows and enjoys it. As she contemplates what this means for her, she hopes to rekindle a past relationship with a former coworker, Jay Jackson.

Jay is a former spy with the CIA but is now a rancher and has property in Baja California. He has some baggage as his best friend and mentor, Raymond Hatcher, and his wife were killed by one bullet. Was it an assassination, Jay seems to think so. He travels to France to confront the person who he thinks is the murderer.

Belinda, Lyn, is involved in a high-stakes case and is contacted by Jay after 2 years. He invites her to Baja, Mexico to rekindle their relationship. She accepts and spends an idyllic weekend where they pick up where they left off. After Lyn leaves to go back to Houston, Jay is kidnapped and there is a demand for money. He escapes and turns the table on his kidnappers.

The story is full of egotistical men, misogynist men who will stop at nothing to get what they want, including rape. Men in power take advantage of other people, especially women. I love a story about strong women and this one has a few.

This story started out a bit slow until all the pieces fit together to tell an exciting tale of back-door dealings, corporate greed, and corruption from the top.

The ending left me wanting more and I hope that there is another story to add. I enjoyed it and read it in a few sittings. I give it 4 stars!