Blue Moonlight

Private Investigator Dick Moonlight returns to chase down a cop gone bad in the next installment of author Vincent Zandri’s clever and cunning Moonlight series. Moonlight has hit some turbulence. Sure, his bar burned to the ground; his significant other, Lola, left him for another man; the private eye business is slow; and his evenings are now spent with his new pal, Jack Daniels. But this is real turbulence—in a plane, going down fast, and he’s waking up handcuffed to an FBI agent. How he got there is a little fuzzy, thanks to the sliver of a .22 caliber hollow-point bullet lodged in his brain. Once on the ground, and after a few bumps and bruises, things become clearer and more dangerous. Thinking he’s been brought to FBI headquarters for drunk-dialing the IRS, Moonlight learns that he’s got some unfinished business: his last case, which had him up against Russian mobsters in search of a zip drive loaded with government secrets, isn’t exactly closed. The cop who was supposed to deliver the goods to the FBI went rogue, bringing along a crooked agent and Moonlight’s ex, and now he’s out to sell the hardware to the highest bidder. The FBI wants Moonlight’s help in tracking down the trio—all the way to Florence, Italy—and wooing Lola into handing over the zip drive. He’s just going to have to outwit, outrun, and outshoot the Russian thugs who have their own big plans for the zip drive, and for Moonlight. Amazon.com Review A Q &A with Vince Zandri -Originally posted on The Big Thrill, the International Thriller Writers Association blog, October 2012- Question: What will readers love about your character Dick Moonlight? Vince Zandri: The fact that he can die at any moment due to a tiny piece of .22 caliber hollow-point bullet lodged inside his brain directly up against his cerebral cortex offers him an odd perspective on life. While he often does the wrong thing or, due to his condition, makes the wrong decision, he is dedicated to finding out the truth behind any case he becomes involved in. He also wants to do what’s right at any cost even if that means breaking the law. You see the paradox there. He is also loyal to a fault. He would follow his Lola to the ends of the earth, even after she has fallen in love with someone else. I guess there’s a little bit of Moonlight in all of us. Only in him, things are more exaggerated and transparent. Q: What do you hope they will take away after reading Blue Moonlight? VZ: That even the seemingly smallest of mistakes can snowball into the worse shit storms possible. And, yes, in that very, very corny way: true love never dies. Q: What inspired you to make the transition from journalism to fiction writing? VZ: When I started out, I modeled myself on the old guard writers like Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. They both started out as newspaper writers (Gellhorn and I started at the same paper, The Times Union in Albany) and eventually became freelance journalists which led to a career in fiction. I just figured if it worked for them it could work for me. Q: Blue Moonlight takes the reader to Florence Italy. Have you been there yourself? If so, what was it about Italy that inspired you to send Dick Moonlight there? VZ: I spend about three months a year in Florence, writing, eating, drinking, traveling, and just generally messing around with the friends I’ve made there over the years. Jim Harrison likes to escape to his cabin in the Michigan wilderness in order to write. Hemingway used to rent one hotel room in Bimini for writing in solitude and another where his mail would be forwarded. I’ve somehow come to the conclusion that I need Italy in my life in order to be creative and to be somewhat alone with my crazy thoughts. Q: If you could write yourself into Blue Moonlight for a walk on scene, who would you be, and what would you say in that scene? VZ: I’d be sitting at a café table inside the Pizza del Duomo sipping a glass of vino russo and reading the International Herald Tribune. I’d be dressed in black pants, black leather coat and sunglasses. When a panting Moonlight races up to my table while being chased by gun-toting Russian thugs, his eyes looking lost and forlorn like he hasn’t a clue where to hide, I would casually tell him there’s a secret door located on the back side of the cathedral that leads to an old tunnel that ends somewhere in the city center. Then I’d hand him the key to the door. “Go now,” I would insist. “Go. Now. Live.” About the Author Vincent Zandri is the best-selling author of The Innocent , Godchild , The Remains , Moonlight Falls , Concrete Pearl , Scream Catcher , Moonlight Rises , and the forthcoming Murder by Moonlight. He received his MFA in writing from Vermont College, and his work has been translated into several languages. An adventurer, foreign correspondent, and freelance photojournalist for RT, Globalspec, and IBTimes, among others, Zandri lives in New York.