Detective Marko Korb is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Venetian Bind, the first novel in the Tri-Star Investigations mysteries.

Welcome, Detective Korb. Let’s get started, shall we?

Tell us about the novel that you live inside. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.

As you have probably heard, Professor Rothstein has chronicled my most recent exploits in his first novel Venetian Bind which has recently appeared and has followed them further in Ripped Genes, to appear later this year, and The Tell-Tale Art which he is currently working on. He calls this series Tri-Star Investigations which is the name of my firm. I believe he intends to continue the series beyond these first three books.

In Venetian Bind, I and my intrepid associate, Kelan Su, are called to Venice in order to assist the police in investigating the murder of Stefan Pakulić, a former Serbian paramilitary commander in the Bosnian War. My aid was requested for several reasons the first being that I am familiar with the victim who was responsible for the death of my sister and her husband, my best friend. Pakulić is also the reason I still walk with a limp and have only one functional lung. The second reason is that the Bosnian expat community in Venice is insular and, as members of that community are persons of interest, the Venice police needed someone with access to that community to further the investigation. In fact, the daughter of a Bosnian expat hotelier is a chief suspect.  During the war, the hotelier was one of the men who rescued me from a Serbian prison camp. Finally, my outstanding reputation as an investigator and international connections brought my name to the fore.

This has put me in a serious bind. How do I maintain my reputation when I hated the victim and empathize with the killer? It’s important to note also that in the course of the investigation, Kelan discovered evidence of a possible terrorist action against the Bosnian community in Venice. That made it incumbent upon us to prevent that attack and expose the perpetrators.

Does the writer control what happens in the story or do you get a say too?

Well, I am the expert at criminal investigation, not Professor Rothstein. Fortunately, he listens to me when I inform him how the investigation should take place, particularly when what he is planning is clearly not something professional detectives would do. Often, he asks me and Kelan first for our opinion of what the next steps in an investigation should be. We try to keep him on the correct path. As a result, I think he has been reasonably successful in portraying my exploits accurately.

How did you evolve as the main character?

I believe it stems from Rothstein’s love of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels. He says my character has been modeled after Wolfe. I must say, however, that I am neither as obese as Wolfe or as sedentary, and I am considerably smarter.  I think Kelan, too, is a superior investigator to Archie Goodwin. Rothstein says he wanted a cerebral master investigator like Wolfe and an active, dauntless female detective like V.I Warshawski, Carlotta Carlyle, or Kinsey Milhone.

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them?

I have great confidence in Kelan’s ability to handle herself from the time we first met. It was in a hospital where I was recovering from an operation. She had trailed a bogus doc to my room and took down the Russian mob assassin as he was about to inject poison into IV.  Of course, I am not so easy to kill. I had already pulled out the IV and had my pistol trained on the would-be killer from under my convers. But I was impressed with Kelan’s quick thinking and effective response. I offered her a job on the spot. It was well-timed as she had been questioning her career choice with the Chicago Police Department.

I must admit that I take an avuncular interest in both her professional and personal life. Of course, we live under the same roof and cannot help being involved in each other’s daily activities and experiences.

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story?

Venice is a fairyland. The canals, buildings, bridges, islands, and little neighborhoods are a feast of serendipitous wonder. As there are no automobiles, people on foot and in water transports are constantly in neighborly contact. There are drawbacks to the ubiquitous proximity of other people. Privacy disappears. Gossip is the common currency. Foreigners and tourists are readily identified. These could be advantages rather than drawbacks to a detective.

On the other hand, the Bosnian community in Venice is generally poor and tight-knit. And I hate boat travel ever since my escape from the Serbian prison camp was met by gunfire on the Venice Lagoon hitting me and the crew of the fishing boat supposed to take me to freedom.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book?

I think I’ve covered everything. In my work, I am usually the interviewer not the interviewee. There is ample evidence of my skills as a questioner in Venetian Bind, particularly in the final confrontation with the suspects.

Thank you for answering my questions, Detective Korb, and good luck to you and your author, Lawrence E Rothstein, with Venetian Bind, the first book in the Tri-Star Investigations mysteries.

Readers can learn more about Detective Korb and his author, Lawrence E Rothstein by visiting the author’s website and his Facebook and Goodreads pages.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

 Amazon   B&N

About Lawrence E Rothstein: He is a retired lawyer and university professor who has published in constitutional law, privacy law, political theory and labor law. Born and raised in Chicago, he now resides, with his wife and family, in beautiful southern Rhode Island.  He has lived and traveled widely in Europe.  As an avid reader of crime fiction, he has always wanted to write detective novels. As a lover of food and cooking, he includes many scrumptious meals and some recipes in his novel and on his website.