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I love good writing. With my students, I spend hours analyzing a page, a paragraph, a sentence. Story structure. Dialogue. It all matters. My early novels were legal thrillers, but I've moved out of the courtroom and into the realm of historic fiction. Putting my characters in real settings. I'm a hidden history geek. My current obsession is Europe AFTER World War II. In particular the Displaced Persons Camps. Also the late 1980s, the setting for my new novel. Writing is hard, lonely, fascinating and rewarding, if you are prepared to put in the effort. When people ask me "How do I write a book?" I have a simple five word answer. A question in fact. "Do you have a ...chair." You have to laugh, cry and make the pages turn.
I love talking about writing. What makes good writing. Start with first word, first sentence, first paragraph, first page. Good readers get it.
One promise. I'll always make you laugh.
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A Toronto homicide detective is attacked at his doorstep when his investigation into possible links between the Nazi occupation of Italy and the murder of his brother decades later gets too close to the truth—in the new crime thriller from bestselling author Robert Rotenberg. Perfect for fans of Scott Turow and David Baldacci.
It’s been years since Daniel Kennicott’s brother, Michael, was shot and killed the night before he was about to depart for Gubbio, Italy. The case, never solved, has haunted Daniel ever since. Long suspecting the killing was tied to Michael’s planned trip but overwhelmed with grief, Daniel has put off going there—until now, the tenth anniversary of the murder.
As he’s about to leave, Daniel learns that his two mentors, detectives Ari Greene and Nora Bering, have been more involved in the investigation of Michael’s murder than he ever knew. And they’re concerned about Daniel’s safety. But why? Is Daniel risking his life—and those of others—by trying to uncover the truth?
“For the first time, author Robert Rotenberg leaves his native Toronto for an ancient Italian town with a truly terrifying past to dig into three unsolved murders. The suspense starts on page one of What We Buried and never lets up.”
— BONNIE FULLER, award-winning journalist and former editor in chief of Glamour, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, HollywoodLife, USWeekly, and Flare
For decades, the Humber River Golf Club has been one of the city’s most elite clubs. All is perfect in this playground for the rich, until homeless people move into the pristine ravine nearby—and mounting tensions between rich and poor come to a head when two of the squatters are brutally murdered.
The killings send shockwaves through the city, and suspicion immediately falls upon the members of the club. Protests by homeless groups and their supporters erupt. Suddenly, the homelessness problem has caught the attention of the press, politicians, and the public. Ari Greene, now the head of the homicide squad, leaves behind his plush new office and, with his former protege Daniel Kennicott in tow, returns to the streets to investigate. Meanwhile, Greene’s daughter, Alison, a dynamic young TV journalist, reports on the untold story of extreme poverty in Toronto.
With all the attention focused on the murders, pressure is on Greene to find the killer—now. He calls on his old contacts and his well-honed instincts to pursue the killer and save the city and the people he loves. But then a third body is found.
“Takes the reader on a suspenseful descent into a seldom-examined underworld, as police track a serial killer who is stalking the homeless in Toronto’s Humber River Valley. Well written and fast-paced, Downfall explores the growing problem of homelessness in our cities—what causes it and what keeps feeding it.”
— BEVERLEY McLACHLIN, former Chief Justice and #1 bestselling author of Full Disclosure
When Detective Ari Greene was charged with the murder of the woman he loved, he stopped at nothing to clear his name and uncover the real killer. After his acquittal, Greene fled to London to get away from it all, but now he’s back. And he’s not alone—with Greene is his twenty-year-old daughter, Alison. The child he never knew he had.
Determined to leave his life as a cop behind him, Greene gets a job on a construction site for one of Toronto’s many new condos. It seems he has finally found peace as he settles into a new career and new role as father, helping Alison adjust to life in Canada.
But when Greene stumbles upon the corpse of hated developer Livingston Fox, he is plunged back into the life he tried so hard to leave behind. As the body count rises, Greene is forced into a reluctant reconciliation with his former protégé, Daniel Kennicott. The pair must delve into the tight-knit world of downtown development, navigating tangled loyalties, unexpected corruption and family secrets, some of which are closer to home than Greene could have ever imagined.
“Pleasantly loaded with [complications], each one delivered in Rotenberg’s swift and sure brand of prose.”
— Toronto Star
