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The Vase
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During an unusual heat wave in Nazareth, a series of freak geomagnetic storms sets in motion a bizarre chain of events, all of which revolve around a lone ancient vase. The vase belongs to a humble Palestinian potter who depends on the largess of tourists to earn his meager living from sales of earthenware in the Old City Market. He is no stranger to violence, having lost his eldest son three years before, when Hamas terrorists convinced the boy to participate in a terrorist attack. The potter is determined to keep his remaining son safe, but he has no idea the terrorists are secretly recruiting him to follow his older brother’s footsteps in a plot to assassinate the Pope and the Israeli prime minister during an upcoming tour of the Holy Land.
After being recruited by Shin Bet, the Israel Security Agency, a Jewish art professor plots revenge for the death of his only son in the same terrorist attack three years before. Realizing the terrorists use the potter’s shop as a clandestine meeting place, the professor convinces the potter to lend him an ancient vase from his ancestral collection for art history classes at the local university. With the help of a fellow operative, the professor plants a remote-control bomb inside the vase and then returns it to the potter.
Meanwhile, the appearance of apparitions in the Old City Market – Roman soldiers, ancient Islamic warriors, and more – causes local Muslim holy men to curse a lucrative Lebanese restaurant located across the street from the potter’s shop. Desperate to rid his business of the spirits, the restaurant owner calls on the Hollywood host of a ghost hunter reality show. Despite the ghost hunter’s best efforts, things quickly get out of hand. Are the apparitions really ghosts or just Hollywood illusions? Perhaps they’re the result of a freak act of nature – or God. While the world reels from the amazing images, fear, hatred, and revenge spiral out of control, leading to secret plots, lies, and murder. Key people work together or against each other to stop the planned assassinations, but will a final apparition help turn the tide of events?
During an unusual heat wave in Nazareth, a series of freak geomagnetic storms sets in motion a bizarre chain of events, all of which revolve around a lone ancient vase. The vase belongs to a humble Palestinian potter who depends on the largess of tourists to earn his meager living from sales of earthenware in the Old City Market. He is no stranger to violence, having lost his eldest son three years before, when Hamas terrorists convinced the boy to participate in a terrorist attack. The potter is determined to keep his remaining son safe, but he has no idea the terrorists are secretly recruiting him to follow his older brother’s footsteps in a plot to assassinate the Pope and the Israeli prime minister during an upcoming tour of the Holy Land.
After being recruited by Shin Bet, the Israel Security Agency, a Jewish art professor plots revenge for the death of his only son in the same terrorist attack three years before. Realizing the terrorists use the potter’s shop as a clandestine meeting place, the professor convinces the potter to lend him an ancient vase from his ancestral collection for art history classes at the local university. With the help of a fellow operative, the professor plants a remote-control bomb inside the vase and then returns it to the potter.
Meanwhile, the appearance of apparitions in the Old City Market – Roman soldiers, ancient Islamic warriors, and more – causes local Muslim holy men to curse a lucrative Lebanese restaurant located across the street from the potter’s shop. Desperate to rid his business of the spirits, the restaurant owner calls on the Hollywood host of a ghost hunter reality show. Despite the ghost hunter’s best efforts, things quickly get out of hand. Are the apparitions really ghosts or just Hollywood illusions? Perhaps they’re the result of a freak act of nature – or God. While the world reels from the amazing images, fear, hatred, and revenge spiral out of control, leading to secret plots, lies, and murder. Key people work together or against each other to stop the planned assassinations, but will a final apparition help turn the tide of events?
230 pages, Paperback
First published August 24, 2013
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About the author
Mark M. DeRobertis
5 books3 followersMark M. DeRobertis has written five novels: Killer of Killers, The Vase, Killer Eyes, Second Chance-a Football Story, and John Dunn-Heart of a Zulu.
Killer of Killers and Killer Eyes are available from Melange Books in print and digital formats. The Vase, Second Chance, and Heart of a Zulu are changing publishers soon.
Killer of Killers and Killer Eyes are available from Melange Books in print and digital formats. The Vase, Second Chance, and Heart of a Zulu are changing publishers soon.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 22, 2015
The Vase is a modern day Middle Eastern Thriller by four time author and art teacher Mark DeRobertis. It was published by Penumbra Publishing in 2012 and printed in the USA. Set in Nazareth, Israel The Vase centres around four groups of people: A Hollywood Paranormal hack and his production team, a group of extremist Hammas turning a grieving fourteen year old boy Naji Muhabi into a suicide bomber, a group of Shin Bet agents wrought with ideas of revenge for the shootings which killed Israeli Art History Professor Weiss’ son and the middle aged agnostic potter Muhsin Muhabi and father of Naji. Muhsin’s ancient pottery shop is the critical location for much of the action, having once been ‘blessed by the Prophet’, the radical terrorists use it as a base of operations and it sits nestled in the Old City Market across from a Lebanese Restaurant plagued with the ghostly apparitions that lead Hollywood Ghost Hunter Harvey Holmes to the Middle East.
I’ve been trying to dig up a word to explain the novel and revenge does it. All sides have their desires for revenge and most of them are violent, terrible and warranted. This is not a book to relax with, but a roiling yarn meant to unsettle and destabilize the reader. Muhsin’s struggle to raise his son and entice his wife to stay in the Holy Land gripped me more than Dr. Weiss’ attempt to rectify the deaths of his wife and son, but the rhythm of the prose kept me one step from true effortless enjoyment. The soul of the novel might pivot around Muhsin and his pottery shop, but the action pivots around Dr. Weiss and young, manipulated Naji.
I love becoming emotionally involved in my reading. For me the draw of the heartstring’s pluck is the greatest arrow an author has to pull back on his or her literary bow. The Vase didn’t hit me. I read the situations and the sometimes gut-wrenching choices by DeRobertis and sat back asking why the cries of a Syrian mother for her teenaged would-be Jihadist son didn’t put a lump in my throat.
There isn’t anything wrong with Mark DeRobertis’ prose nor is the novel without merit. The characters were centred in their world, they had compelling choices to make or unmake and they all fought for their best possible ending (Or the ending that was well enough to be expected). As a twisting tale of middle eastern political and spiritual land minesThe Vase does simple, but fine. Clear, unpretentious prose helps maintain the stability of the novel and saves some of the action from falling to the prison of the cliche.
But I didn’t feel it. The risks seemed one step removed from the urgency I wanted to experience with Naji, Mary, Benny, Dr. Weiss and Muhsin. The Vase itself kept me going, hoping that at the very least such an amazing piece of pottery (and scientific phenomenon) would end up nestled behind glass in a museum, or taken in by a spiritual leader. Given to moments of cleverness, the novel left me empty. I didn’t get swept into the prose, but remained conscious of each turning page and that’s a shame. Given the chance to inspect the emotions and sentiments of its characters and setting, The Vase would have been a fantastic read.
I would recommend The Vase to anyone with time on their hands who has a penchant for sticking their fingers into the conundrum of the Middle East. As a pocket thriller, or gift to a young man it does alright.
Rating: 3/5
I’ve been trying to dig up a word to explain the novel and revenge does it. All sides have their desires for revenge and most of them are violent, terrible and warranted. This is not a book to relax with, but a roiling yarn meant to unsettle and destabilize the reader. Muhsin’s struggle to raise his son and entice his wife to stay in the Holy Land gripped me more than Dr. Weiss’ attempt to rectify the deaths of his wife and son, but the rhythm of the prose kept me one step from true effortless enjoyment. The soul of the novel might pivot around Muhsin and his pottery shop, but the action pivots around Dr. Weiss and young, manipulated Naji.
I love becoming emotionally involved in my reading. For me the draw of the heartstring’s pluck is the greatest arrow an author has to pull back on his or her literary bow. The Vase didn’t hit me. I read the situations and the sometimes gut-wrenching choices by DeRobertis and sat back asking why the cries of a Syrian mother for her teenaged would-be Jihadist son didn’t put a lump in my throat.
There isn’t anything wrong with Mark DeRobertis’ prose nor is the novel without merit. The characters were centred in their world, they had compelling choices to make or unmake and they all fought for their best possible ending (Or the ending that was well enough to be expected). As a twisting tale of middle eastern political and spiritual land minesThe Vase does simple, but fine. Clear, unpretentious prose helps maintain the stability of the novel and saves some of the action from falling to the prison of the cliche.
But I didn’t feel it. The risks seemed one step removed from the urgency I wanted to experience with Naji, Mary, Benny, Dr. Weiss and Muhsin. The Vase itself kept me going, hoping that at the very least such an amazing piece of pottery (and scientific phenomenon) would end up nestled behind glass in a museum, or taken in by a spiritual leader. Given to moments of cleverness, the novel left me empty. I didn’t get swept into the prose, but remained conscious of each turning page and that’s a shame. Given the chance to inspect the emotions and sentiments of its characters and setting, The Vase would have been a fantastic read.
I would recommend The Vase to anyone with time on their hands who has a penchant for sticking their fingers into the conundrum of the Middle East. As a pocket thriller, or gift to a young man it does alright.
Rating: 3/5
Displaying 1 of 1 review