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Charlie Morell #3
Final Acts
With the return of Cuban-American lawyer Charlie Morell, "New York Times" notable author Alex Abella once again takes readers into the dark, insidious underworld of cult killings, corrupt politicians, and the tortured heart of Morell's native Cuba. When the decapitated bodies of young women appear along the California coast, Morell, hero of "The Killing of the Saints" and "Dead of Night," returns to investigate what appear to be cult-related murders. After working for years as one of Los Angeles's supreme and most controversial criminal defenders, Morell suddenly finds himself sitting in the defendant's chair, and only Mexican-American lawyer Rita Carr -- a feisty addition to the ranks of female sleuths -- can help prove his innocence.
Battling her own demons, past and present, Rita must jeopardize all she holds dear before she can get Morell off the hook and bring the real killer to justice.
Spinning the narrative from both perspectives, Morell and Rita keep their deepest secrets hidden from each other until the final terrifying end. "Final Acts," Abella's latest tale of murder, mystery, and the occult, is sure to make any reader an instant fan.
Battling her own demons, past and present, Rita must jeopardize all she holds dear before she can get Morell off the hook and bring the real killer to justice.
Spinning the narrative from both perspectives, Morell and Rita keep their deepest secrets hidden from each other until the final terrifying end. "Final Acts," Abella's latest tale of murder, mystery, and the occult, is sure to make any reader an instant fan.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published December 5, 2000
50 people want to read
About the author
Alex Abella
23 books23 followersPapá was a poet. I am not.
But I am a writer--journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, news writer. I've tried practically everything that can be done with words upon a page, screen, or any medium, in all genres except poetry.
So far.
The first time I ever wrote anything for publication--or so I thought--I was eight years old. Like many boys who want to be writers, I wrote an adventure story, about knights in armor, if I recall correctly. I thought someone somewhere would publish it but, alas, I had no agent so...
But seriously...the next time I pursued my writing obsession was during high school in New York, when I was determined to break into The New Yorker. I sent the magazine a host of stories--none of which, mercifully, were published, or survived.
Finally, success! I began writing film reviews for my school newspaper, The Columbia Spectator, then, after graduation, became a writer for a small publication in New York.
Moving to California, I joined The San Francisco Chronicle, but was fired the day after I wrote practically the entire front page. You need more ground strokes, said my editor.
So I went to play for the electronic bullpen, becoming a reporter/news writer/producer at KTVU-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area. While there I won an Emmy (group) for newswriting, was nominated for another Emmy for reporting, worked as a foreign correspondent in Central America, wrote a cookbook on bananas, drank too much, partied too much and was thoroughly miserable.
I realized if I stayed a journalist I'd either burn out or commit suicide by age 50. So I quit the daily grind and moved to Hollywood. Since I speak fluent Spanish (I was born in Cuba, remember?) I became a court interpreter in Los Angeles and in the process founded a labor union for interpreters.
Based on my experiences in Los Angeles Superior Court, I wrote a thriller, "The Killing of the Saints," which, to my surprise, became a New York Times Notable Book. I did the movie adaptation for Paramount, then wrote something totally different, "The Great American," a historical novel based on the true story of William Morgan, an Ohio-born American who became one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
I wrote two follow-ups to Saints, "Dead of Night," and 'Final Acts," then, shaken up by the tragedy of 9/11, I returned to journalism. My research on terrorism led me to co-write "Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot against the United States," about a band of saboteurs Germany sent by U-boat to the U.S. in 1941.
Then, wanting to explore how the U.S. had become Imperial Rome, I wrote "Soldiers of Reason: The Rand Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire," a study of the world's most influential think tank, which laid the intellectual foundation for the modern world we live in.
I wrote two novels in between: "More Than A Woman," a romance set in California's wine country, and "Shanghai," a hardboiled detective story set in Havana in the dangerous interval between the death of a tyranny and the birth of another.
My latest book is "Mission Churchill," a historical thriller set in 1930s Cuba and in London during the Blitz, featuring a revenge driven IRA assassin determined to terminate the Prime Minister, and have Hitler win the war.
Oh, and since I do have a life, in between books and jobs and sundry obsessions, I married a lovely (and very patient) woman, Armeen, whom I met at KTVU. We have three great kids. For now I split my time between lovely Solana Beach and the new Athens of the Western World, Los Angeles.
That's all for me. I hope to hear from you soon.
Take care.
Alex
But I am a writer--journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, news writer. I've tried practically everything that can be done with words upon a page, screen, or any medium, in all genres except poetry.
So far.
The first time I ever wrote anything for publication--or so I thought--I was eight years old. Like many boys who want to be writers, I wrote an adventure story, about knights in armor, if I recall correctly. I thought someone somewhere would publish it but, alas, I had no agent so...
But seriously...the next time I pursued my writing obsession was during high school in New York, when I was determined to break into The New Yorker. I sent the magazine a host of stories--none of which, mercifully, were published, or survived.
Finally, success! I began writing film reviews for my school newspaper, The Columbia Spectator, then, after graduation, became a writer for a small publication in New York.
Moving to California, I joined The San Francisco Chronicle, but was fired the day after I wrote practically the entire front page. You need more ground strokes, said my editor.
So I went to play for the electronic bullpen, becoming a reporter/news writer/producer at KTVU-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area. While there I won an Emmy (group) for newswriting, was nominated for another Emmy for reporting, worked as a foreign correspondent in Central America, wrote a cookbook on bananas, drank too much, partied too much and was thoroughly miserable.
I realized if I stayed a journalist I'd either burn out or commit suicide by age 50. So I quit the daily grind and moved to Hollywood. Since I speak fluent Spanish (I was born in Cuba, remember?) I became a court interpreter in Los Angeles and in the process founded a labor union for interpreters.
Based on my experiences in Los Angeles Superior Court, I wrote a thriller, "The Killing of the Saints," which, to my surprise, became a New York Times Notable Book. I did the movie adaptation for Paramount, then wrote something totally different, "The Great American," a historical novel based on the true story of William Morgan, an Ohio-born American who became one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
I wrote two follow-ups to Saints, "Dead of Night," and 'Final Acts," then, shaken up by the tragedy of 9/11, I returned to journalism. My research on terrorism led me to co-write "Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot against the United States," about a band of saboteurs Germany sent by U-boat to the U.S. in 1941.
Then, wanting to explore how the U.S. had become Imperial Rome, I wrote "Soldiers of Reason: The Rand Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire," a study of the world's most influential think tank, which laid the intellectual foundation for the modern world we live in.
I wrote two novels in between: "More Than A Woman," a romance set in California's wine country, and "Shanghai," a hardboiled detective story set in Havana in the dangerous interval between the death of a tyranny and the birth of another.
My latest book is "Mission Churchill," a historical thriller set in 1930s Cuba and in London during the Blitz, featuring a revenge driven IRA assassin determined to terminate the Prime Minister, and have Hitler win the war.
Oh, and since I do have a life, in between books and jobs and sundry obsessions, I married a lovely (and very patient) woman, Armeen, whom I met at KTVU. We have three great kids. For now I split my time between lovely Solana Beach and the new Athens of the Western World, Los Angeles.
That's all for me. I hope to hear from you soon.
Take care.
Alex
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