This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Victoria Weisfeld will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
What is the favorite book you remember as a child?
Heidi. The version I had included beautiful color illustrations. I remember them still, though when I read it back then, the pictures always disappointed me because they were never exactly the picture I had created in my mind.
What is your favorite book today?
That depends on the genre, but if you’re asking about my favorite genre, that currently is political/espionage thrillers. Some stellar authors are taking over the mantle of the late John Le Carré, and a number of them are women. Favorite book: Demon Copperhead.
Tell us about your current book in 10 words.
American travel writer in Italy runs afoul of vicious gangsters.
What are you reading right now?
American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company (nonfiction, obviously, but quite an adventure); just finished The Impossible Thing, Belinda Bauer’s 2025 crime novel long-listed for the Booker Prize.
What books do you have on hold at the library?
Two genealogy books are due in on InterLibraryLoan; my library mystery book club is reading Havoc next month. I’ve already read and reviewed it, so I don’t need to reserve a copy.
E-Reader or print? and why?
Print, simply because between working on my own writing, my blog, and my book and theater reviews, I spend too much screen time already. Print is easier on my eyes. But if I’m reviewing a book that doesn’t yet have hard copies, I will occasionally read a pdf.
Favorite book you’ve read this year?
The two Leoni Swann books, Three Bags Full and Big Bad Wool. They have the utterly preposterous premise that a flock of sheep acts as the detective in solving a crime. I would never have predicted I would love these so, but she is so good at describing animal behavior, I was totally charmed.
When do you do most of your reading?
Usually in the evening and on airplanes. I may be one of the few people you know who looks forward to a five-hour plane ride! The hour-long ride from my town into Manhattan is another prime reading opportunity. I never go to any appointment without a book or magazine in hand.
Favorite place to read?
I read in our living room and in bed. It doesn’t matter very much where I read, you’ll always find two Siamese cats napping on me.
Do you loan your books? Keep books or give them away?
I don’t loan books out unless I don’t want them back. I read and review about 45 new crime books every years for the UK website crimefictionlover.com. I also read books outside the criminal. And every January, I pull all the books I’ve read the past year off the shelves, save one or two I want to keep, give a few away, and box up the others for the library book sale. Fingers crossed they find appreciative homes.
What would make you not finish a book?
It rarely happens. But poor writing is the deal-breaker for me. Writing is a craft, and it’s an imposition on people’s time when writers don’t work to improve it, can’t recognize when they need a good editor, and just (self-) publish because they can.
I hope your readers take the opportunity to read my new destination thriller, She Knew Too Much. I think they will find it a fast-moving story with touches of romance, humor, and a big dose of humanity. I welcome their responses. Thank you for inviting me to share these few words about what I love to read.
Travel writer Genie Clarke arrives in Rome seeking inspiration, but her trip turns deadly when she overhears two mafia operatives discussing a secret "Project." Before she can escape, she's attacked and left for dead. Awakening in a hospital-alive but hunted-Genie finds the police unwilling to believe her. Only Detective Leo Angelini takes her seriously, uncovering ties between her assault, a murdered woman, and a powerful criminal network.
With the threat escalating, Leo moves Genie into hiding, where she becomes both key witness and prime target. Cut off from safety and unsure who to trust, Genie must outthink the conspirators determined to silence her.
From Rome's bright piazzas to its shadowed alleys, she faces a terrifying fight for survival-and an unexpected connection with the detective risking everything to protect her. She Knew Too Much is a lean, suspenseful psychological thriller about fear, courage, and the price of knowing too much.
I crossed the one-way traffic to reach the Piazza del Popolo’s spacious central rectangle. People ambled toward one or another of the half-dozen streets that converged on the Piazza or to the steps leading up to the Villa Borghese Gardens, where I’d spent the afternoon. I was aiming for the Via del Babuino, street of the Baboon, which got its name from a particularly hideous sculpture. In a few blocks, that street ended at the Piazza di Spagna and the always-crowded Spanish Steps, a half block from my hotel.
On the far side, I again negotiated the circling rush of traffic and chanced a look behind. What the hell? The spiky-haired blond had crossed the first stream of traffic. Now he jostled through the crowd, coming straight my way. He was tracking me, and he didn’t care if I knew it. I was in trouble. And, if I didn’t want to believe my eyes, the hair on the back of my neck confirmed it. I picked up my pace, walking as fast as I could in my flimsy sandals.
Dozens of times I’d traveled the few blocks connecting the two piazzas. Now this familiar street radiated hostility, and the stones of the Sunday-shuttered buildings reflected no warmth. Surely something, some business, would be open. I sped past my favorite stationery store, the gallery whose owner I’d interviewed. Shut tight as oysters.
Why hadn’t I asked someone near the piazza for help? Could I have made myself understood? Would they have agreed to get involved? I shook my head in frustration.
Vicki Weisfeld is a Midwesterner (Go Blue!) transplanted to New Jersey. Her short stories have appeared in leading mystery magazines, including Ellery Queen, Sherlock Holmes, and Black Cat. Find her work also in a variety of anthologies: Busted: Arresting Stories from the Beat, Seascapes: Best New England Crime Stories, Murder Among Friends, Passport to Murder, The Best Laid Plans, Quoth the Raven, and Sherlock Holmes in the Realms of Edgar Allan Poe. She's a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, which awarded "Breadcrumbs" a best short story Derringer in 2017, and the Public Safety Writers Association, which gave a similar award to "Who They Are Now" in 2020. She's a reviewer of New Jersey theater for TheFrontRowCenter.com and crime/mystery/thriller fiction for the UK website, crimefictionlover.com.
Website: http://www.vweisfeld.com">http://www.vweisfeld.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Victoria-Weisfeld/author/B07J1X2B48
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6815763.Victoria_Weisfeld
Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/She-Knew-Much-Victoria-Weisfeld/dp/B0G56LHLLS/
