Nine Days in October

by Ron Terpening

Richard Donovan, a professor of art history from Arizona, has come to Italy on sabbatical, bringing his two girls with him--Pam, eleven years old, and Claudia, just turned sixteen. While shopping in Rome, the family falls victim to a botched heist and Claudia is taken hostage. Working with Renzo Feroni, Italy's top cop, and Sandra Patrizi, a journalist, Donovan learns that the heist is part of a much vaster conspiracy. At stake is the fate of the world's major powers and--what matters most to Donovan--his daughter's life.

Hardcover

First published January 2, 2013

About the author

I like writing thrillers (and teen novels) because they're so much fun to read. And I love reading. Reading's my favorite pastime whether it's a crime novel by Elmore Leonard or Dennis Lehane or Thomas Perry, or a spy novel by Daniel Silva or Charles McCarry, or a thriller by Nelson DeMille or Harlan Coben. I have so many favorite authors that I hesitate to name even those just listed!

But I try a bit of everything--from teen lit to popular fiction, from so-called serious literary fiction by, say, someone like Wallace Stegner or Edward Abbey, to mainstream fiction by authors such as Pat Conroy, John Irving, and Larry McMurtry, to the classics (still have to get to Proust!).

In recent years I've also read more nonfiction than normal (for me!). I particularly enjoy reading about the history of the Western half of the United States, author biographies, dog stories, and anything dealing with books and/or reading.

For more on writing, visit my blog.

I recently finished a Lifetime Reading List, which I've posted on my personal website. Arranged chronologically, the list contains nearly 3,000 novels. Unfortunately, it would probably take three lifetimes to read them all!

As for the standard bio: I was born in Bellingham, Washington, and was raised in small towns in Washington and Oregon. I graduated from Gresham Union High School (near Portland) and earned my bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in Romance Languages (after spending my sophomore year abroad in Pavia, Italy), and my Master's and Ph.D. in Italian at the University of California in Berkeley. So that's why so many of my thrillers have Italian (and international) settings.

I taught for four years at Loyola University of Chicago (1978-1982) before moving to the University of Arizona, where I was a professor of Italian until I took early retirement in 2008.

I and my wife, Vicki, live in Tucson, along with four golden retrievers, our third generation of these beautiful dogs, and two horses—a Quarter Horse and a Gypsy Vanner.

Reviews

[Marjie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my style

Just did not like the story. It seemed to drag. Forced my way through to the end. Too many people, too much foreign dialogue for a book in English.