FATA! The Act of the Avengeance (The de'Conte Series, 4)
Nicholas Borelli, 2012
CreateSpace
360 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781463654115
Summary
The virtually continuous abuse of females in our society compels some to debate and impels others to act. Every father must protect his daughter—and all of our daughters need protection.
Niccolo Cervantes de’Conti began his career as a New York City Prosecutor and rose to become the United States Attorney in New York. He then entered private practice at a prominent, New York law firm, The Union and Metropolitan.
Years before, Nick de’Conti’s college-age daughter, Elspeth, was kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered. The system he trusted failed him. He reverted to the base instincts of his youth in inner-city East Harlem and murdered his daughter’s killers.
As a result, de’Conti is recruited into FATA!, a secret society of wealthy, middle-age men (The Protectors) and admiring young women (The Communicators), that avenges the deaths of females lost to violence (The Lost Ones). FATA! stands for Fathers Against the Abuse; de’Conti becomes prominent in this cult of grieving fathers and the sisters of young women murdered by predatory men.
De’Conti and his cult accomplish in the darkness of the night what law enforcement cannot achieve in the bright light of day.
Author Bio
• Birth—1951
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.M.E., Pratt Institute; M.B.A., Fordham University
• Currently—lives in Wilton, Connecticut
When Emma Montague left the strict confines of upper-crust British life for New York, she felt sure it would make her happy. Away from her parents and expectations, she felt liberated, throwing herself into Manhattan life replete with a high-paying job, a gorgeous apartment, and a string of successful boyfriends. But the cutthroat world of finance and relentless pursuit of more began to take its toll. This wasn’t the life she wanted either.
On the move again, Emma settles in the picturesque waterfront town of Westport, Connecticut, a world apart from both England and Manhattan. It is here that she begins to confront what it is she really wants from her life. With no job, and knowing only one person in town, she channels her passion for creating beautiful spaces into remaking the dilapidated cottage she rents from Dominic, a local handyman who lives next door with his six-year-old son.
Unlike any man Emma has ever known, Dominic is confident, grounded, and committed to being present for his son whose mother fled shortly after he was born. They become friends, and slowly much more, as Emma finds herself feeling at home in a way she never has before.
But just as they start to imagine a life together as a family, fate intervenes in the most shocking of ways. For the first time, Emma has to stay and fight for what she loves, for the truth she has discovered about herself, or risk losing it all.
In a novel of changing seasons, shifting lives, and selfless love, a story unfolds—of one woman’s far-reaching journey to discover who she is truly meant to beM.B.A., Fordham University
• Currently—Wilton, Connecticut
Nicholas Borelli, a New England based author, has and continues to write the de'Conti series.
The novels currently include Let No Man Be My Albatross, A Convoluted Defense, The Machiavelli Imperative, FATA! The Act of the Vengeance, At Last Reconciled and IRAN. Mr. Borelli is writing two more novels: Dahij and A Special Prosecution.
These works feature the protagonist Niccolo Cervantes de'Conti. Mr. Borelli has conceived and developed a central character based on his knowledge of and first-hand experience with the gritty New York inner city of his youth. Nick de'Conti is an ethnic mixture of Basque and Southern Italian. He has a penchant for independent thought and action, and a passion with which he approaches everything in his life. He is a prominent lawyer, an aristocrat. The arc of his life is developed from the depths of his childhood poverty in East Harlem in the cruel, inner city streets of New York City to his unimagined success—albeit troubled, conflicted and, at times, ethically bereft.
These novels are edgy, raw, graphic and thought-provoking.
Although de'Conti is a former New York City prosecutor and United States Attorney, his hard life as a child in the inner city of East Harlem sometimes causes him to mete out as much street justice as he does the legal kind. He abhors the abuse of women, his own college-age daughter having been murdered at the hands of male predators. He will revert to instincts he developed as an inner city kid, even though he lives in a Fifth-Avenue penthouse on a high floor across from New York's Central Park. (From the author.)
Visit borellibooks.com.
Follow Nicholas on Instagram.
Book Reviews
Mr. Borelli does not hesitate to satisfy in remarkably imaginative ways....This story has a dollop of everything.... I can't wait to read more of Nick Borelli.
Stephanie Rogers, Amazon Customer Review
This novel combines emotion, rage and suspense with a...balance of sensual words and descriptions. I just love it.
Vicky3, Amazon Customer Review
[T]ruly a great read.... I loved all 4 books, can not wait to read the other ones.
Joy, Amazon Customer Review
[A] fast-moving, exciting and unorthodox read.... [E]xtremely relevant to the current problems women are facing and the author does an excellent job offering a male perspective.
Zeynep Doga Arican, Amazon Customer Review
Discussion Questions
1. Would you consider de’Conti a serial killer?
2. Is he cruel and, if so, is he justified in being so?
3. What do you think of his technique? Are his assumptions about the technique and its effect obtaining the desired result?
4. What is your psychological assessment of Nick de’Conti?
5. Discuss his myriad romantic entanglements.
6. What do you think of Henrietta, his transgender guardian at Rikers Island? What do you think of his evolving reaction toward her?
7. Were you shocked by the ending twist?
8. Do you think, if you’re a woman, that de'Conti is at once, simultaneously, alluring and revolting?
9. What do you think of The Pig and Gabriella Desjardins?
10. What do you think of the book’s cover? Does the mask evoke a cult and would this novel make for a good feature film?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)