In this second novel in the Gloucester Trilogy, John Palermo battles his way through emotional and professional conflicts in this gripping tale by acclaimed author Joseph M. Orlando. Having lost his beloved wife, Connie, John struggles with life as a single father. His emotions are palpable as he wrestles with his devotion to his lost wife, duty to his children, and his burgeoning feelings for a new woman.
Professionally, John takes on the case of his nemesis, Captain Joe Amalfi, who is found floating in a life raft alone in the icy Atlantic when his fishing boat sinks with his crew still aboard. Amalfi's emotional turmoil after this event is one challenge, among many, to John's struggle to help the widows and children of the men on Amalfi's boat, many of whom were John's boyhood friends. As Amalfi's condition worsens, John seeks to unravel the mystery of what happened on the boat that terrible day, sparking a gripping courtroom battle filled with surprise twists and turns and an ending that John could never have predicted.
The Bastard's Weapon takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster from beginning to end, all set among the beautiful fishing community of Gloucester, Massachusetts. It is a novel for any reader who is intrigued by the power of love, the fight of the righteous, and the true human drama played out each day in the courtrooms of America.
Professional Reviews
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
"...an engaging tribute to the glory of Gloucester fishermen and the adventure of good lawyering... [Orlando] cleverly blurs the lines of good and evil to tease the reader, inevitably the good are very, very good and the evil are rotten. The fun lies in determining who is who."
Exhibit A Magazine
"Orlando has written about what he knows and loves best: family values, trial lawyering, Gloucester fishermen and good Italian food. And he succeeds in making your senses tingle for each one. Not only is his latest novel an entertaining digression into the arduous and often dangerous lives of Gloucester fishermen and their families, but it offers a tantalizing invitation into the life of John Palermo, first-generation Sicilian, a fisherman's son and a dashingly eloquent trial attorney."
Ever Seen Magazine
In The Bastard’s Weapon, Joe wastes no time emotionally setting up the reader with the loss of Palermo’s wife, Connie. Attorney John Palermo struggles as a single father to raise the two small children he and Connie spawned as he takes on the case of his nemesis, Captain Joe Amalfi of the Mio Mondo.
Amalfi, rescued from the icy Atlantic after the Mio Mondo sinks with his crew of three still aboard, hires Palermo to win his claim against the insurance company. John seeks to solve the mystery of what transpired on the Mio Mondo as well save the homes of the widows and children of the men onboard. As Amalfi’s emotional state deteriorates setting the stage for the courtroom drama, John realizes he has feelings for one of the widows he is representing.
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Not only do the seas roll on but two romances,a death at sea, uncovered past lives, history uncovered in Brazil, caves in Australia, poetry in Senegal, the Lux Mundi
I Made My Boy Out of Poetry is a powerful literary vision of rare scope, beauty and emotional intensity composed of stories and poems that flow in and out of each other like the most lucid and articulate of dreams. These are portraits and studies of
