Today, I am chatting with author B. Roman about her gripping novel, A Man’s Face, a story of murder, blackmail, corruption, betrayal, and long-buried family secrets
Buy first, let's check out A Man’s Face
A scar from cheek to chin is all Marc Jordan remembers of the man kneeling over his dead mother.
Now, 15 years later, Marc searches his memory for clues; he hopes to be the first to find the killer. Murder, blackmail, corruption and betrayal leave a trail from the storied vineyards of Spain to the wineries of Southern California, where no one is who or what they claim to be.
Forced to accept a court case he does not want, Marc inadvertently unravels the threads that lead to solving his mother’s murder. But with each revelation, his life spirals more and more out of control.
A Man’s Face is a multi-generational saga of treachery and corruption, set against the backdrop of the elite wine industry and courtroom drama.
A Man's Face begins with a haunting childhood memory that continues to shape Marc Jordan's life fifteen years later. What first inspired the premise of the novel?
As with all my stories, a title pops into my head, then comes an image and a brief premise, which might be just a sentence. The premise has to so intrigue me that I see and hear little nuggets of story that enlarge on the idea, then I begin to fall in love, if you will, with giving the story a life of its own. The title, “A Man’s Face” was all I needed to let the creative juices flow, leading to all kinds of opportunities for story and character exploration. The “face” is only seen in left profile with a definable scar from cheek to chin, the “face” is that of a young man with a panicky expression, the “face” holds many secrets that unfold piece by piece, page by page.
Family secrets and hidden motivations appear to play a significant role in the novel. Why do you think stories about buried truths continue to captivate readers?
The secrets that all the characters hold play off one another. It’s an intriguing game of what do they know and when did they know it. There is a vengeful ex-wife, a spoiled and ambitious son, a daughter who has a macabre fascination with fire. They all have something on one another and use it as leverage to their own benefit. The characters are initially ignorant of the truth about one another, but readers discover those truths before the characters do. Wondering how those secrets will be revealed and what the characters’ reactions will be to the big reveal is what keeps readers turning pages. The outcomes cannot be predictable or readers will be disappointed. I structured the story so that from the opening pages readers are hit with three unbelievable, violent scenarios that set the stage for all the intrigue, betrayal, and malevolence to come. As one reviewer said, “The opening chapter will leave you breathless.”
Tell us more about Marc as a character, and about his mother and father; what kind of relationship did they have that gave Marc his emotional strength and determination?
Once upon a time, Marc Jordan was Marcus Jourdain, the son of Franco Jourdain, a winery manager who doted on his family and engaged Marcus in stories about his grandfather, a fighter pilot in WWII France. But when his beloved father is burned alive in a suspicious winery fire, Marcus and his mother, Helena Morales, are left to fend for themselves, and they bond together devotedly in tragedy. A gifted chef, Helena becomes the house cook for a prominent, and unscrupulous, businessman. When his mother is brutally murdered and the perpetrator eludes capture, Marcus goes to live for a short time with his aunt in Northern California. With the aid of a small trust from an anonymous donor, he is able to go to college and then law school. He returns to San Diego and becomes a Public Defender. He changes his name to Marc Jordan, a change that his psychiatrist, Dr. McMillan, suggests might be a way to block out the brutal deaths of his parents, while Marc is adamant it is only for pragmatic reasons: “easier to pronounce and for clients to remember.”
Marc’s has a passionate love affair with a woman who has a questionable history, of which he is completely unaware. How does this play out?
Overworked, and having no real personal life of his own, Marc is coaxed by his colleague Ben Parker to go to a special art gallery opening where he could meet some “really classy women...who are your intellectual equal” and see a unique show that is right up his alley: re-imagined renderings and models depicting the history of flight. Marc’s lifelong desire is to have his own plane, so he accompanies Ben to the gallery opening. It is here that Marc meets the beautiful and seductive gallery designer, Anabel Starr, who entices him into a storybook affair that is doomed to tragedy. Their relationship is romantic and easy going for a while, and yet their own tormented lives are fodder for intrigue, shocking revelations and plot surprises.
The vineyards and wineries of Spain and Southern California provide a fascinating backdrop to the story but are more than just narrative research. How did you weave them into a tale of betrayal and family mysteries?
I set the story in the San Diego County area, in which I lived, which has a great deal of colorful and historic wineries, landmarks, and cultural institutions. Part of the research was to find some fascinating stories of scandals, deaths, and murder at wineries, and this is where the story of the Ibarra family comes in. The secrets of the Ibarra family are deep and dark. They go back decades to the time a young Amador Ibarra worked for a vintner in Spain who was ruthless in business and created a terrible wine scandal where many people were poisoned by excessive methyl alcohol being mixed into the wine to damage the reputation of competing wineries. Amador, at the time a manager for the guilty vintner, extorted his boss to give him a new California winery in exchange for being quiet about who spiked the wine. Amador placed the blame on someone else, and the vintner yielded to Amador’s blackmail. This move from Spain to the California winery begets a litany of triumph and tragedies for the Ibarras and ultimately for Marc. The plot thickens!
As a defence attorney, Marc is forced by a judge to take a case pro bono. This case is how everything all comes together for Marc. Tell us how.
One day a case is assigned to Marc by Judge Larimer, a case the judge insists that not even the California Innocence Project will touch: the man was sent to prison 15 years earlier for a hit-and-run he swears he did not commit, but his DNA is all over the car and the victim. The perp - Clive Parsons, also known as “Bulldog” - admits to stealing the car after the hit-and-run and selling it to a chop shop, but there is no evidence of this either. He took a plea deal because of all the other crimes on his rap sheet, and now claims he was railroaded, given a 20-to life sentence, and wants a real trial.
While Marc proceeds with his personal life, blissfully unaware that it will all come crashing down around him, his investigation into Clive Parson’s case leads him to hire a private investigator to run down every witness, every piece of the case where any evidence of a cover-up might come to light. An almost impossible discovery of forensics by Marc’s shrewd P.I. reveals all the guilty parties and helps to clear Marc’s client but nearly destroys Marc’s faith in everyone close to him – including his mother. His world is falling apart.
For readers discovering A Man's Face for the first time, what do you hope they take away from Marc Jordan's journey through loss, truth, and the pursuit of justice?
Some memories we cherish, others we wish to forget. But when that choice is taken from you – as in Marc Jordan’s traumatic amnesia – the need to remember becomes obsessive, a wound that never heals and a symbol of everything stolen from him. He carries enormous guilt, wondering what he could have done to prevent her killing, or what he needs to do to solve it. Marc learns that memory is often unreliable and it is a force that can heal or destroy, as it does when he discovers what has eluded him for 15 years.
But even in his disgust and emotional devastation, he tries to reclaim his moral compass as a public defender - that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Isn’t there room for redemption even for the most heinous of crimes? When the perpetrator suffers a sickness that is beyond comprehension and must be treated as such? Even when the perpetrator is someone you love and now hate? Even when the victims are your parents? Are the circumstances truly black and white?
Marc’s life is not what he has always believed it to be. When he learns the truth about himself and how he got to this point, only then is he able to honestly answer those questions.
A huge thank you to B. Roman for joining us today and for giving us such a fascinating insight into A Man’s Face.
B. Roman
Author B. Roman (aka Barbara Roman) has been in the creative arts since childhood, when she began singing as well as writing. Her music has always informed her writing subject matter in both fiction and non-fiction works.
She is the author of the five-book Moon Singer series, two suspense novels, and three children’s books.
“It's difficult to serve two masters, as they say, but I was compelled to do so. When I was not singing, I was writing; when I was not writing, I was singing. I've learned, for me, that one creative expression nurtures the other. It is natural, therefore, that The Moon Singer series has its roots in musical theories and metaphors, entwined with the magic and mystery of metaphysical concepts and matters of ethics, faith, compassion, love, and heroism. Most of all, I hope my books inspire readers to know that, whatever their circumstances in life their greatest challenges are opportunities for growth and strength.“
B. Roman’s mantra as an author is “Your book can change someone’s life. Even for that one person, never give up - success is always just around the corner.”
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx