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Orinoco
Orinoco is a mystery/suspense novel. Conspirators are attempting to terrorize Joe LaCarta and force him to abandon his US Senate race in Vermont. They resurrect an event long since laid to rest. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela in the 1970’s, LaCarta and his cohorts pulled off a heist of art looted by the Nazis in WWII, liquidating the proceeds to fund their programs into perpetuity. Now, twenty-five years later, they discover that the heist was not the win-win proposition they had thought. There were sinister actors on that same stage, hovering along Venezuela’s mysterious Orinoco River. 

This novel should appeal to mystery and suspense aficionados who enjoy a fast read with unexpected twists, and especially to those interested in politics, world affairs, exotic international settings, deniable espionage, and undercurrents of Nazi nefariousness. There are several interesting female characters, including an investigative reporter who becomes Joe’s lover, and young Marialena Morales, the principal character in MARACAIBO, the sequel that is in the works.

Reviews of Orinoco

"This is a heady mix that Ciullo brings to his readers. In a fast fun read, he gives the reader a story that runs from the steamy tropical settings of Venezuela to the more settled towns of Vermont with some stops in Mexico and Washington.

… The book is a quick-paced page turner, and like any good mystery, it is filled with twists and turns …

… I would recommend Orinoco to any mystery fan who is looking for a fun, fast read that may just make you stop and think a little and wonder if there is maybe a grain of truth somewhere in the tale.”
--Joe Graham
of Reader Views, www.ReaderViews.com
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"Orinoco is an interesting political thriller … Ciullo provides a twisting tale in which the past haunts the future.” 
--Harriet Klausner, #1 Reviewer at Amazon.com
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"Orinoco" offers plenty of fun of the "Don't open that door — Oh no, he opened the door!" variety. By halfway through, I was pumping my fist like any red-blooded American confronted with a global conspiracy of Nazis.

The three Peace Corps buddies and their bone-deep camaraderie— the beer they drink, the girls they meet, the schemes they concoct, the shenanigans they pull off, the trouble they get into and out of — resonate on a human level.

… a proper page-turner in which we have some level of emotional investment. Last I checked, that's the very definition of "guilty pleasure."                                          
--Michael Scott Leonard, Berkshire Eagle
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“Intrigue, excitement, drama … this book has it all. Ciullo effectively uses the life of Peace Corps volunteers and politics to create a suspense filled novel. You won’t be able to put this one down.” 
--Atty. Sherwood Guernsey
Peace Corps, Former Director Domestic Programs
and Former Mass. Legislator

“…this novel has all the makings of an excellent Hollywood thriller. There's easily enough drama, and certainly an abundance of exotic settings, to fill the big screen.

…The plot…is exceptionally well crafted and readers will find it difficult to put down. The author wouldn't mind if some Hollywood decision-makers recognize that and begin talking to him about screen rights. But that's in the future.
--A.C. Hutchison
Vermont Sunday Magazine, former editor of Times Argus
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"This is an exciting story which gets an A for plotting, and a B for characterisations, with the truest line in the book coming when Pancho’s daughter tells him her father used to talk about Joe and the work of the Peace Corps. Joe says "And you were interested? Nobody else ever seemed to be, once we returned (home).' Many RPCVs can vouch for that."
--Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader
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A Tango in Tuscany

An idyllic vacation villa is ruffled by elements from a more ruthless world. Claudio, an Argentine physician, is the life of the group, even offering to give tango lessons. Silvia, an American almost old enough to be his mother, develops a fast rapport with the charismatic Claudio, so much so that her husband Tony, the proprietor, suspects that an unlikely attraction is in the making.

But Claudio is on a mission. He has tracked the retired army officer responsible for the disappearance of his mother during Argentina’s “dirty war” twenty years before. Colonel Leone is surrounded by bodyguards in a remote Tuscan town. Claudio must get to him and make him confront his past.

But nothing is as clear-cut as it seems. Is Leone really the monster from Claudio’s nightmares? Also, those who had orchestrated the disappearances do not want Leone to reveal what he knows. They send agents to hunt the hunter, Claudio. Silvia and Tony are drawn into the cauldron. Revenge and redemption spin through a final tango as the showdown unfolds.

This novel will appeal to suspense readers who have a taste for international flavors. The drama has aspects of a morality play. Silvia is a strong female character who ponders the meaningfulness of her life. Readers interested in Italy (Tuscany in particular), Argentina (its politics in particular, not to mention the tango), and human rights issues should enjoy this novel.

Novels in the Works

Maracaibo
Although MARACAIBO will stand on its own, it can also be considered a sequel to ORINOCO, taking place some ten years later. Marialena Morales, a young college student in ORINOCO, becomes a CIA agent after September 11, 2001 and is assigned to Venezuela, where she happens upon the ambush of two US senators. One is murdered. The other, Joe LaCarta, the principal character in ORINOCO, is kidnapped. As the U.S. prepares to invade Venezuela in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign, Marialena races against the clock, one step ahead of rogue elements in her own agency, to figure out who is really responsible and to rescue LaCarta, her former mentor. Along the way, she falls in love with a rather conflicted Venezuelan undercover agent.

MARACAIBO is a political conspiracy woven around contemporary themes. Much of it takes place in the oil-rich area around Maracaibo, Venezuela and the nearby borderlands with Colombia, along the semi-lawless Guajira peninsula. There is no shortage of bad apples from an anti-US Venezuelan president, to Colombian para-military operatives, to al-Qaida agents among the Muslim population of the Guajira peninsula, to power-hungry conspirators high up in the US Government.

Garibaldi's Gift
GARIBALDI’S GIFT is dedicated to the heroic men and women from Allied forces and from the Italian population who overcame the Fascist yoke and Nazi occupation in WWII Italy. It portrays how an Italian-American returns to the Italy of his birth as an undercover operative to work with the Italian resistance in Naples and in Rome (1943-1944).

As if life were not complicated enough, Captain Dante Salvatore falls in love with resistance heroine Mariangela Altagrazia, whose husband had been murdered by the Fascist Police, or so everyone believes. Dante’s and Mariangela’s relationship becomes a life and death struggle. Can it survive the dangers and obstacles thrown in its path?

The legendary street kids of Naples—the scugnizzi, are introduced in the opening chapters. As the action moves to Rome, Gestapo Headquarters at 155 Via Tasso practically becomes a character in the dynamic of the conflict.

GARIBALDI’S GIFT is the story of ordinary people caught up in the crosshairs of an extraordinary time. The novel crafts in a number of prevalent themes: Jews being smuggled out of Italy; the role of the Catholic Church; Italian-Americans returning to fight on the soil of their forefathers; betrayal and deceit; tactics and reprisal; and the yearning for liberation. The story is woven around actual events and conditions.

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James A. “Jim’’ Ciullo - A Brief Bio
Jim Ciullo lives in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and travels regularly throughout the country. He has family in Vermont and considers it a second home. In addition to writing, he works as a consultant to human service and education agencies. Jim has worked summer seasons at several cultural venues such as Tanglewood (summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), the Edith Wharton Restoration (The Mount), and Ventfort Hall (Museum of the Gilded Age).

In 1998, Jim took early retirement from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation, where he served twenty-one years in the development of a community-based system of services for persons with mental retardation and their families. During this period, he worked in several capacities, most notably as the Area Director for Berkshire County.

He received a B.A. in 1969 from Boston College and a Masters in Education from the University of Massachusetts in 1974. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1969-1971, and taught English as a Foreign Language in Madrid, Spain in 1973.

Jim has been involved in a number of community volunteer activities. These include the United Way, the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and the Berkshire Latin American Council. He is a member of several organizations such as Amnesty International Urgent Action Network, Order Sons of Italy, the National Association of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (including Peace Corps Writers), and the Berkshire Writers Room. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America. Also, he has worked in a number of political campaigns.

Jim has traveled extensively in Latin America and in Europe (especially Italy). He is fluent in Spanish, and can get along in Italian. Besides travel, his interests include sports and politics, both world and national.

His published novels to date include: A TANGO IN TUSCANY (2002) and ORINOCO (2007).

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Contact information

Jim Ciullo
jciullo125@yahoo.com

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