Rhys Sterling - The Riviera Caper, pe Youtube

Cartea mea, The Riviera Caper, scrisa sub pseudonimul Rhys Sterling, prezentata pe Youtube, la link-ul:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69_5e9BMyeM

TRANSCRIPT:

The Riviera Caper has the charm of a sunlit thriller with a restless, modern edge. It opens on the French Riviera with a near accident that turn into an unexpected meeting and from that point on the novel quickly builds an atmosphere of elegance, movement and intrigue.

There is something immediately cinematic about it. The winding coastal roads, the Mediterranean light, the expensive restaurants, the polished strangers, the sense that behind the glamour there is always something unstable waiting to surface. One of the book’s trends is precisely this contrast between surface and substance. On one hand, there is beauty, style, travel and seduction. On the other, a feeling of drift, unease, dislocation.

Jay is not a conventional hero. He’s intelligent, watchful, ruthless, and often at odds with the world around him.

His background, his choices, his wondering life give the story a contemporary feel because he embodies a kind of restless outsiderhood that feels very current. He’s not simply moving through places. He’s testing them, measuring what they can offer and trying to understand where, if anywhere, he belongs. Sophie, meanwhile, brings another layer to the story. She’s not there merely as a romantic counterpart, but as someone equally shaped by ambition, fatigue, private dissatisfaction.

Her presence adds intelligence and tension to the novel and the exchanges between the two characters have enough wit and spark to keep the emotional thread alive alongside the broader plot.

Their meeting has the right balance of accident and inevitability.

Improbable in the way fiction sometimes must be, but convincing in the way it develops. What also stands out is the novel’s eye for social detail. Beneath the Riviera sheen, the book keeps glancing toward bigger realities: economic precarity, modern loneliness, class difference, migration, professional exhaustion, and the instability of contemporary life. These elements are not pushed to the front as heavy commentary, but they give the story texture and make it feel more grounded than a simple escapiscaper.

That is part of what gives the novel its interest. It moves through stylish settings about becoming shallow. The writing has an expansive reflective quality. It likes to linger not only on events but also motivation, memory, and the small ways a life is shaped over time that gives the book a distinctive rhythm of its own. Rather than rushing headlong, it allows the reader to inhabit the character’s worlds, their desire, and their contradictions. For readers who enjoy stories where travel, attraction, reinvention, and risk are all closely intertwined, this will be part of the appeal.

The Riviera Caper offers more than its title initially suggests. Yes, it has the ingredients of a sophisticated coastal mystery, but also carries a broader sense of personal drift and social observation. The Riviera Caper written by Rhys Sterling is right now available in bookstores and available in digital platforms.

My interview with my publisher, Europe Books

Today we talk about The Riviera Caper, a book by Rhys Sterling published with our publishing house Europe Books.

Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Rhys Sterling to get to know him better, where he found the inspiration to write his novel The Riviera Caper, as well as how his passion for writing started.

Q: Where did you find the inspiration to write your novel?

 A: Ideas came to me naturally, and I find it easy to elaborate on them. I don’t find my inspiration in my own life, in the sense that the narrative it’s not derived from my actual life; it is a work of fiction. Nevertheless, one’s own real experiences have a way to seep into the fiction. Consequently, while remaining in the imaginary realm, the writer’s tastes, ideas, preferences, happenings, might permeate into the epic, although the intention was never to report on his own living. We thus can say that, inevitably, there is an inspiration coming from the body of knowledge obtained from what the writers experienced and lived. Apart from this, I drew my inspiration from reading. It doesn’t mean that I borrow ideas from other authors, but that the reading activity transposes me into a creative state of mind. When the mood sets in, the inspiration automatically enhances several-fold.

Q: What is the message you want to send out with your writing?

 A: I started out to write a book one could take to the beach during holidays to read it while getting a tan. Maybe even on the French Riviera, the locale of this novel. And have fun out of reading it. Of course, there is a message the book sends out. That is to be adventurous, live life to the fullest, get out of your shell and do not always seek the material side of life. Formally, the novel it’s an action book, a caper, but it is intertwined with a love story scrutinized with such minutiae that almost takes over as the main theme of the book. The book’s scope is even much larger than the caper and the love story. It encompasses aspects of coming of age, of finding the hero’s place in the world following university graduation, of lifestyle, ideas and dreams, the readers being presented with the main character’s microcosm, which is positive and full of hope.

Q: How did your passion for writing start?

A: The passion for writing – I guess I always had it in me. I thought of myself as a potential writer ever since the high school. I even fancied the thought of studying literature at the university. But pragmatism won, I went on to the law school instead and other activities took priority in life; I had to put off indefinitely the beginning as a writer. I went into various legal fields and built a career there. I did write occasionally, but only scientific papers. The thought of me becoming a writer still lingered on all these years. Much later I revisited my ambitions to become a writer and I ascertained I still had the drive. I decided to give it a go. So, I started writing without pressure, without a timetable, just to see where this new activity will get me. It led me to the completion of this first book, with which I am very satisfied. The journey was enjoyable and left me with the desire to repeat the feat.

Q: How was your publishing experience?

A: It was wonderful. I endorse Europe Books, my publisher, whole-heartedly. They gave me the opportunity to make my literary debut. Their approach does not involve an agent, but a direct one-to-one working relationship and comprehensive assistance throughout the publishing process. They do all the work usually expected from a literary agent on top of the publishing operations. It is a great plus for writers, whose only care remain to get the writing done. I could concentrate on this and I am very pleased with the publisher. I hope to continue the collaboration with my future novels. The timeframe they laid out was also advantageous and fast. All the steps involved were completed promptly, on time and professionally. Of course, none of these are of any use if the writer does not put in the hours, doesn’t do the hard work, doesn’t persist and doesn’t overcome the occasional hiccup and writer’s block. But if one commits to getting the job done, their expertise in publishing will prove a great help and very valuable.

Q: Are you planning to write more books? Can you tell us more about it?

A: Definitely. This book will have at least a sequel, I hope to finish it by autumn. The tables turn in the second book. The villain, let’s call him like this, Tanaka, seeks to get even with the hero of the current book and forces him to do a job in England. That’s why the prospective novel it’s called provisionally “The English Job”. Without unravelling too much of the plot, I can tell you that the story involves football, bet fixing and high stakes, has fast paced action and narrates some imaginative work from Jay. Maybe this first book will even turn into a series, as I envisage a third novel in which I’ll pitch the both of them, by then reconciled, against “the world” so to speak, flaunting the laws and trying hard to make their own luck. It hasn’t got a definitive plan yet so I can anticipate only with the title – “The Belgian Heist” – and the basic idea of the book: they get together to make a big and spectacular score.

Am debutat literar: mi-a aparut primul roman, “The Riviera Caper”

Debutul meu editorial s-a realizat in Vest, in limba engleza. Romanul este unul de aventuri si se intituleaza “The Riviera Caper”. L-am publicat sub pseudonimul Rhys Sterling (sugerat de IA). Actiunea se petrece pe Riviera franceza, scrierea facand parte din subgenul "caper" al genului "crime&mystery".

Iata rezumatul care se gaseste pe coperta cartii:
“On the sun-drenched edge of the French Riviera, chance is never accidental.
Jay Jones arrives in Southern France carrying little more than a backpack, a restless past, and a fierce desire for freedom. A former footballer, minimalist drifter, and reluctant law graduate, Jay is searching for a life untouched by debt, routine, and compromise. What he finds instead is Sophie Durant— an ambitious Nice-based lawyer whose ordered world collides spectacularly with his own when a roadside accident brings them together.
Their encounter ignites more than attraction. Against a backdrop of Mediterranean beauty, social inequality, and quiet disillusionment with modern life, their stories intertwine—two outsiders shaped by different systems, yet driven by the same hunger for meaning, independence, and adventure.
The Riviera Caper is a sharp, atmospheric novel about escape and reinvention, where romance meets social observation and idealism clashes with reality.
Moving from American highways to European coastlines, it explores freedom, class, ambition, and the seductive illusion of starting over.
Witty, reflective, and unapologetically human, this is a story about what happens when life veers off course—and why sometimes, that’s exactly where it’s meant to go”.
“Rhys Sterling is a lawyer from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and The Riviera Caper is his debut novel”.
Romanul poate fi achizitionat de pe pagina de autor a editurii Europe Books. Se gaseste la link-ul: https://www.europebookstore.com/products/the-riviera-caper-rhys-sterling/