Hubris, a tricky & destructive concept

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Hubris is a noun, defined as isolence or arrogance such as invites disaster. It's also the title of the third book I've published in the Roth thriller series.

Herbert James Draper, Lament for Icarus
People generally take hubris to mean 'don't tempt the Gods' by bragging or making them jealous. Greek mythology is riddled with cautionary tales of punishment of pushy individuals who offended the Gods. Icarus is an example.

Icarus' father, Daedalus, gave him wings to escape Minos but the silly boy soared too high and, as the wings were made of  wax, they melted when he flew too close to the sun. Icarus learnt about hubris the hard way.
 
The setting for the new ROTH is the world of fine art curatorship in the Louvre Museum where curators and conservators face conflicting needs and difficult decisions every day - to display the Louvre's ageing and fragile treasures for the public to see while preserving them for future generations.
None of the characters in my novel, Hubris, were given wings, but the Louvre's Head Curator, a man with a terrible secret, was given a position of complete trust. What he did when pushed to the limit of his endurance makes for an interesting look at what human beings do when given an opportunity to escape oppression.
 
That of course is the serious side of the story. You should know that when I write I treat my characters as independent beings with lives of their own. When they go off  and say and do things I don't expect I let them go. After all, they're smarter than I am. You'll also notice there's a lot of banter and, I hope, wit in the stories. Life's too short to be serious all the time. My characters are good at what they do - Roth is classified as a genius - but none of them takes themselves seriously. Watch out for Roth's supporting cast though, they're scene-stealing hacks.

Out August 11.
In Hubris Victor Roth is again given the unenviable task of solving a mystery. I thought his journey through the Louvre, its complex security and procedures for loans to other museums and conserving art made for a fascinating read.

Hubris will be available on 11 August 2017. It's on preorder at Barnes & Noble, iBooks & Kobo. Need I say it - order your copy now!

The Roth series is on sale at eBook retailers and Smashwords.com.

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