Rocamora
"Man of Masks"
by Donald Michael Platt
No man is closer to a woman than her confessor,
not her father, not her brother, not her husband.
-Spanish saying
Vicente de Rocamora, the epitome of a young renaissance man in 17th century Spain, questions the goals of the Inquisition and the brutal means used by King Philip IV and the Roman Church to achieve them. Spain vows to eliminate the heretical influences attributed to Jews, Moors, and others who would taint the limpieza de sangre, purity of Spanish blood.
At the insistence of his family, the handsome and charismatic Vicente enters the Dominican Order and is soon thrust into the scheming political hierarchy that rules Spain.
As confessor to the king's sister, the Infanta Doa Mara, and assistant to Philip's chief minister, Olivares, Vicente ascends through the ranks and before long finds himself poised to attain not only the ambitious dreams of the Rocamora family but alsoif named Spain's Inquisitor Generalto bring about an end to the atrocities committed in the name of the blood purity laws.
The resourceful young man must survive assassination attempts from a growing list of ruthless foes in both Church and court, solve a centuries-old riddle to quell rumors of his own impurity of blood, and above all, suppress his love for the seemingly unattainable Doa Mara.
About the Author:
In Hollywood, Donald Michael Platt sold his writing to the TV series, Mr. Novak, and worked for and with diverse producers. After moving to Jupiter, Florida, Donald co-wrote "Vitamin Enriched, " 1999, for Carl DeSantis, founder of Rexall Sundown Vitamins; and "The Couple's Disease," 2002, for Lawrence S. Hakim, MD, FACS, Head of Sexual Dysfunction Unit at the Cleveland Clinic.
Born and raised in San Francisco and a graduate of Lowell High school and U.C. Berkeley, Donald also has taught History, English, and Creative Writing. An Adjunct Professor of Writing at Polk Community College, he currently resides in Winter Haven, Florida with his wife, Ellen, where he is working on the sequel to "Rocamora" and crafting another dark novel. His horror novel, "A Gathering Of Vultures, " was published by Darkhart Press in 2007.