Devil in Profile is OUT! Guest feature by author Kimberly G. Giarratano

The highly anticipated second book in the Billie Levine Mystery series, Devil in Profile, is officially out and about in the world!

To tell us a bit more about Devil in Profile, as well as the series as a whole, author Kimberly G. Giarratano has given us an insight into what her inspiration was for the standalone sequel. Read on for Kimberly’s full feature!

“Devil in Profile, the second book in my Billie Levine series, is officially out in the wild. For the uninitiated, Billie Levine is a 24-year-old private investigator from New Jersey. Like the state that raised her (and me), she is tenacious, snarky, and well-meaning, if not a little brash. She has a heart of gold with a Tony Soprano accent to match.

In this follow-up, Billie is working as a process server for an investigative firm. While delivering documents, she stumbles upon the elderly corpse of an art collector with ties to Nazi Germany. What follows next for Billie is a run-in with international art thieves hell-bent on revenge.

“The story was inspired by an article in The Atlantic (March 2018) called “The Persistent Crime of Nazi-looted Art” by Sophie Gilbert. In this piece, Sophie uncovers the 2010 investigation into Cornelius Gurlitt, an elderly man living in Munich. Cornelius was the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, one of Adolph Hitler’s art collectors (collector being a generous term; Hitler plundered art and his minions seized priceless works from Jewish collections and museums). After Cornelius was caught on a Swiss train with a suspicious amount of cash, German officials began digging into his finances. Turned out, the man had over 1,500 pieces of lost art from greats such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, and Marc Chagall. Names as iconic and recognizable today as they were in the 1930s. Cornelius had inherited his father’s “collection” and would periodically sell off pieces to sustain his living.

I found Cornelius Gurlitt’s story ripe for picking. I then imagined him as an old man living in North Jersey, a hoarder, clinging to art while retreating from the world. Hence, the character of Karl Sauer was born.

Oftentimes we think of World War Two as being so long ago, and yet the consequences of its day reverberate into 2024. The United States is currently contending with book bans and censorship. Hitler condemned modern art, calling it degenerate, and claimed the art wasn’t suitable for children. He would put it on display so German citizens could condemn the works for themselves. If this doesn’t sound familiar, we’re not listening.

The Gurlitt story reminded me of the William Faulkner quote: “The past is never dead, it’s not even past.” History shapes the present.

When writing a series, I sometimes worry I’ll run out of ideas. After all, how many off-track shenanigans can Billie get herself in and out of? It turns out that when there’s so much inspiration to be mined in real-life events, the answer is ‘a lot’!”

Devil in Profile is available to purchase in both paperback and eBook form. Alternatively, start your journey with Billie Levine by getting your hands on the first book in the series, Death of a Dancing Queen!

The Datura Team