Talking Location With M N Grenside – SOUTH OF FRANCE (Part II)

28th May 2020

TalkingLocationWith… M N Grenside, author of Fall Out.

My thriller Fall Out isn’t restricted to any one location. The story unfolds in multiple locations around the globe.

The main characters and storylines of Fall Out crisscross three continents mirroring the trail of my own life in many ways. I was born in London and as soon as I could, I started to travel either for work or for pleasure. At the last count that was 115 countries.

A number of these places and people make up the backbone to support the story of Fall Out.  I’ve narrowed it down to these Los Angeles in Part I and here, the South of France, to give TripFiction site visitors a deeper sense of the book’s locations but also a glimpse into Fall Out’s plot, (without giving it away). The two I have chosen are as familiar to me as any place on earth.

SOUTH OF FRANCE

My Swiss/French mother grew up near Nice. I myself was a water ski-ing instructor at the Eden Roc Hotel, a location I later stayed in for many Festivals in Cannes and which features in the book. During that time a friend of mine and I once managed to gate crash a private dinner party for Princess Grace and Prince Rainier at the palace in Monte-Carlo… but that will feature in another book! Those in the know eat at the restaurant near the Eden Roc, called Bacon where one of the lead characters Marcus Riley stores his car during the Film Festival.  Despite the meat sounding name, it is by far the best fish restaurant in the South of France and much better than the famous Tetou nearby where two bowls of bouillabaisse would have cost you nearly €100! It has now been pulled down.

Cannes is really a conference town. In the summer fat tourists lie on the sand like beached whales, but from September through to May it’s one conference after another. The perfect environment for my character, Mako de Turris to ply her superficial trade of designing stands and organising parties. Nothing for her is permanent.

Villa Pied à Mar

A dear late friend of mine owned the Villa Pied à Mar complete with statue and Riva Aquarama which is where Melinda ‘Mako’ de Turris lives. The location is as picture postcard perfect as in the book, on its own promontory looking out to sea and the fish pens for loup de mer.

67 La Croisette

I attended over 50 Festivals in Cannes be they Film, TV or Record Festivals. One of the murders takes place in the actual Penthouse my company rented for many years during the festivals, 67 La Croisette. The pool really does have a glass wall that you can see into from the drawing room below the terrace. I spent many hours there negotiating deals and had always thought it would make a fantastic setting for a movie. So, when I needed a place where the character of  director Robert Kelso could stay in some style it was an easy choice.

About the book:

An LA screenwriter is killed shortly after completing his latest script, FALL OUT – a thriller destined to be a blockbuster but written with a secret double purpose.

Echoing events from the past the screenplay is sent to a very specific group of people and will change their lives forever. All are connected to a movie that had abruptly stopped shooting in the jungles of the Philippines years before. FALL OUT exposes the truth about a conspiracy and murder that led to a half-a-billion-dollar fortune for a select few.

 Follow the story of Producer Marcus Riley, who sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to get FALL OUT made. From a powerful Agent’s office in Hollywood, hidden treasures in Belgravia and a remote chalet in the Swiss Alps to murder at the Cannes Film Festival, Marcus teams up with designer Melinda (Mako) de Turris as they and the other recipients of the screenplay are pursued by an assassin from the past.

 With clues cleverly concealed in the screenplay, Marcus and Mako unravel a lethal puzzle that for some will bring death, others the truth and ends in a cave with a shocking secret…

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