Detroit native Mark bello enjoys meeting with fans and discussing his novels, the latest of which is entitled “A Betrayal of Justice.” His first two legal thrillers, and another one scheduled for release early next year, are set in Detroit-area cities.
By Kurt Anthony Krug
Legal News
Attorney/author Mark M. Bello didn’t think he could write a novel.
“It’s hard to believe that I could write one book, let alone three, and (I’m) working on a fourth. I honestly didn’t think I had it in me,” said Bello, 65, of West Bloomfield.
Bello — along with fellow authors Sarah Zettel, Patricia Abbott, Judy Lee Burke, Con Lehane, and Meg Macy — mingled with fans and signed their books at the Holiday Open House at Aunt Agatha’s in Ann Arbor over the weekend.
Aunt Agatha’s co-owner Robin Agnew said the gathering was “a fun, casual event where the goal is for readers and writers to really mingle and get a chance to talk.”
Zettel was promoting her latest two novels in the Rosalind Thorne series of historical mysteries — “A Useful Woman” and “A Purely Private Manner” — under the pseudonym Darcie Wilde.
Bello said he was looking forward to discussing and signing his novels “A Betrayal of Faith” and “A Betrayal of Justice” — both featuring lawyer Zachary Blake — at Aunt Agatha’s.
“I enjoy attending bookstore events and talking to like-minded readers about topical legal and political issues whether they share my views or not. Ann Arbor is a wonderful ‘college town’ with a challenging, educated population,” he said.
A Detroit native, Bello earned his undergraduate degree in English literature from Oakland University in Rochester and his juris doctor in law from what is now the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing.
He has been a practicing attorney for more than 40 years. He and his wife Tobye have four children and eight grandchildren.
“My (parents) inspired me to go as far in school as I could and become a professional. I chose law because I wanted to be someone who made sure that justice was applied equally to all citizens of this country, regardless of ethnicity and economic circumstance,” said Bello.
Bello said he owns and operated a Michigan-based lawsuit funding company that “helps litigation plaintiffs financially, while their cases are pending.”
“I have been doing this for 20 years and I practiced law in Michigan for (more than) 20 years before starting my company, Lawsuit Financial, Inc,”?he said.
Writing his first novel was a bucket list item for Bello.
“(‘Faith’) was inspired by a Michigan case that I handled in the mid-1980s in which two boys were molested by a priest. The experience was something that I believed would make an important book and I promised myself that I would one day write that book, which — ultimately — I did. So, cross that off my bucket list,” he said.
“Faith” — set in Farmington Hills with the trial scenes occurring at Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit — touches on the “conspiracy of silence” Bello encountered from the Catholic church, its hierarchy, and its legal representatives.
“The Coalition is a fictional group but describes what the legal combat experience with the church felt like to me,” he said. “This was the toughest legal challenge of my professional career.”
“Faith” also introduced Zachary Blake.
“Zachary is a plaintiff’s lawyer and is loosely based, in part, on me,” Bellos said. “However, I was never ‘down and out’ like he was, nor was I ever as skilled or successful as he became. I guess you could say that he became the lawyer I would like to have become. As to the name of the character, Zachary is my son's name and Blake is one of my nephews.”
On the plus side, Bellow noted he’s been “happily married for 42 years and never fell on the hard economic and personal times that he went through.”
“He almost destroyed his career, went through a bitter divorce, and fell in love with his client — something that I would never do,” Bellow said. “He needed redemption. That was never me.”
“Justice,” his second legal thriller which is set in Dearborn, was inspired by the still-controversial 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“As it became clear to me that Trump had a chance to be elected, I began to wonder what it would be like — especially for Muslim Americans — for our government to be run by an Islamophobic, racist bigot who was an inspiration to white nationalists everywhere,” he said. “I began writing the book in October of 2016 and finished it in early March of 2017. Sadly, many of the actions and policies advanced by my fictional POTUS have been advanced by our current president,” said Bello.
His third book, “Betrayal in Blue” — also set in Dearborn — is scheduled for an early 2018 release. Not only does it bring back Blake, but the police officer Jack Dylan, who was introduced in the second book.
“I’m very proud of the book because I wrote it without the profound inspiration — an actual case and a presidential election — that prompted my first two novels,” said Bello. “From a self-evaluation, self-satisfaction point of view, I proved to myself that I could write a great novel without any particular current event inspiring it. That’s pretty cool if I may say so myself.”
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