Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A modern Poirot with a hard edge, 20 Aug 2007
I read this on holiday in 5 hours and found it "unputdownable" if I may be excused the clichee. Not a dull word. Not a wasted word. Lots of atmosphere and a fast paced plot. Zouroudi writes beautifully and develops her own flavour of the Greek islands (the book compares favourably with Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Island (by Victoria Hislop). The story moves remorselessly to an unpredictable but very satisfying and poetic ending. I look forward eagerly to her next book. Strongly recommended.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Winged Messenger, 10 Sep 2008
This book had me incommunicado for most of last weekend while I became totally immersed in this, the first I gather, of The Mysteries of the Greek Detective.
"When the battered body of a young woman is discovered on a remote Greek island, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident. Then a stranger arrives, uninvited from Athens, announcing his intention to investigate further..."
The stranger "a fat man" arrives early one morning on the island of Thiminos and visits the police station only to find that the body has already been buried and the case dismissed by the obviously corrupt and venal Chief of Police who challenges his authority to investigate the death of Irini Asimakopoulos. Asked who he is the Fat Man replies "My name is Hermes Diaktoros. I expect you're surprised at my name: Hermes Messenger. My father's idea of humour. He was a classical scholar"
Ignoring all opposition the Fat Man books in at the local hotel and starts asking questions with varying reactions of hostility and fear. The general consensus is that Irina was an unfaithful wife who had committed suicide and his interference is resented. One by one he talks to those who knew her: her husband Andreas, her uncle Nickos, the man she became infatuated with and who rejected her, Theo and a picture begins to emerge of a bored, depressed woman desperate to escape from the bleak island.
As layers of deception, jealousy and spite are uncovered, the Fat Man punishes the transgressors in his own way, dispensing an eye for an eye brand of justice. The police chief, who pressurises local wives to sleep with him in order to save their families and/or husbands from prison for some slight misdemeanour, ends up on a ferry with one of the cuckolded husbands who exacts a swift revenge on him; a vicious attack on Irina by a member of the community finds a scorpion reposing in her handbag; the cowardly lover who deserted her is tarred and feathered and dragged through the town for all to see. On the other hand, those who were kind and those islanders who have suffered are rewarded. One abandoned wife who, in order to hide her shame, had to pretend to be a widow learns that her husband is finally dead and she is now free to do as she chooses. Nikos, Irina's uncle who loved her and looked out for her, and who is dying painfully on his own, is taken by the Fat Man to his long estranged sister so he is not alone when the end comes. Once he is satisfied that the death of Irina has been avenged the Fat Man leaves.
So who is the Fat Man? Well, just remember his name ' Hermes Messenger' and the fact that a he was sent by 'a higher authority in Athens' and his method of punishing transgressors and rewarding virtue.
Almost as if the Gods on Olympus had decreed it so.....
Brilliant and I am already looking forward to the next one.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Greek delight, 12 Aug 2008
Why is a young woman lying dead at the bottom of a moutainside, and why have the local police declined to investigate? And how is the mystery linked to the local way of life?
This isn't a typical crime novel: it's as much an examination of the social and cultural factors influencing the crime as a whodunit, and the pace is quite leisurely (although it never drags its feet). It's set on a small Greek island, in winter, when everyone is struggling to make ends meet, and I can vouch for its authenticity, from my acquaintance with the remote Greek community where I read this. (Wish I was still there.) It's unusually well-written, rich with description, and full of excellent characters and dialogue. The resolution satisfies, and the enigma of the in-coming investigator's origins is quite intriguing! Anne Zouroudi is a talented writer, and her book deserves to do an awful lot better than I suspect it will (not helped by the fact that her surname begins with a Z; have a look, next time you're in a bookshop, and watch where people tend to peruse the shelves). Thoroughly recommended, but maybe not for those who like their crime lightning-paced and full of action.
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