Synopsis from Bloomsbury website: Captain Corelli's Mandolin meets Hercule Poirot in this evocative mystery set on a small Greek island.Idyllic but remote, the Greek island of Thiminos seems untouched and untroubled by the modern world. When the battered body of a young woman is discovered at the foot of a cliff, the local police — governed more by archaic rules of honour than by the law — are quick to close the case, dismissing the death as an accident. Then a stranger arrives, uninvited, from Athens, announcing his intention to look into the crime he believes has been committed.
The stranger’s methods of investigation are unorthodox, and his message to the islanders is plain — tell the truth or face the consequences. Before long, he’s uncovering a tale of passion, corruption and murder. But the stranger brings his own mystery into the web of dark secrets and lies. Who has sent him to Thiminos, and on whose authority is he acting? And how does he know of dramas played out decades ago?
Rich in images of Greece’s beautiful islands and evoking a life of which few outsiders know, this wonderful novel leads the reader into a world where the myths of the past are not forgotten and forbidden passion still has dangerous consequences.
Hi , I am trying to get a grip on this book which I find very hard to like. There is something in the way it is written that makes me lose interest all the time. In a mystery novel I do not want to know too much about the victim in the second chapter. So I quickly read on to the third, but no detective there either. He's not back sleuthing until the fifth, people! By this time I've forgotten that this is supposed to be a mystery novel. It's now just a novel about some people on a Greek island. And I am bored way back.
ReplyDeleteSorry Anne Zouroudi, not good. And I didn't care for the sex clichés either.
Now in Raymond Chandler's novels one had a hard time keeping track of some of his plots, but his writing was so good it was a joy reading, savouring each sentence. Not so here I'm afraid. Just plain sailing on the Aegean Sea.
Lars A Grønningsæter,
Tørla, Ålesund, Norge.