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usbsticky's review against another edition
4.0
My second Andreas Kaldis book. I feel I'm over-rating this book but I like the characters.
Spoilers ahead:
Kaldis is the chief inspector of special crimes in Athens. A scion of a nouvelle riche Greek industrialist has been kidnapped and brutally murdered. It turns out that others like him, overseas Greeks who have come home and made good have been ostracized (the historical term treatment), had a family member killed or kidnapped, sold their interests and left Greece for good. It seems that the old money Greeks have been doing this basically because they didn't like the new money Greeks challenging them. But this time they picked the wrong man to ostracize, because Kostopoulos is not just any new money man, he is willing to fight back.
The plot is mainly quite good but it gets a bit complicated in the middle and finishes too quickly. I like the book mainly because the writing is easy to read and follow and I really like the characters. They have grown on me since book #1. I also enjoyed the chief inspector's love story side plot.
Overall a nice quick read and I'll definitely follow the series.
Spoilers ahead:
Kaldis is the chief inspector of special crimes in Athens. A scion of a nouvelle riche Greek industrialist has been kidnapped and brutally murdered. It turns out that others like him, overseas Greeks who have come home and made good have been ostracized (the historical term treatment), had a family member killed or kidnapped, sold their interests and left Greece for good. It seems that the old money Greeks have been doing this basically because they didn't like the new money Greeks challenging them. But this time they picked the wrong man to ostracize, because Kostopoulos is not just any new money man, he is willing to fight back.
The plot is mainly quite good but it gets a bit complicated in the middle and finishes too quickly. I like the book mainly because the writing is easy to read and follow and I really like the characters. They have grown on me since book #1. I also enjoyed the chief inspector's love story side plot.
Overall a nice quick read and I'll definitely follow the series.
mel_d's review against another edition
2.0
so this is what an American that has no real idea or interest in Greek political history and society sounds like. He should really have stuck with the police, mob, heck even the "aristocracy" part of the story. The crime solving part was not too bad. And I really hate how at the end of the book, the author never says the name of the murderer, how and why it happened. It was exactly like that in the first book of the series (murder in mykonos) too.
omnibozo22's review against another edition
3.0
Second in this series of detective stories set in Greece, brings the protagonist back to Athens to uncover an unlikely series of kidnappings and murders, carried out, of course, by the highest levels of Greek society. Yeah, ok. Sure, Greek democracy today is nearly corrupt as Philippine democracy today. Tax evasion is a national sport in both countries. I'm still disappointed in the author, who hasn't yet captured much of Greek daily life. He rarely uses common terms beyond a little food and an occasional "malaka," (noun: a jerk off). The narrator (did this one on audiobook) has a Greek name, but it doesn't sound like he's spent much time in Greece. I know my heavy American accent is out there, but I think I do better than this guy. I'll continue the series as there is just enough Greek flavor to remind me of one of my international homes, and the mystery angles are ok.
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