Book Review of Jeffrey Siger's Target: Tinos

Target: Tinos by Jeffrey Siger

Do you save the best for last or eat it first? I tend to be a saver. I like to set aside some books I'm looking forward to reading in a stack called "compensation for loss, injury, or suffering." Then, I can salvage a bad day with a great nighttime read. Recently, a dinner concocted by my husband (don't ask) sent me reeling to this stack, where I grabbed Jeffrey Siger's Target: Tinos.

Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis is head of Greece's special crimes division, or, in other words, "Greece's number one cop for all things nasty." "Nasty" perfectly describes the murder of two men on the island of Tinos. Their bodies are found, along with tattered remnants of a Greek flag, chained together and burnt to a crisp, in the back of a van. In a cylinder chained to the steering wheel is a note: "Revenge or Death." This appears to be a variation of the Greek battle cry and motto, "Freedom or Death." Media coverage goes nuts. There are competent cops on Tinos, but Minister of Public Order Spiros Renatis, Andreas's boss, wants him to head the investigation.

Tinos

Tinos, the fourth-largest island in the Aegean Cyclades, is largely undeveloped and has a full-time population of fewer than 9,000 people. It is home to nearly one thousand dovecotes and more than 750 churches and chapels. While Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches coexist on Tinos, the most revered religious shrine in Greece is the Church of the Annunciation (Panagia Evangelistria, meaning Our Lady of Good Tidings), which draws more than a million visitors and pilgrims every year. August 15 is the anniversary of the Virgin Mary's Annunciation, and Spiros wants nothing to mar the island's biggest celebration.

Interior of the Panagia Evangelistria, which contains a holy icon of the Virgin Mary called the Megalochari

In addition, Spiros is worried about Greece's position in the European Union. The country's financial problems are bad enough. Adversaries have described Greeks as too lazy, corrupt, and selfish to pay taxes. Of 11.5 million Greeks, 10 percent are immigrants, and, as in other countries, some citizens blame every lost job and criminal act on the immigrant population. If these homicide victims are immigrants, Greece's detractors could seize upon this crime as an excuse to further vilify their national character. Greeks could be attacked as callous, indifferent to the plight of non-Greeks. A bad outcome for Greece is the denial of bailout funds; a worse outcome is being drummed out of the European Union. This crime must be solved.

Because some pilgrims approach the Panagia Evangelistria
on their knees, red carpet has been laid to facilitate them.

When the two dead men are identified by their jewelry and DNA as tsigani (gypsies or roma), Spiros is relieved. He demands Andreas simply close the case. Tsigani revenge killings don't threaten the August 15th celebration or Greece's position in the European Union. The sooner people forget about this case, the better. To Andreas, this is further evidence that he and Spiros don't share the same planet. Andreas isn't the type to walk away from a murder investigation. He instructs his friends/colleagues, Detective Yianni Kouros from Athens and Tassos Stamatos, chief homicide investigator for the Cyclades, to get cracking. In six days time, Andreas is marrying Lila Vardi in the wedding of the social season on Mykonos. She will have his head on a platter if he isn't at the church in time. The complexity of this case makes Andreas's appearance not a slam dunk.

Tinos, scene of the crime, and Mykonos, site of the wedding, are islands in the Cyclades, southeast of Athens

Whereas Andreas is the son of a cop and grew up in a working-class family, his fiancée Lila, a young widow and art historian, comes from one of Greece's oldest and wealthiest families. I was worried when Andreas became involved with the lovely Lila in the second series book, Assassins of Athens. Too often in crime fiction, when a socially prominent character is tied to a working-class sleuth, the sleuth's boundless resources seem ridiculous. Or, the relationship has the whiff of romantic fantasy. My concern was misplaced. Lila's wealth means that Andreas won't count his pennies, but she is down-to-earth, feisty, and fun. Her position in society allows Siger to show us how upper-class Greeks live, in addition to those of lower income. Lila's relationship with Andreas, including their intimate moments, is very well done, and the traditions involved in their wedding are fascinating.

Bishop Germanos of Patras raises the Greek flag in 1821
and begins the fight for Greek independence

Andreas is a likable guy who's devoted to Lila and their young son Tassaki. He's an incorruptible cop. The crimes he tackles are engrossing; however, one reads Siger's books not only to see Andreas and his sidekicks solve a crime, but also to learn about Greek history, culture, and current issues. These elements are blended seamlessly into the plot. There is no doubt the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis books are set in Greece. Like Leighton Gage's Chief Inspector Mario Silva series set in Brazil, Siger's series is a thoughtful and intriguing look at a specific contemporary society.

This book is a wonderful read. A reader explores the island of Tinos, learns about its geography and history, and meets colorful characters, while Andreas tracks the murderer of the two young tsigani and prepares to formalize his ties to Lila. While it's not imperative to read the series in order (Murder in Mykonos, Assassins of Athens, Prey on Patmos, and Target: Tinos), it's satisfying to do that because the books form Andreas's continuing professional and personal story. They cover various topics and take place in different locations in Greece. I hope the future brings more details about the personal lives of Siger's secondary characters. I'm really looking forward to the next book, due in October 2013.

If you're a saver, put this one in your own "compensation" stack to be read when you deserve a treat. Or, if you're not a saver, read it now. I'm not the only one who thinks Target: Tinos is terrific; The New York Times critic Marilyn Stasio recommended it, and the Publishers Weekly reviewer gave it a starred review. I have every faith that you'll enjoy it, too.

Notes: We'll learn more about author Jeff Siger, who's lucky enough to live on Mykonos, in his upcoming Read Me Deadly interview.

I received a free review copy of Target: Tinos, published in June 2012 by Poisoned Pen Press.

Mykonos looks like paradise, doesn't it?

April Is the Cruelest Month

Today is a good time to think about the meaning of human frailty, death, and redemption, whether one celebrates Easter as the resurrection of Jesus Christ or the glorious rebirth of the earth.

Below are some books of crime fiction set during Lent or the Holy Week culminating in Easter:

Ayacucho means "place of the dead." It is the capital city of Huamanga Province in Peru and is famous for its 33 churches and the large religious celebrations during Holy Week.

It is also the birthplace of Associate District Prosecutor Félix Chacaltana Saldívar. Chacaltana's March 8, 2000 report about a dead man opens Santiago Roncagliolo's literary thriller, Red April. The corpse, burnt to a crisp and missing an arm, has been discovered in an Ayacucho hayloft on Ash Wednesday. The body isn't recognizable, and possible witnesses were too inebriated from days of celebrating to notice anything.

Chalcaltana is a man who only recently returned to Ayacucho after spending most of his life in Lima. He's incapable of lying and consumed with duty to his profession and the memory of his mamacita. He's in charge of the investigation because the police don't want to touch it. They fear the press will get wind of it and scare away tourists, or the government in Lima will hear of it and scuttle their promotions. The local military man in the Ministry of Justice, Commander Carrión, wants Chalcaltana's reports personally. He brushes off Chalcaltana's questions about whether this death could mean a return of 1980s terrorist violence by Sendero Luminoso, the Shining Path. "Get one thing into your head: in this country there is no terrorism, by orders from the top," Carrión says. Then he sends Chalcaltana on a hellish trip to observe elections in Yawarmayo.

Ayacucho, Peru

Chalcaltan's series of ludicrous investigative reports, written as ordered by Carrión to reflect the official line, are studded throughout Roncagliolo's tale rich in Peruvian history, symbolism, and folklore. They are accompanied by another type of report in small letters and full of misspellings, which appear to be written by a killer. The Ash Wednesday corpse is just the beginning of a religious season of murders and more; Chalcaltan and his colleagues are "fighting against ghosts, against the dead, against the spirit of the Andes." In Red April, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman and winner of the 2006 Alfaguara Prize, it's difficult to tell the difference between the terrorists and the counterrorists. There are plenty of murders and disappearances to go around for everyone.

Army helicopter pilot is an unusual occupation for a woman who becomes an Episcopalian priest, but Rev. Clare Ferguson is an unusual woman. She's relieved when money is located to repair the roof of St. Alban's, although she's concerned because it will affect funding for the town's free health clinic. The clinic was founded by the widow of Jonathon Ketchem, who disappeared during Prohibition. When the clinic's director, Dr. Allan Rouse, disappears, some suspect a disgruntled young woman, but Clare and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne disagree.

Out of the Deep I Cry is the third book in Julia Spencer-Fleming's traditional series set in Millers Kill, New York. The story is told with flashbacks to earlier decades, all against the backcloth of the present Lenten season at St. Alban's. When Clare and the married Chief Van Alstyne are stuck in the freezing church basement, their closeness is more than an opportunity to keep warm. The mystery is not the main reason to read this book; rather, it is the chance to spend time during the spring with Spencer-Fleming's vivid characters in this small town in the Adirondacks.

On a dark night early in the Easter Week of the Greek Orthodox Church, part of the body of the larger Eastern Orthodox Church, a saintly monk is cruelly murdered on the winding streets of Patmos, an island in Greece.


In Jeffrey Siger's Prey On Patmos, the crime was heinous not only because of the nature of the victim, but because it happened during a holy time and in a holy place. Patmos is in the eastern Aegean and it is here, in a cave almost 2000 years ago, that Saint John wrote the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. It has a small police force of its own, but in an unusual case like this one, which many would like to attribute to muggers, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of the Special Crimes Division is called to take over the investigation.

Mount Athos

In the Greek Orthodox Church, Easter is the most important day of the year. Easter week is the week preceding Easter day. Tourists flock to places such as Patmos and Mount Athos, another religious site that contains 20 monasteries that have been there 15 centuries.

Mount Athos is a self-governing monastic state that is vaguely a parallel to Rome. The monasteries all have one representative to a central Holy Community. And the leader of this group is known as the Protos. Ultimately, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church resides in Istanbul––once known as Constantinople––Turkey. At this time, the Turks have passed new laws whose final effect will be to push the central leader and his organization out of Turkey, from whence it will be moved to either Russia or Greece. Naturally, the Greeks prefer this latter scenario and the politics surrounding this move are at once complicated and devious.

Patmos

Solving this murder is going to be difficult because initial findings mean that Kaldis must be privy to the inside workings of the monasteries, and most abbots believe in keeping their own counsel. It is found that the dead monk had been investigating a complex power play within the Church. Andreas and his associate have an uphill battle, as they use every source in their power to find a killer hidden deep in monastic life, surrounded by many people who think he is just an ordinary––or maybe an extraordinary––monk.

Grace Brophy's novel The Last Enemy also takes place at this time of year, but in the location of beautiful Assisi in northern Italy. The evening of Good Friday is traditionally spent observing the procession of many local men and some women carrying a cross through the winding ancient streets of the city as they do penance to shorten their way to heaven after death and as a reminder of a momentous Friday 2000 ago.

1 Corinthians 15:26

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

While Count Casati and his family watch the procession in a piazza near their home, they wait for a traditional fish dinner and for a little beloved niece, Rita, who has been residing with them since she brought her mother's body to be buried in Assisi. They wait in vain, because Rita has met her death in the family mausoleum. She is found the following morning resting on a stone altar step and posed in a fashion that suggests she was raped.

Because of the prominence of the family involved, Commissario Alessandro Cenni, the head of the special task force that deals with terrorism and politically sensitive domestic crimes, is assigned to bring about a fast resolution to the case. While he finds that the local police and the powers that be want the blame to settle on either a foreigner or a vagrant, Alex is confident that the killer had to have known the victim well––and that puts the powerful Casati family in the spotlight. But this is Italy, where connections are more powerful than the facts. The story moves at a lively pace and ends with an Italian twist.

Brophy transports the reader to a lovely part of Italy that I hope to be able to see one day. Alex Cenni is an intriguing, complex character who is believable, likeable and a bit of a romantic. I am happy to report that there is more to this series, the latest of which is being released this year.

Louise Penny takes a lighter approach to the Easter holidays as The Cruelest Month begins with an Easter egg hunt, which is part of the Easter ritual practiced on this side of the Atlantic. This title also comes from a quotation by a favorite poet of mine, T. S. Eliot.

"April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire…"

Shakespeare also used the phrase, but when Penny uses it she refers to the fact that not all things come to life in the spring; some things die or are murdered. In this case, a psychic visiting the Canadian village of Three Pines is persuaded to lead a séance at the spooky old Hadley House and one of the townspeople in the circle appears to have died from fright. Holding a séance on Easter Sunday turned out not to be a good idea.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to the lovely area to investigate the death. As in all his cases, he works with a delicate, intuitive touch. He is a bit hampered on this occasion, because there is a plot afloat within the police intended to discredit Gamache, in addition to which he has become aware that one of his team is a mole reporting on all his actions to someone in the Montreal police hierarchy. Nonetheless, this consummate professional resolves these situations before Easter week is out.

These mysteries take you from the very solemn to the fun in a way in a way that only a good book can do. You can appreciate and enjoy different forms of Easter celebrations––all without moving beyond your doorstep.

Pass Me the Good Books and Mashed Potatoes, Please

My kitchen desk is a cascade of notes written with ever-increasing numbers of exclamation marks and capital letters. The notes reflect this week's chaos as my family counts down the minutes to our Thanksgiving trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. My husband's parents live in Florida and it seems odd to me to visit them at this time of year. For me, fall is fires in the fireplace, piles of leaves to shuffle through, the honking of wild geese as they fly south and seeing my breath when I go outside. More than those things, however, the holiday of Thanksgiving is a time for being grateful, sharing with others and getting together with family and friends. Today, let's look briefly at books that examine ties that bind families and friends within the context of their larger societies.

From the first sentence in Assassins of Athens ("Andreas Kaldis once read or heard somewhere that the chatter never stopped in Athens."), we're taken into the mysterious social network of powerful old families and their influential friends who control Greece. The body of a teenage boy from a wealthy Athens family is discovered in a dumpster behind a nightclub. The investigations of homicide detective Kaldis take him to the heights of Athens society as well as its shadowy underworld and he finds friends in unlikely places. This is the second of an outstanding three-book series set in Greece written by Jeffrey Siger. It's even more fun if you've begun with Murder on Mykonos, although it isn't necessary. 

American writer Poke Rafferty has married his Rose. The "they-lived-happily-ever-after" ending for them and their adopted daughter, Miaow, whom Poke saved from life on the streets, is threatened by the appearance of a very bad man from Rose's past as a Patpong bar dancer, in Timothy Hallinan's The Queen of Patpong. This is a sumptuous literary thriller and the fourth book in a series set in Bangkok, Thailand. You don't have to read the series in order, but you'll deny yourself a treat if you don't. The first book is A Nail Through the Heart, in which we meet these characters and learn about Thailand through Poke's eyes.

When the eccentrically groomed and dressed Lucy Bellringer walks into the office of Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, he is reminded of a beautiful but tattered old bird of prey. Miss Bellringer insists that the death of her dear friend, retired school teacher Emily Simpson, could not result from natural causes and she's right. Barnaby and his sidekick, Sergeant Troy, put their noses to the trail and discover the relationships and events that led to this homicide. The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham is the first book in a well-written traditional English mystery/police procedural series and is a fine book to read in a chair by the fire.

Eliot Pattison is a wonderful writer with three mystery/historical fiction series, all of which provide good reading. In the first Duncan McCallum book, Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America, McCallum's friend Adam Munroe is one victim in a series of killings onboard the Ramsey Company ship transporting indentured prisoners to colonial America. Because of his medical training, McCallum is asked to examine the evidence, but the crimes remain unsolved when the ship reaches America. McCallum's efforts continue against the background of the French and Indian War. This is a masterful book that depicts the struggles of individuals and conflicting cultures in the New World.

Gabriel Du Pré is of Métis ancestry (Cree, French and English) and he works as a Montana cattle brand inspector in a series written by Peter Bowen. In Coyote Wind, the first book of the series, Du Pré assumes the sheriff's role when the sheriff is shot in a case involving a long-ago homicide. This book is enjoyable due to Bowen's unforgettable characters and his knowledge of Cree culture and rural Montana. Du Pré is a warm and honorable man who doesn't break stride dealing with his lover and his two daughters, each more than a handful. Compared to Du Pré's friends and family, dealing with criminals is easy.

Helen Simonson's 2010 debut, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, is not a mystery but it is such a good book I'll mention it anyway. I read it at the suggestion of Sister Mary Murderous. When Major Ernest Pettigrew's younger brother dies, the 68-year-old Major develops a friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper. Their small English village, Edgecombe St. Mary, buzzes at the unsuitability of this relationship between two widowed citizens. The Major and Mrs. Ali are dignified, insightful, and completely endearing as they interact with their problematic families, the villagers and each other. I'd like to meet them in person, but meeting them on the page was a joy, in part because they both love books and have interesting things to say about them.

American Visa by Juan de Recacoechea Saénz  has been termed "sweet noir" by some of its readers. Mario Alvarez, an unemployed English teacher, arrives at the rundown Hotel California in La Paz, Bolivia, with a roundtrip airline ticket to the US, furnished by his adult son, who lives in Miami. Unfortunately, Alvarez has no visa and it's clear it won't be easy to get one. Fortunately, Alvarez is familiar with the enterprising characters of noir fiction so maybe that visa won't be impossible to obtain after all. I'm reading this book now and enjoying it very much. This is a creative writer who is new to me and I hope to find his other books available in English.

It's always a pleasure to share good books with family members and friends who love to read. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, do you have a book you could share?