American writer Jeffrey Siger's debut novel, MURDER IN MYKONOS, received widespread, critical acclaim as a "brilliant," "can't put down" mystery-thriller, giving "an insider's view of the island paradise of Mykonos," and skyrocketed to rank as the #1 best selling English-language book in Greece!
A young woman on holiday to Mykonos, the most famous of Greece’s Aegean Cycladic islands, simply disappears off the face of the earth. And no one notices. That is, until a body turns up on a pile of bones under the floor of a remote mountain church. Then the island’s new police chief—the young, politically incorrect, former Athens homicide detective Andreas Kaldis—starts finding bodies, bones, and suspects almost everywhere he looks.
Teamed with the canny, nearly-retired local homicide chief, Andreas tries to find the killer before the media can destroy the island’s fabled reputation with a barrage of world-wide attention on a mystery that’s haunted Mykonos undetected for decades. Just when it seems things can’t get any worse, another young woman disappears and political niceties no longer matter. With the investigation now a rescue operation, Andreas finds himself plunging into ancient myths and forgotten island places, racing against a killer intent on claiming a new victim who is herself determined to outstep him.
Sort of a 'Mama Mia' setting for a 'No Country for Old Men' thriller.
Poisoned Pen Press published MURDER IN MYKONOS in the United States in January, 2009.
Aikaterini Lalaouni Editions of Athens simultaneously released Greek- and English-language versions in Greece. It was the first time a foreign work of fiction debuted there in both languages. Goldmann Publishing/Random House will publish MURDER IN MYKONOS in Germany in July 2010 (titled OPFERGABEN) and Piatkus Books/Little Brown will publish the novel in the UK and Commonwealth.
Murder in Mykonos is a debut novel for Jeffrey M. Siger. That statement, as a beloved brother of mine would say, is haaard to believe. Siger seems like an old hand at mystery writing.
His plot is air tight and flows over pages that cannot be turned fast enough. The suspense keeps one's breath in abeyance. I have been to the Greek island of Mykonos just for a day. This author, who makes one of his homes there, describes it so well that I again walked the island's roads, ate in a taverna and browsed its shops. Though I missed out on the night life which is so prominently featured here.
A young, blonde, beautiful, tall woman has disappeared from her hotel. The local police chief is coerced into a deal to find her without alerting the politicians in Athens to the situation. Hampered by a man who is trying to protect his career, Andreas Kaldis comes up with suspects at every turn in the case. And he finds the bones of other women, also young, blonde, beautiful and tall, who have gone missing through a twenty year span.
This is an intriguing mystery with many turns and twists. Whatever you do, do not read the last few pages first. That would ruin an exciting ending that is one of the better ones I've come upon. Murder in Mykonos is a very good read and I will look for more of the same from Jeffrey Siger.
Mary Ann Smyth
—BOOKLOONS
