An engrossing mystery that illuminates contemporary immigration issues through traditional crime fiction.
Set on the Greek island of Chios, Serafim’s noir mystery explores the European migrant crisis through the eyes of a world-weary but tenacious police inspector.
Chief Inspector Yiannis Patronas embodies the contradictions of modern Greece. He mourns his country’s culturally vibrant and racially homogeneous past while rejecting the racist, anti-immigrant sentiments of his community. When a Syrian woman is discovered with her throat slit, Patronas’ investigation penetrates a dark network of human traffickers operating around Chios’ large refugee camp. Despite pressure from his superiors, who consider the deaths of immigrants insignificant, Patronas is dogged in his pursuit of justice. His investigation leads him through the island’s stark contrasts and into increasingly dangerous territory as he uncovers the systematic exploitation of desperate refugees. The setting serves as both character and backdrop. The island’s idyllic beauty—its “miraculous light and endless sea”—is skillfully juxtaposed against the appalling poverty and degradation of the camp. Serafim’s protagonist, Patronas, emerges as a compelling figure whose internal contradictions feel authentic and whose noble but begrudging determination makes him an effective noir hero. His cynicism is balanced with a romantic side that reveals his ambivalent attitude toward Greece’s complex social and political landscape. His investigation unfolds at a brisk, engaging pace that propels readers forward, though seasoned mystery readers will likely anticipate several plot developments before they occur. (The twists and turns of the story include extremely violent and disturbing episodes, which are justified by the narrative but may upset some readers.) Supporting characters—namely, a gluttonous priest and an alcoholic but courageous officer—enrich the narrative, providing both comic relief and emotional depth. There are some structural weaknesses: The relationship between Patronas’ gritty investigative work and the more sentimental aspects of his family life creates tonal inconsistencies that occasionally dilute the story’s noirish atmosphere. Nonetheless, the book remains an engaging and thought-provoking read.
An engrossing mystery that illuminates contemporary immigration issues through traditional crime fiction.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781684922512
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Coffeetown Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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