Leta Serafim, author of To Look On Death No More and The Devil Takes Half (soon to be released by Coffetown Press, 2014) is seen here in Greece, in the very area where both books take place.
To Look On Death No More is a historical fiction set in Greece during WWII, a story that will pull at your heartstrings.
Brendan O’Malley was an Irishman with heroic ideals who joined His Majesty’s army to rid the world of tyrannous rulers – specifically Hitler. His former dispatches were in Cairo, challenging Rommel in the desert; his last in Greece the autumn of 1943 with the stated objective ‘to make contact with partisan forces and build airstrips.’ Parachuting in, he is wounded and is found by Danae, a seventeen year old Greek girl, and her brother, Stefanos. Although they confiscate all he has upon his discovery, they hide him in a cave for weeks saving his life. He, in turn, helps Danae’s family and joins the rebel forces to fight the Germans.
A true love story, as well as an expose’ of what occurred in a remote part of Greece close to the end of the war, you feel as if you are there, so hungry your insides ache; so cold you shiver, bracing against the slicing winds of the mountains, yet so in love you are afraid to acknowledge your heart; knowing either of you may not exist tomorrow.
Thoroughly researched, Serafim’s documentation and pictures give breath to those who lived and those who were lost. Most WWII stories are written with Italy, Germany, Great Britain and the United States as the focal points, but who has read of the atrocities committed against the Greeks? Who has been satisfied with their meager atonements?
The Devil Takes Half is a murder mystery set on the Greek island of Chios, five kilometers off the coast of Turkey.
A severed hand is found at an archeological site at the monastery of Profitas Elias in the mountainous interior of the island. A close-knit community with only one homicide since WWII, the Chief Officer is inexperienced in such investigations, but with the help of the local priest who watches all the American crime shows and Marina, a woman he has loved all his life but was not allowed to marry, he pieces the puzzle together. An ancient Minoan city is the source of all the malice, murder and mayhem, but also the saving grace of a poor island.
Twists, turns and dead-ends combined with gasp-filled events keep you clueless as to who the villains are until the very end.
Serafim was a journalist at the Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau before moving to Greece, where she taught art and illustrated books. Upon her return to the United States, she wrote feature stories for the Boston Globe before trying her hand a fiction. She continues to spend her summers in Greece.