The Devil Takes Half by Leta Serafim
Coffeetown Press, 2014. 9781603819657.
Link to this review by davidtomashek tagged mystery
On the small Greek island of Chios there has not been a murder since World War II. But now, at the site of an amateur archeological dig, heiress Eleni Argentis and her young assistant have been found brutally murdered. Chief Police Officer Yiannis Patronas must find the culprits. Could Eleni have actually found a valuable Minoan artifact worth killing for? The inspector searches for clues in an ancient monastery where history and the modern world sit side-by-side.
Why I picked it up: Detective Patronas was described as a Greek Columbo, and I have always loved the clever way he could trap a murderer.
Why I finished it: Like Columbo, Detective Patronas is short and rumpled, but there the similarity ends. Patronas is a career investigator who has never conducted a murder investigation before, and throughout the novel he is out of his depth. The police are understaffed, under-equipped, and underpaid, victims of the brutal austerity imposed on Greece by the European Union. Patronas slogs through as best he can, and even gets lectured on police procedure by the elderly priest who knows all about it from watching American TV shows.
Readalikes: Patronas shares a certain resigned cynicism with Salvo Montalbano, the Sicilian inspector in Andrea Camilleri’s novels. The first three of those novels are now collected in Death in Sicily.
http://www.pininterest.com/authorletaseraf/
www.amazon.com/author/letaserafim
www.linkedin.com/pu/letaserafim
www.goodreads.com/author/show/8274437/letaserafim