Overview
Saint John wrote the apocalyptic Book of Revelation over 1900 years ago in a cave on Greece’s eastern Aegean island of Patmos. When a revered monk from that holy island’s thousand year-old monastery is murdered in Patmos’ town square during Easter Week, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of Greece’s Twenty-First Century Special Crimes Division is called upon to find the killer before all hell breaks loose…in a manner of speaking.
Andreas’ impolitic search for answers brings him face-to-face with a scandal haunting the world’s oldest surviving monastic community. On the pristine Aegean peninsula of Mount Athos, isolated from the rest of humanity, twenty monasteries sit protecting the secrets of Byzantium amid a way of life virtually unchanged for more than 1500 years. But today this sacred refuge harbors modern international intrigues that threaten to destroy the very heart of the Church…in a matter of days.
Synopsis
Saint John wrote the apocalyptic Book of Revelation over 1900 years ago in a cave on Greece’s eastern Aegean island of Patmos. When a revered monk from that holy island’s thousand year-old monastery is murdered in Patmos’ town square during Easter Week, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of Greece’s Twenty-First Century Special Crimes Division is called upon to find the killer before all hell breaks loose…in a manner of speaking.
Andreas’ impolitic search for answers brings him face-to-face with a scandal haunting the world’s oldest surviving monastic community. On the pristine Aegean peninsula of Mount Athos, isolated from the rest of humanity, twenty monasteries sit protecting the secrets of Byzantium amid a way of life virtually unchanged for more than 1500 years. But today this sacred refuge harbors modern international intrigues that threaten to destroy the very heart of the Church…in a matter of days.
Editorials
Kirkus Reviews
Who hated a venerable monk enough to kill him?
Inspector Andreas Kaldis and his sidekick Yianni Kouros are dispatched from Athens to the little island of Patmos, where a local monk named Kalogeros Vassilis has been found dead in the town square, apparently murdered. Twenty such monasteries dot the mountainous landscape, making Patmos the hub of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Eager local police sergeant Mavros explains that the body has already been moved to prepare it for the funeral, laying the groundwork for the first of many wrangles between Andreas and local officials. He learns more from chatty café owner Dmitri than from either Patmos police or Abbot Christodoulos,who portrays Vassilis as a universally revered figure. Dimitri describes a complicated plot by Russians to get the island's key monasteries moved to Russia. A top-secret meeting between Andreas and a well-protected figure identified only as "Your Holiness" confirms Dmitri's gossip and identifies Vassilis as a target in the plot. The complex case comes at an inopportune time for Andreas, whose lover Lila Vardi is pregnant with their first child. In addition, he begins to have dreams about his father, a policeman framed for corruption who committed suicide when Andreas was 8. Fortunately, Andreas' bantering relationship with Kouros adds warmth and humor to his life, and he catches a break when he finds a key piece of evidence hidden inside a cross that the victim is clutching.
The third case for the appealing Andreas(Assassins in Athens, 2009, etc.) will immerse readers in a fascinating culture.