Убийците от Атина

Andreas Kaldis #2

by Jeffrey Siger, Джефри Сайгър, Владимир Германов (Translator)

Синът на един от най-богатите и влиятелни мъже в Гърция е открит мъртъв в контейнер за боклук в покварен квартал в Атина. Тъй като бащата на момчето е прословут със своята безскрупулност, Андреас Калдис – главен инспектор на отдел „Тежки престъпления“ в тамошната полиция, подозира, че в убийството е скрито послание. Но какво е то и кой го изпраща?

В хода на разследването се появяват все повече улики за мащабна конспирация, простираща се от мрачния подземен свят на гръцката столица до бляскавото ѝ висше общество. Смъртоносната вражда между могъщи противници заплашва и бездруго несигурното бъдеще на страната и отвежда чак до древното ѝ минало…

Романът „Убийците от Атина“ увлича с шеметен ритъм, ярки персонажи и необичайна смесица от мистерия, романтика и хумор. Авторът Джефри Сайгър сътворява не просто първокласен криминален трилър, но и нюансиран портрет на днешна Гърция с всичките ѝ проблеми и противоречия.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Greece, Thriller, Crime, Ebooks, Procedural

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

I am an American living on the Aegean Greek island of Mykonos. A Pittsburgh native and former Wall Street lawyer, I gave up my career as a name partner in my own New York City law firm to write mystery thrillers that tell more than just a fast-paced story. My novels are aimed at exploring serious societal issues confronting modern day Greece in a tell-it-like-it-is style while touching upon the country's ancient roots.

Some Mykonian friends told me if I started sprinkling murders with a message across my adopted country's tourist paradises, I'd likely be banished, if not hung. No one was more amazed than I when my debut novel, Murder in Mykonos (a sort of Mamma Mia setting for a No Country for Old Men story), became Greece's #1 best selling English-language novel (and a best-seller in Greek, as well).

As of September 2016 I have eight Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novels out there and receive no more than the customary number of death threats. I'm diligently trying to improve my percentage in that regard with posts about Greece each Saturday on the Murder is Everywhere blogsite I share with nine renowned mystery writers from around the world.

It's been a remarkable journey, punctuated most notably by The New York Times selecting the fourth in my Andreas Kaldis series (Target: Tinos) as one of its five "picks for the beach" while calling the entire series, "thoughtful police procedurals set in picturesque but not untroubled Greek locales;" Left Coast Crime's nomination of the fifth in the series (Mykonos After Midnight) in 2014 as Best Mystery in a Foreign Setting; a 2016 Barry Award Best Novel Nomination for my seventh in the series (Devil of Delphi); starred reviews and official government citations; and this quote from Fodor's Greek Islands Travel Guide under a section titled "Mykonos After Dark," which colleagues say I should consider the equivalent of winning an Oscar: "Some say that after midnight, Mykonos is all nightlife—this throbbing beat is the backdrop to Jeffrey Siger's popular mystery, Murder in Mykonos."

My work is published in the US, UK, Germany (German), and Greece (Greek and English), and I'm honored to have served as Chair of the National Board of Bouchercon, the world's largest mystery convention, and as Adjunct Professor of English at Washington & Jefferson College, teaching mystery writing.

Reviews

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ad Hoc read

Again, due to all the stress we were under in the Move from Hell, I thought. The only book I can concentrate on, is one that I have either read before and love, or know that I will enjoy. This fell into the latter category.

I really enjoy detective stories and I love (most) things to do with Greece and I had enjoyed book 1 in the series, so it was a bit of a no brainer. And although it took me 5 days to read that is because of how busy we were trying to rebuild our home, rather than the books fault.
I really enjoy the character of Insp Kaldis and can just picture the settings , so it is real escapism. I do believe I even have the next in the series !

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Line: Andreas Kaldis once read or heard somewhere that the chatter never stopped in Athens.

The body of a teenage boy from one of Greece's most prominent families has turned up in a dumpster in one of Athens' worst neighborhoods. Since the boy's father is known for his tenacity and ruthlessness, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of the Greek Police's Special Crimes Division believes that the killer was sending a message. The question is: who sent the message... and why? Kaldis' investigation takes him deep into Athens nightlife and high society, and he begins to understand that the roots of this murder lie deep in the age-old frictions between old money and new.

Shame on me. It's been two years since I read the first book in the Andreas Kaldis series, Murder on Mykonos. I loved that first book so much that I immediately got my hands on the next two books in the series (and have since got my hands on the fourth). I don't do that very often, so you can see by that how much I enjoyed my first meeting with Kaldis. I've made a resolution that I would read more of the books languishing away on my shelves this year, and tops on my list was Assassins of Athens. Why, oh why did I wait so long???

There are times when reading a book that I sense that what I'm reading is exactly the way it is. The author has captured a place, a culture, a people, precisely the way they are, and that if I were ever to visit there, it would feel familiar to me-- just from reading that author's books. That's how I feel when I read Jeffrey Siger's novels.

Siger's main character Andreas Kaldis isn't always politically correct, but he always insists on getting the job done right. In Assassins of Athens he has help from socialite Lila Vardi, and their association adds spice to an already engrossing investigation that includes not only the rich and the lowlifes but students and revolutionaries as well.

If you enjoy good characterization and truly involving mysteries, read Jeffrey Siger. If you love crime fiction with all that and a superb sense of place and immediacy, then let me repeat myself: Read. Jeffrey. Siger.

[Aristotle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 17 year old body of the son of one of the wealthiest men in Greece is found dead in a dumpster.
Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of the Greek Police’s Special Crimes Division is on the case.

Reviewing this as a police procedural only it was an average book. Some of the dialogue was what you find on Daytime Soaps. How do people watch daytime tv? Mind numbing. The motive for the killing was a bit convoluted and unrealistic. Andreas behavior with women was unprofessional, he acted like a teenager with raging hormones. And the telling of the story was just so so. This is book #2 in the series. I read book #10, Jeffrey Siger's storytelling does improve.

The book was set in Athens and Mykonos. Having been there many times it made the book more enjoyable. If it was set in Anyplace, USA i would have given this two stars.

Time for a Greek coffee and baklava.

[Michael Dawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very uninteresting and slow story a simple police procedure book. I do not recommend a very boring storyline and not interesting characters

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second in this series of detective stories set in Greece, brings the protagonist back to Athens to uncover an unlikely series of kidnappings and murders, carried out, of course, by the highest levels of Greek society. Yeah, ok. Sure, Greek democracy today is nearly corrupt as Philippine democracy today. Tax evasion is a national sport in both countries. I'm still disappointed in the author, who hasn't yet captured much of Greek daily life. He rarely uses common terms beyond a little food and an occasional "malaka," (noun: a jerk off). The narrator (did this one on audiobook) has a Greek name, but it doesn't sound like he's spent much time in Greece. I know my heavy American accent is out there, but I think I do better than this guy. I'll continue the series as there is just enough Greek flavor to remind me of one of my international homes, and the mystery angles are ok.

[J.F. Juzwik · Rating 5 out of 5]

What’s that you said? You don’t know Andreas? Well, shame on you. Andreas is the creation of Jeffrey Siger, and we’re first introduced to him in Murder in Mykonos. We become further acquainted with him in Assassins of Athens. So, what’s so special about Andreas Kaldis? Let’s begin at the beginning.

Murder in Mykonos: The story begins with Andreas Kaldis being ‘promoted’ to Chief of Police on the island of Mykonos (approximately 90 miles, by plane, from Athens). In truth, the employment change was more a matter of ‘removing’ him from his position in Athens. Andreas was getting a bit too close to the powers that be in an investigation, and powerful people don’t like it when detectives get too close to them or to their activities. Removing the inquisitive law enforcement officer from the equation is the only solution. He could be made to simply disappear, or he could be ‘promoted’. The latter was the decision in Andreas’ case.

Andreas is described as a ‘hot-shot detective’. Make no mistake. Impulsive and irrational, he is not. He is also not to be underestimated. He may not behave in the expected politically-correct manner, but he gets the job done. He’s smart, he’s methodical, and he’s not afraid to step on toes to get the job done.

So, his new career as chief ‘dog-and-cat protector’ (as he sees it) begins with a bang. There’s a killer in paradise. A body is found under a stone slab in a church crypt that should have contained only bones. The Greek Orthodox faith prohibited cremation, and due to a lack of cemetery space, the dead were buried in cemeteries for 3 or 4 years. Then, they were relocated to a crypt under the families’ church, provided they were affiliated with one.

On top of these bones, however, was a fresh kill--two weeks deceased max. It was a woman, and she was ritually restrained and posed. And, she wasn’t the only one. To add yet another complication to Andreas’ already full plate, the daughter of an Ambassador traveling in the area is reported missing.

Tassos Stamatos, Chief Homicide Investigator for the Cyclades, already haunted by his own personal demons, joins Andreas on the hunt for the killer and the missing girl. Both of them give it all they’ve got in hopes they will find the girl before the killer does.

Assassins of Athens: Old world traditions can be both charming and heartwarming. Here, however, we discover that certain ancient practices can be based on vengeance and carried out with murder.

In Athens, Andreas begins his investigation of the murder of a young man, whose body had been placed in a dumpster. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of the nightmare. What is happening runs so much deeper than parents losing their son. There are powerful and dark forces at work and they are intent on making certain that their message is received and clearly understood.

Andreas’ ‘trust no one’ outlook is certainly a wise one. To get the answers he needs, he has to deal with both sides of the law. Sometimes, in order to catch the Devil, one has to pass through the gates of Hell and take him on in his house. Andreas Kaldis makes that journey whenever necessary, and never takes the time to knock.

Can Andreas find a way to stop the impending collision of bad and worse before more lives are destroyed?

Characters, plotline, pacing--all critical components in any story. But, as in real estate, another three critical aspects are location, location, and location. Here’s where you hit the jackpot. The location is Greece, with all its old-world beauty and new-world intrigue. The author lives in Greece, and he knows whereof he speaks. The descriptions of islands, restaurants, hotels, side streets…all rich and colorful. You can picture every street corner, every shop window, every passer-by. You feel as if you are shadowing each character throughout their journey and you can feel the rain, smell and taste the food, and shudder with their fear. With such vivid depictions of settings, people and events, when you reach the end, you want to go back and experience it all over again.

[Kathryn Hogue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book was great and this book is meh in comparison. The plot was a little confusing but I was annoyed that every 18-30 yo female character is a “love” interest. I just wanted some good old fashioned murder mystery vibes but there is about two notable murders. And the characters lack of emotional depth makes it hard to read. And what was the worst for me is that one super shallow character had a really easy arch you could explore in less than 5 pages. But she doesn’t get any growth. No one really grows. This has been really harsh but I actually did enjoy lots of parts of it. Especially the insights into the main characters thoughts. It would be fun if you are going into it with no expectation and don’t mind a few annoying characters.

[Jonathan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heading out for a trip to Greece. This was a good read that involved the Greek Islands. Just what I was looking for.

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second in the Andreas Kaldis series.. a fairly good police procedural crime romp..suspend belief and go with the flow.
I’m intrigued to see how the series progresses. Not the most subtle style of prose

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeffrey Siger’s ASSASSINS OF ATHENS opens with the discovery of the body of a teenage male in a dumpster in one of the worst sections of Athens. Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of the Greek Police’s Special Crimes Division, first met in MURDER IN MYKONOS, quickly realizes that this case is bigger than most. The boy is the son of Zanni Kostopoulos, one of the most influential men in the country. Kostopoulos is nouveau riche, a description that makes him anathema to the established Greek families who dominate the peak of society. He has returned from family exile in one of the countries that had made up the Soviet bloc and, upon his return, has made a considerable fortune in Greece. Old money fears new money and the newly wealthy have little to lose in going up against the establishment.

Zanni decides he needs to make the Kostopoulos name one to be reckoned with so he decides to gain control of The Athenian, the most prominent newspaper in the city. The Linardos family has controlled the paper for generations and Zanni does everything in his power to destroy the Linardos family to get what he wants. He begins by feeding other newspapers the Linardos family secrets and thinks he has won when a particularly graphic cell phone recording of Sarantis Linardos’s granddaughter ends up on the web. Kostopoulos is determined to destroy the Linardos family so Sarantis, the patriarch, turns to friends to guarantee that it will be Kostopoulos who will be destroyed.

This is the background to a story that brings into play wealth, position, long-held grudges, jealousy, murder, and the practices of ancient Athens, seemingly lost in time. There is kidnapping, murder, exploitation, and the willingness of people to uses whatever means money can buy to destroy an enemy. There is help from Tassos Stamatos, the homicide detective readers met in MURDER IN MYKONOS. And there is a woman who is of particular interest to Kaldis.

As he investigates, Kaldis discovers that Sotiros Kostopoulos is not the first member of a prominent family to die. Other wealthy Greek families have left the country, banished as was the practice in ancient Greece. Their enemies have no respect for age so it is the young, the children, who are their target.

ASSASSINS OF ATHENS is more than an alliterative title. Athens, the cradle of democracy, is being assassinated by powerful people who want a return to oligarchy, government by the few, the wealthy and powerful, to the detriment of the many.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Greece has been much in the news of late, with bankruptcy and expulsion from the Eurozone saved by yet another last minute bailout. If the corruption of government and the violence from both left and right sides of politics are really as bad as depicted in this novel, then the causes for Greece’s difficulties would not be hard to find.

That said, the premise of this novel – that the patricians with ‘old money’ would use violence to get rid of the nouveau riche from Athens – seems unbelievable. For that reason I didn’t think nearly as much of this book as I did of the first Siger I read (Murder on Mykonos).

The character of Andreas Kaldis, the Chief Inspector – now returned from Mykonos to Athens – did not develop in any interesting way and I found his relationship with the wealthy Lila as unlikely as the rest of the plot. There were moments when the tension picked up and the book carried me along, but generally this was a disappointment. It also lacked the strong sense of place that I enjoyed in the first novel.

[Desislava Filipova · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Убийците от Атина" от Джефри Сайгър е втора книга за криминалните разследвания на инспектор Андреас Калдис.

Първата книга е ситуирана на Миконос, но след края на разследването, инспекторът е преместен в Атина в отдел „Тежки престъпления“, книгата започва с малко информация, младо момче е намерено в контейнер в квартал със съмнителна репутация, но историята се разгръща в неочаквана посока. От предната книга харесвам стила на автора, много описателен, той създава много детайлна атмосфера, която е важна част от разследването, но и щипка свеж хумор, идеално дозиран за криминален роман.

"-Изключи сирената, и бездруго никой не я чува. - Беше в кофти настроение. - Трупът няма да избяга. Точно както ние не можем да избягаме от този проклет сутрешен трафик на прибиращите се у дома купонджии."

Момчето се оказва син на една от новоизгрелите богати и властни фамилии, семейство с врагове и сметки за уреждане. Сякаш по библейски децата плащат за греховете на родителите си. А политическите маньоври и задкулисни игри, въвличат инспектора в един свят, в който няма власт и трябва много прецизно да се движи, за да не се превърне и той в мишена.

Нишките на разследването, оформят основната идея някъде към средата, може би кукловодът зад цялата операция е прекалено уверен в себе си, че е толкова небрежен да остави явни следи. Оттам нататък информацията се наслагва и донамества, но липсва ярък завършек, все пак финалът дава някои изненади.

Героите са доста колоритни, опредено не са типичните полицаи, имат силно южняшко излъчване, различен темперамент, но все пак следват определени принципи.

Харесах романът, Гърция се усеща много силно през цялото време, атмосферата прави романът различен, но определено ми се струва, че ако стане дълга поредица темпото ще си изгуби и ще се разводни.

[Viva · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Andreas Kaldis book. I feel I'm over-rating this book but I like the characters.

Spoilers ahead:
Kaldis is the chief inspector of special crimes in Athens. A scion of a nouvelle riche Greek industrialist has been kidnapped and brutally murdered. It turns out that others like him, overseas Greeks who have come home and made good have been ostracized (the historical term treatment), had a family member killed or kidnapped, sold their interests and left Greece for good. It seems that the old money Greeks have been doing this basically because they didn't like the new money Greeks challenging them. But this time they picked the wrong man to ostracize, because Kostopoulos is not just any new money man, he is willing to fight back.

The plot is mainly quite good but it gets a bit complicated in the middle and finishes too quickly. I like the book mainly because the writing is easy to read and follow and I really like the characters. They have grown on me since book #1. I also enjoyed the chief inspector's love story side plot.

Overall a nice quick read and I'll definitely follow the series.

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun suspense novel. It was marketed by the book shop as a murder mystery, but the mystery of it washed out, so that was probably not the intended focus. Some Greek history and great descriptions of Central Athens, Mykonos, and a touch of Sardinia lend interest to the hard-boiled chase. It's refreshing to see a novel of this genre that incorporates modern technology in combination with gumshoes.

Don't get bogged down in the semantic difference between "murder" and "assassination." All angles get covered.

I'll read more novels by Jeffrey Siger, who is an American ex-pat in Greece. He made me want to return to the latter.

The only negative for me was that a whole father-son backstory was alluded to, but either not explained obviously enough or not finished. Maybe other of Siger's novels get into it more. It felt like a loose thread at the end of the book—to me. It's possible there's something that went over my head.

[John Hardy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really liking this series any more, this being the third one I have tried. The premise of old money families committing violence to get nouveaux riches out of the country is far-fetched. Kaldis is an American cliche of the super-sexy hero. In bed with a young female suspect within five minutes - totally unprofessional. Pretty soon after that, a super rich, old money widow falls madly in love with him - yeah, right.
Although all the books are set in Greece, readers actually do not learn much about the country or its customs. There are some fairly superficial references, and also what I assume to be just the author's assumptions.
The point of view varies between the major baddie and Kaldis, and to my way of thinking, this just makes the story drag.
The ending is full of excitement and yet it is facile, and scarcely credible.
I have one more of these to finish, and after that I won't be looking for any more of them.
Rating 2.4.

[Scilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaldis is called when the body of a teenaged boy is found in a garbage can near a bar in the wrong part of Athens. They find it is the son of a very wealthy man who has been trying to buy out the most exclusive news paper. The police are certain the murder is sending a message. They soon find one of the suspects is Demosthenes Mavrakis, who had belonged to high society until his father died and his brother took over the business. Kaldis finds out from a newsman that several newly rich have been ostracized and forced to leave Athens. He manages to meet a wealthy woman, Lila Vardi, and soon the two are falling in love as Lila helps Kaldis. Things get very tense as Demosthenes becomes anxious and hires a killer for the ostracized family as well as Lila. As the title suggests, there are a lot of assassins trying to do their thing!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've found several series worth reading after buying books at a local bargain outlet. The Orphan X series is the most notable example and the Andreas Kaldis series here is another. The unfortunate case in both is that I didn't start at the beginning with either series.

No matter. After reading book 10 in this series, I was able to get the first book from our library and purchased book 2, reviewed here, from booksellers.

Kaldis is a likable protagonist, as are his small cast of colleagues. Here, the murder of a wealthy Athenian's young son opened a can of worms reaching into both the seamy side of Athens and the landed gentry. A well written procedural, and the third book of three I've read that I recommend. But best to start at the beginning of the series.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andreas Kaldis, head of Special Crimes at GADA in Athens, is faced with a national scandal. What begins with the murder of a teenage boy quickly escalates as his entire family is banished from Greece and several other families who were treated in a similar way are also uncovered. All of the families were newly rich, had returned to Greece from eastern Europe and had been trying to enter Greek high society. With the help of socialite Lila Vardo, Kaldis and his team begin to piece together a group of wealthy Athenians who practice ostracism as it was done in ancient Greece, complete with pottery shards with each family's name written on them. Chilling.

[Maine Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book and Devil at Delphi were perfect for my purposes...preparing for a first-time trip to Athens. It gave me a feel for contemporary Greek life and helped cement a first impression of some of the place names in the guidebooks. Devil of Delphi in particular led me to a few destinations we otherwise would have missed! Although the plotting of the Delphi book is less interesting and overall the detective character is a little flat, the insights into major issues in today's Greece combined with historical references make this series a good read and an even better guidebook.

[Delphine Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a fun thriller set in Athens, Greece and also the island of Mykonos. There was some back story about the wealthiest and most powerful families of Greece as well as Greek politics. There was also some background about some of the neighborhoods in Athens and people’s lives. I read these sort of novels to learn more about the countries they are set in and the character of the native people. I didn’t learn much in this book. Overall, like much of the thriller genre, the story is too pat and fantastical (unbelievable).

[Vontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fastest inter-library loan I've ever had come in. 2nd book in the series, as I went back to the beginning of series to get the origin stories, not just the hints in the subsequent books.

Another enjoyable adventure, thriller, and police procedural, with perhaps peeps into some of Greek politics & culture of that particular era, although it may not have changed a great deal since, just been updated as the series progresses.

I've now requested the 3rd book in the series, which will bring me almost half way into the series, and I've read a few of the intervening books from the beginning.

[Jia Cherng · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book comes with a softer tone with a bigger picture. Gone are the twisted mind and reality from Murder on Mykonos, but it comes with a something of a conspiracy theory. The introduction of Lila Vardi is a genius stroke to get the reader more interested and pulled in. There were no major plot holes, at least not on first glance, but one shortcoming is that the resolution is somewhat anticlimactic and does not really make sense. A good book nonetheless.

[Demi Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

High-speed race through Athens

Another zesty read in the Chief Kaldis series, in which the flavors of Greece again come alive on the page. Perfect distraction during the days of Covid-19. Starting book 3 tomorrow!

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as the first one. Although the pacing moves us along and the story doesn't drag, characterization seems to suffer for it. Characters feel a little two-dimensional. Setting is great, of course, but it could do with a bit more showing than telling.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay. Although this plot was not nearly as disturbing as the first novel in the series, I thought the debut novel was better: more complexities, better character development. This one was not bad but the crimes themselves were nothing notable.

[Stacie Haden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a good police procedural set in Athens. I'll continue with the series.

[Alex K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent as a thriller, shallow and trite as an account of Greek culture/society.

[Mary Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another interesting entry in this series. Not my favorite so far---a lot about Greek politics & religion which were necessary to the plot but which bogged it down a bit.

[Doreen Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good plot line. Love the glimpses of history that we get about Greece. And who doesnt love a romance.

[Margaret Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The underbelly of Greece

Really interesting view of Athens and a cop who really goes for the bad guys. Great to have the romantic bit in there as well