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Book Review of Assassins of Athens (Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis, Bk 2)

Assassins of Athens (Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis, Bk 2)
cathyskye avatar reviewed on + 2307 more book reviews


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.