Customer Reviews

The Messenger of Athens

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In many ways, I feel that I am not a good reviewer for The Messenger of Athens. Sometimes a book works for you and sometimes it does not. I gave it a good rating, though, because I felt it was a good book for the right audience (even though I was not that audience). I love the Greek islands and had hoped this would be an intriguing mystery in one of my favorite locales.

The story takes place on the island of Thiminos and it is a terrible, bleak place. The inhabitants are depressed and bored with their restricted lives, and have litttle (no) ambition to change their lives. They rise each day--if they even bother to get out of bed--only to see the graveyard outside their window, reminding them of the pointlessness of their lives. Only the victim's uncle seems to have had any kind of a life at all, as he traveled in his youth and remembers South America (mostly the ladies of the night) with fondness. Sadly, his neice is subjected to rumors of cheating on her husband and is found dead at the bottom of a cliff.

Hermes Diaktoros, described mostly as "The Fat Man" arrives to investigate her death. His trademark appears to be an obsession with keeping his white sneakers white with the shoe polish he carries around.

I'm afraid I had difficulties caring about the characters, or the mystery of why the neice died. If I was her uncle living in that depressing place, I'd have been inclined to serve a little cyanide along with the coffee.

That's why I believe this was simply not the book for me.

The writing was good and the mystery had a satisfying end. If you like mysteries with a more "literary" flavor, then you will appreciate the atmospheric writing, as well as glimpses into how bleak life can really be on a Greek island. I guess it's not all sunshine and turquoise ocean waves.

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I picked it solely based on cover.

The small Greek island is set more or less in present day, but it's one of those timeless places that makes the story read more like a folk tale - which is good. When a man referred to mostly as 'the fat man' shows up to investigate the death of a local woman, he goes about his business despite the protestations of the corrupt local 2-man police force, who have declared the death a suicide.

We are drawn into the story several ways. One story follows the fat man as he investigates. He follows the word on the street, but is also surprisingly knowledgeable about all things involved, and gets to the heart of the matter with each person he questions. In his satchel, he is able to pull out the perfect thing to thank each person or convince them of his intent. We are never told exactly who is he, who he works for, why he is there, or how he knows anything. When justice is done, it is fair and perfect.

We also see the story through the eyes of Irini, the woman who died, Andreas her husband, and Theo her lover. Some of these asides are flashbacks that alternate with the fat man's chapter, and some happen concurrently with the fat man's investigation. The juxtaposition of these stories works very well to make you care for an understand the motivations of all the characters.

I really enjoyed this book and will be looking for more from the author.

I've visited the Greek islands, but had no idea what life was like beneath that placid surface... This is sold as a crime novel, but don't be expecting blood and gore - it's more in the line of Morse, or Poirot. But as much as anything, read it as a piece of travel writing, or an insight into a very foreign way of life brought to life with an unmistakable touch of authenticity. Thoroughly enjoyable.

This book seems to be trying to be too many things, and, as a result, it succeeds at none of them.

The cover description presents the basic situation. On the remote Greek island of Thiminos, a young wife's body is found at the base of a cliff, and the local police, encouraged by a "gratuity" from her family, rule her death an accident. However, an eccentric stranger arrives from Athens and announces he is there to investigate the reasons for her death. Looking into the people and events on the island, he uncovers stories of "passion, corruption, and murder". This description, plus a quote from The Guardian describing the stranger as "half Poirot, half Deus ex machina", led me to expect a classic mystery with an exotic setting, just my cup of tea, er, Greek coffee. The mystery is there and is solved in classic mystery fashion, but if you are looking for a good mystery, you may find, as I did, that the story drags. I was sorely tempted to stop reading, cut through the chaff, and just go to the last section to find out "whodunit".

I enjoy mysteries that have an interesting setting that inform me about a place or a subject, and Ms.Zoroudi excels at this part of the book. She clearly loves the land she describes. But I wasn't looking for a travelogue, and her detailed descriptions quickly became tedious.

This also could be read as a straightforward novel about life and loves in a small Greek community, but for me, Ms. Zouroudi was unsuccessful at turning her characters into people. When they do come alive, they are mostly unsympathetic. She uses flashbacks and first-person insertions rather clumsily, and they intrude on the flow of the book.

Finally, the denouement about investigator Hermes Diaktoros introduces a fourth element into the book that seems incongruous with the descriptions of him throughout the rest of the story. This fat guy in an exquisitely tailored suit and white sneakers that he obsessively touches up to keep pristine is not congruent with his role.

The concept for a series is a good one, and perhaps it will improve, but I do not expect to invest any more of my reading time to find out.

The storyline of this book was good...a mystery...made you think... However, I greatly disliked the writing for many reasons:
- The writing felt very choppy and just didn't seem to flow well.
- The main character in the book is Hermes yet was referred to throughout the entire book as "the fat man", not by his name.
- Paragraphs would go on and on using only pronouns and the reader has to figure out who "he", "she", "you", etc. are because they are a different "he", "she", "you" from the previous paragraph!
- Parts were a bit crude and I actually flipped the book closed to make sure it was a woman that wrote it because it just seemed like more of a male tone.
- Perhaps I missed something but I didn't really understand why Hermes was investigating the death of Irini.


Good idea. Poorly executed. I won't be picking up any more books in the series.

In "The Messenger of Athens," British author Anne Zouroudi writes about a mysterious murder set in the scenic Greek islands. The story revolves around the murder of young girl, whose body is found under a cliff at the beginning of the book. The local police seem satisfied with deeming the incident suicide--until a mysterious foreigner from Athens, Hermes Diaktoros, comes to investigate.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks between Irini's life, and the Fat Man's (as Hermes is referred to throughout the book) present investigation. We learn that Irini's only close relationship was with her Uncle, who deciphers dreams. When Irini has a dream of getting a present from Aphrodite, her Uncle warns she must not open the present, or she will endanger the life she currently lives. This moment is a great foreshadowing of things to come. Although Irini is comfortable with the life she currently leads, married to the fisherman Andreas and being a stay-at-home-wife, her encounter with a certain man is about to change everything.

Between solving Irini's murder and the flashbacks to modern day, whereupon Hermes interviews town's people and tries to get some information out of them, the reader is left with a good old fashioned mystery. Having resided in the Greek islands herself, Zouroudi knows small town Greek life very well, and her knowledge shines through in her descriptions.

The book is a relatively quick read that becomes more interesting as the action picks up. This book is actually the first in Zouroudi's series set in the Greek islands and featuring private investigator Hermes Diaktoros. Overall, a decent effort.

I thoroughly enjoyed Anne Zouroudi's *The Messenger of Athens: A Novel*. Having been an avid reader for years and years, I'm constantly on the lookout for something different, something that stays with me. This book will do that. Ms. Zouroudi's descriptions of the remote Greek island of Thiminos, where the crime occurs, is breath taking. One can tell from her descriptions that she loves the locale. One can feel the air and see the people scurrying about on errands that have occurred in the same way in the same place for ages.

As others have stated, Irini Asimakopoulos, a pretty young woman, is found dead at the foot of a clift. Her body has bruises and cuts which indicated a fall. The local authorities ruled her death a suicide and moved on. The fat man, wearing an expensive suit and white tennis shoes which he keeps polishing to cover any scuffs, appears carrying an attaché case. While he is identified or at least we're given his name, we are never told who sent him or why he appeared. He simply seeks the truth about Irini's death.

The storyline evolves around his investigation and actions taken as a result of the truths he finds. We also get into the mind of Irini. Even though she was lonely while her fisherman husband was away on his boat, she was relatively happy with him until she meets that one person who changes her life.

This isn't a typical who-done-it that follows plotting familiar to the genre. Instead it is a careful telling of a crime brought about not by the usual greed or what have you, but by the cowardice of one individual. Was the fat man an avenging angel? Someone rich seeking justice for those quickly forgotten? Whatever he was, his actions left me feeling quite satisfied with the storyline of this book. Highly recommended for those seeking a different reading experience.

The Messenger of Athens is a reasonably engaging Private Detective Murder Mystery set on a bucolic Greek Island. The twist is that the action takes place among the locals during the chilly and dismal off-season and gives the reader a glance into the other side of paradise. The hero of the story is "The Fat Man" a mysterious PI from Athens who enters the insular world of the full-time islanders, shakes things up and sorts things out.

The Messenger of Athens held my attention and gets an extra point point for its unique setting and perspective but I cannot say that I loved it. A notch above OK but nothing more.

Anne Zouroudi takes us to a remote Greek island that seems barely touched by modern life. Now shake off those romantic notions. It means that the houses are crumbling from the damp and the wind blasts through the cracks. The old patriarchal notions of honor dictate quite harshly what one can and cannot do. And the very dirt holds prisoner the island residents.
A young woman has been found at the bottom of a cliff, apparently a suicide. A few days later Hermes arrives, a portly gentleman in a good suit and white tennis shoes, which he polishes meticulously. He is making inquiries about the girl and what led to her death. Zouroudi consistently refers to him as the fat man.
The story switches back and forth between the story of the girl's life in the village and the progress that Hermes is making in his quest. Zouroudi makes smooth transitions between these threads.
I did not guess the ending and the ending was entirely plausible. Some loose threads are tied up rather neatly, but in the context of the book's reality, that's plausible, too.
The strength of this book is the setting. The author takes us into the gritty claustrophobia of small island life. She made me grateful for my solid house, the grocery store with abundance and variety, the anonymity of metropolitan life, and freedom of religion. I hope to see Hermes take on another case. This is a very solidly written book.

It is evident from the author's rich descriptions of village life on the islands that she is at home in Greece. Ms. Zouroudi is, in fact, at her best when she takes us to country wedding celebrations with "orange-blossom crowns" and "sugared almonds"; or to tavernas where she presents us with "small dishes" of mouth-watering delicacies. Indeed her descriptions, whether of storm-tossed seas or "timeless, ageless Greece" not only ring with authenticity but also border on the lyrical: "mountains against a clear sky, a glimpse of sapphire sea, the scent of herbs carried on the wind" (201). Her messenger detective, Hermes Diaktoros, has distinct possibilities, but I found her persistent use throughout the book of "the fat man" as his epithet to be annoying, not to say, offensive. To me the device detracted from what might have been an otherwise fully developed character. As for the mystery, well, I suppose it was simply not my glass of retsina. It may well be yours!