The Taint of Midas [Paperback]

Anne Zouroudi (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 273 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury (2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747595763
• ISBN-13: 978-0747595762
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Zouroudi was born in Lincolnshire in 1959 and grew up in England's industrial north, in the steel city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire. After a number of years in a lucrative career - which included time working on Wall Street, and in Denver, Co - she gave up an excellent job to live in the Greek islands. She married a Greek, and her son was born on the island of Rhodes.
"The truth is," she says, "I was a Shirley Valentine."

Anne's writer's eye records in fascinating detail the minutiae of the lives of the Greek people, and her mould-breaking crime novels bring Greece's timeless landscapes vividly to life. She regards her work as a labour of love. "Greece," she says, "is my spiritual home, the land that stole my heart and shows no sign of ever returning it."

Her first novel, The Messenger of Athens, was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize for Sparkling New Fiction, and ITV3's Crime Thriller Awards 2008.

Anne now lives in middle England, in the beautiful Peak District National Park. "It's pretty," she says. "But Greece still calls my name. At every opportunity, I'm there."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does right always win over wrong?, July 17, 2011

By 

Mary J. Gramlich "The Reading Reviewer" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Taint of Midas: A Novel (Hardcover)

The return of Hermes Diaktoros, aka The Fat Man is again a quiet, understated event that has him working with the police on a case but this time it is personal. His elderly friend was the victim of a hit and run, left injured to die alone. Hermes is going to do right by his friend and make sure that whoever did this will see justice one way or another. When you have led a long and honorable life, your death should reflect this with great respect, which Hermes will provide.

However, during the course of his investigation another type of evil rears its own face and greed is not a fickle mistress she is a controlling demon. A father and his two sons have chosen the least moral way to take over a town and control its fortune with no regard for who will perish in the wake of their desires.

Hermes travels quietly and maintains a low profile but people know he is there and the local police this time welcome his intervention, as no one else will help them resolve any of their issues. Temptation is great around the police force and resisting the easy money that seems to flow from one hand to another is a difficult thing to do for both a seasoned professional and one barely out of the academy.

Hermes is a quiet, commanding force that moves stealthy despite some girth on his body. He is determined to make you attest for your sins and let fate decide your punishment. Have fear for you will be punished for what you do in this life and the next!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Joy to Read, May 31, 2010

By 

She Who Must Be Obeyed (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Taint of Midas (Paperback)

Anne Zouroudi's Fat Man -- what a marvellous creation! This is the second Zouroudi novel I've read and her wry observations about the darker side of Greek social mores, coupled with her elegant and economical prose, make these books a joy to read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Trampled Castles, January 15, 2012

By 

Lisa Small - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Taint of Midas: A Novel (Hardcover)

First off, I enjoy Hermes' fatness, and his fastidious (compulsive?) care of his white, white shoes. Zouroudi's loving descriptions of everything -- the good, the bad, wine, meals, clothes, and the landscape, youth, age, innocence and corruption, oh, especially corruption -- made every page a pleasure. From p. 251: "The air smelled not of the sea but of frying food; the hot sand was churned with footprints and trampled castles." Trampled castles!

Second, and without going to spoilers, I was stunned by one of the major scenes late in the book, completely astonished at a conversation between the fat man and one of the novel's most sordid characters. Just a simple conversation, but it goes where most mysteries do not, a tally of the opportunities he has for sin and redemption in a way most authors leave unspoken but here made tremendously powerful by being made tremendously explicit.

I have some questions and reservations about the denouement. Perhaps the fat man has special powers which were revealed in the first book, The Messenger of Athens: A Novel, which I have not yet read. But whether it's a strong reliance on the deus ex machina or some remarkable gifts within the fat man himself, the ending(s) may have been a bit too easy for the omnipotent author, a bit too incredible to sustain the enchantment that envelops the rest of the book. Five stars anyway; I cannot wait to get the first episode, and hope that Zouroudi hastens with the third.