- This new novel from Greek-Australian author Peter Papathanasiou, author of the excellent outback noir thriller The Stoning, sits more comfortably in the political/historical genre than the crime category. It has a lot more richness and meaning than your standard thriller. And the reader is seriously enlightened, especially those of us not that aware of modern Greece and it’s pretty ugly 20th century history.
- Like any good thriller it fleshes out the life of a city, town or village, pulsating with realism and detailing the full locale, not just the underbelly. The village here is Glikinero in the northern region of Greece which borders Albania and North Macedonia. It's located on the shore of the Great Prespa lake. (The book's frontispiece provides a good map of the region). It also brings alive Greece’s natural world, its animals, birds and floral delights, and the wonderful food the friendly, delightful inhabitants eat. The author celebrates…a country blessed with immense natural beauty and warm, generous people, but with poor prospects for growth and prosperity. It’s an ode to Greece in so many ways, and doesn't shy away from criticism of Australia when appropriate.
- The very likeable Detective Sargeant George Manolis, who featured in The Stoning, shoots and kills a homeless boy by accident in Melbourne, so he’s forced to take time off and chooses to travel to Greece for a holiday. His parents migrated to Australia after World War II.
- His old friend Lefty (Lefteris) is missing. He's a very popular man in the village, or so it seems. As the novel progresses we learn there's more to him than meets the eye. He's a cross-border smuggler of all sorts of merchandise, including drugs, and a scheming con man with no moral compass - ‘borrowing’ money but never giving it back.
- Manolis never discloses that he's a detective, well experienced in tracking down missing criminals. But he's determined to find Lefty, dead or alive.
- We're introduced to quite a few characters living in the village. They're generous to Manolis but some of them have secrets and grudges going back generations. Greece, Albania and North Macedonia just don’t get on. They fought one another during the war, which was then followed by the horrific Greek civil war of 1946-49. Ancient European animosities can never be forgotten. Many children, including the disabled, were victims. We're immersed in a village of prehistoric, lowlife, Nazi sympathisers.…the strange world of the Prespes, a world of black-market smugglers and illegal immigrants and Romani who claimed the land was cursed.
- One peculiar tradition of the region was the frequent and secret adoption of masculinity by women who would otherwise be passed over for family inheritance. They voluntarily became 'sworn virgins'.
- This bewildering social cocktail baffles Manolis on many levels as it does the reader. Nevertheless the resolution of Lefty's mysterious disappearance at the end, just as Manolis is about to depart for Australia, is very satisfying.
- If you're a crime genre addict and looking for a straight up and down thriller, even in today's sophisticated Australian noir tradition, you may not relish this book, but you will learn a lot from it and it will stay with you. And you will plan a holiday to Greece.
No comments:
Post a Comment