J Papachristou


The Halcyon Murder (1)
Murder in the Chapel (2)

Detective      Aliki Notis

Setting          Kalini, A fictional Greek Island

Time             Present
Genre           Mediterranean Noir

Possibly the start of a longer sequence of novels set on a fictional Greek island part way between Greece and Turkey.

Both novels involve Aliki Notis, a young female detective (in the first one with a partner) sent from Athens to investigate a homicide on the island. The island itself is coming to terms with the impact of tourism and the exploration of the cultural tensions between an essentially conservative and traditional lifestyle of the islanders and the liberalism that does or could come with the tourism is key to the novels. The cultural tensions between the islanders and their Albanian immigrant population are also apparent with gossip casting an Albanian as a likely perpetrator.

Notis herself is sympathetic to the sensitivities. She is a modern Greek pursuing a career in the police against her father's traditional view of a woman's role.

Rating A