Deadline in Athens: An Inspector Costas Haritos Mystery

Hard-nosed yet ultimately endearing, Costas Haritos is a veteran junta-trained homicide detective on the Athens police force. He is uncomfortably married, can't stand his daughter's boyfriend, and after a day of constant gridlock and smog, tight-lipped witnesses, and the relentless crush of the media, he relaxes by reading dictionaries.
When an Albanian husband and wife are found dead in their home, Inspector Haritos is called to what seems to be an open-and-shut case. For the Greek police, two dead Albanians are hardly a matter of concern, and after the primary suspect confesses under duress, the case is closed. But when the country's celebrity TV news reporter, Janna Karayoryi, hints that there may be more to it, Haritos becomes unnerved. He doesn't exactly like the ambitious young journalist, much less the ruthless way she has risen to the top; but could she be right in thinking the murder has something to do with babies? Before Haritos can find out, Janna is silenced suddenly and chillingly, moments before she is to go on the air with a startling newsbreak. Did her mysterious report have something to do with the murdered Albanians? Who wanted her out of the way and why? Caught between a bumbling junior officer and higher-ups all too easily influenced by news executives who are determined to protect their own, Costas Haritos sets out to get to the bottom of the matter - and ends up exploring a dark underworld of post-dictatorship capitalism.

Costas Haritos was a prison guard under Greece's old fascist regime. Now a top homicide inspector under democratic rule, he still knows how to turn the screws on a tough suspect. But he is not so adept at playing politics with department heads, government ministers, and the media. So when two TV reporters turn up murdered in Athens, he needs to find a likely culprit fast. The plot, which hinges on a child-smuggling ring, provides plenty of satisfying twists. But the book's real joy lies in the wry, sly voice of its cranky protagonist. It's as if legendary columnist Mike Royko was reincarnated as a wily Greek cop. When Haritos isn't tossing out acerbic criticisms of contemporary Greek society, he is engaged in an amusingly passive-aggressive dance with his wife, Adriani, who gives at least as good as she gets. Considering her faked orgasms, Haritos muses, "If every time it happened I nabbed her and took her in, by now she'd have got life for repeated fraud." But while the climaxes may be phony, the relationship remains refreshingly real. Frank Sennett
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