The Bull of Mithros - with a setting inspired by the island of Corfu - is the sixth in the unique series of award-winning Greek Detective Mysteries, where mythology meets murder in the timeless landscapes of almost-contemporary Greece.
Anne Zouroudi's tales of the Greek Detective are 'Gripping and tense, with an atmosphere which holds you in thrall', says Susan Hill.
'Essentially gloriously sunny escapism, the perfect holiday read' (Daily Telegraph).
Readers of Andrea Camilleri, Donna Leon, Alexander McCall-Smith and Neil Gaiman's American Gods will love the mysterious, enigmatic Greek detective Hermes Diaktoros, 'half Poirot, half deus ex machina' (Guardian).
It is summer, and as tourists - drawn by the legend of a priceless missing artefact - disembark on the sun-drenched quay of Mithros, the languid calm of the island is broken by the unorthodox arrival of a stranger who has been thrown overboard in the bay. Lacking money or identification, he is forced for a while to remain on Mithros. But is he truly a stranger? To some, his face seems familiar.
The arrival of the investigator Hermes Diaktoros, intrigued himself by the island's fabled bull, coincides with a violent and mysterious death. This violence has an echo in Mithros's recent past: in a brutal unsolved crime committed several years before, which, although apparently forgotten may not yet have been forgiven.
As Hermes sets about solving the complex puzzle of who is guilty and who is innocent, he discovers a web of secrets and unspoken loyalties, and it soon becomes clear that the bull of Mithros may only be the least of the island's shadowy mysteries.
Anne Zouroudi is a past winner of the Coventry Book Award and has been shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards and the Desmond Elliott Prize.
Reviews
Anne Zouroudi's Greek mystery is full of 'all the sparkle and light of the island landscapes in which she sets them . . . Lovely, delicious prose and plot - as tasty as one of those irresistible honey-soaked Greek confections' - Alexander McCall Smith
'Gripping and tense with an atmosphere which holds you in thrall' - Susan Hill
'Firmly in the delicious subgenre of crime-cum-gastroporn pioneered by Andrea Camilleri . . . Essentially gloriously sunny escapism, the perfect holiday read' - Daily Telegraph
'Riveting' - Wall Street Journal
'This powerfully atmospheric mystery embraces Mediterranean passion, mythic meddling and patriarchal persecution. Anne Zouroudi proves a natural at the dark arts of writing Euro-crime' - Independent
'Not only charming and engrossing stories, but also shrewd and often bleak portraits of individual weakness and social fragility . . . rich in wonderfully compressed scenes, any one of which might have become a short story. But this is a mystery novel, and Zouroudi creates suspense as elegantly as she does atmosphere' - Washington Post
'I can't get enough of Anne Zouroudi's dapper and enigmatic Greek detective Hermes Diaktoros' - The Australian
'Diaktoros is a delight. Half Poirot, half deus ex machina, but far more earth-bound than his first name suggests, the portly detective has an otherworldly, Marlowesque incorruptibility. There is also a cracking plot, colourful local characters and descriptions of the hot, dry countryside so strong that you can almost see the heat haze and hear the cicadas - the perfect read to curl up with' - Guardian
'Anne Zouroudi writes about the nitty-gritty underbelly of life on the Greek islands but with much pathos and passion. Each one is a delicious delight to be savoured at your leisure' - Top Ten Best Novels about Greece, Away with the Ferries
'Greece so charmingly portrayed in Anne Zouroudi's novels' - The Times
