Athenian Blues

(Paperback)

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Description

"So sweet, so calm, so unaffectedly natural I'd nearly forgotten that the reason she had invited me there was to discuss how I would kill her husband."

Stratos Gazis hates being called a contract killer. What he is, is a conscientious fixer. He fixes problems that are only mentioned in whispers. That very few can fix. Things that people are willing to pay handsomely to get done, without wanting to know about the small stuff - just that the job was carried out. Stratos is their man, provided that his meticulous research shows him that the targets deserve their fate. As he says, "I'm a kind of Robin Hood. I hunt down the villains. And I rob them. Of their lives." But now, in the midst of the Greek economic crisis and political turmoil, during a melancholy winter which makes life in Athens even more unbearable than usual, this film-noir loving assassin with the strict moral code is about to get involved in the most high-profile case of his contract killer career. He finds himself caught between the most beloved lawyer in Greece, known as "the guardian of the poor", and his actress and model wife, the most desirable woman in the country. They are both in dire need of his killing services, but which one is telling the truth Helped by three childhood friends, Costas Dragas, a homicide cop, Teri, a transsexual high-class hooker and Maria, the passion of his life, he discovers that truth, in shattered loves and broken families, is, as ever, a relative thing.

Reviews

"This is a tasty gulp-down thriller where there are more plot-twists than courses in a hot and spicy Greek meze." --CrimeTime "Equal parts intense action, clever detection, and a compelling survival story." --Booklist "Koutsakis makes his English-language debut with an intriguing crime novel. American film noir shaped Stratos's view of life, and Koutsakis effectively translates that half-lit, morally ambiguous milieu to seedy modern-day Athens. Noir fans will look forward to the next installment." --Publishers Weekly "With a narrator on the wrong side of the law who admires film noir, this dark novel will attract fans of international crime fiction with an edge. Admirers of Lawrence Block's "Hit Man" series may also want to try this book about a killer with a conscience."--Library Journal "It's hard to resist this hero, a freelance killer who describes himself as a kind of social worker, except I get properly paid.-- Kirkus

Author Bio

Pol Koutsakis writes novels, plays and screenplays. He was born in 1974. Until May 2006 he lived in Chania, in Western Crete, then lived for three years in Ontario, Canada, with his wife and daughter. At the end of December 2008, Pol returned to Chania only to emigrate again in 2016, this time to Perth, Australia. Pol teaches computer engineering in Perth when he is not writing crime novels or plays. He won the National award for best Greek play in 2007 by the Greek Ministry of Culture, and the National award for second best Greek play in 2005. Athenian Blues is his first novel to be translated into English. Baby Blue, the sequel to Athenian Blues, is expected to be published by Bitter Lemon Press in 2017.