Deadline in Athens: An Inspector Costas Haritos Mystery (Inspector Costas Haritos Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: Slow-Paced Greek Police Procedural
Review: I'm a huge fan of crime novels from the other countries, so it was with great eagerness that I picked up this first book of a Greek trilogy featuring Costas Haritos, a middle-aged homicide detective. Set in Athens around 1993, the story features an incredibly complicated mystery which kicks off with the apparently motiveless murder of a young Albanian couple. There's a lot of material jammed into the plot, which touches upon the omnipresence of Albanians in Greece, the role of the investigative media, a bundle of mysterious letters, a trio of secret love affairs, a child-smuggling plot which may or may not tie into the murders, the legacy of the fascist era, a pedophile recently released from jail, the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc, and the ability of the powerful to protect one another.

Throughout the book, Inspector Haritos is constantly being called into his superior's office in order to grovel to one bigwig after another. He's a likable character precisely because he's not very good at playing people off each other, instead he's a more traditional cranky copper with a taste for unhealthy food and a secret informant. What little glimpses are given into his personal life aren't too pleasant. He lives with his TV-addicted wife, endures her whining requests for spending money and her fake orgasms, wishing for nothing more than a little peace and quiet to retreat into dictionaries (every fictional detective has to have a little quirk). His
investigation proceeds through all the usual pitfalls and wrong turns before arriving at a shocker of an ending.

As a window into Greece, it has to be said that the book doesn't offer much of a new perspective. Athens is a glum and rainy place, and the traffic is horrendous (anytime Haritos goes anywhere, his exact route is tiresomely detailed and we are told how long it takes). Greek marriage is an unfulfilling, occasionally nasty enterprise sprinkled with unexpected tender moments, and the child is the main source of joy. The Greeks hate Albanians. Powerful media moguls and industrialists act swiftly and with cunning to insulate themselves from any imputation of wrongdoing (as it is everywhere). The media is a dog-eat-dog world (as it is everywhere). There are little glimpses here and there of how the fascist and communist struggles of the postwar era still resonate, but just a taste. On the whole, it's worth reading if one has a particular interest in Greece or international mysteries, but others will probably find it too convoluted and plodding for their tastes.