This is a great beach read, and if you’re up for it, you may want to read it while sitting on the beach of the Greek island of Mykonos. This is the first of a series written by a Siger, a retired New York lawyer. He has lived in Mykonos for more than 30 years (20 when this book was published in 2009). There are ten books in the series now.

This is not really a police procedural, though we are watching the chief of police for most of the story; it is really a thriller. Siger has checked all the boxes for the genre.

One week into the chief’s new job, a worker discovers a body in the crypt below the floor of a private church far from the happy tourists crowding the beaches and bars of the island built on tourism. The island is dotted with family churches built centuries ago where a family could worship without going to town and they could bury their dead in the crypt. The investigation discovers that several sets of older bones are not all that old, no more than twenty years.

The powerful mayor of the island puts a lid on any public announcement that might panic the tourist, but when another young woman goes missing the case becomes a race to rescue her before she ends up on a pile of bones. It is a hard fought race taking up nearly half the book. Gird yourself and settle in for the climax.

My disappointment is that it is an American book. Siger does picture the island and its people, but the speech patterns are very American and we get only a little insight into what it means to be a Greek. It is an American story with an American hero set in Greece.

Still, a good read.

Mike Lawrence