The Doctor of Thessaly (Seven Deadly Sins Mystery Series #3)

by Anne Zouroudi

Overview

A jilted bride weeps on an empty beach. A local doctor is attacked in an isolated churchyard. Trouble arrives at a bad time to the backwater village of Morfi, just as the community is making headlines with a visit from a high-ranking government minister. Fortunately, where there's trouble, there's Hermes Diaktoros, the mysterious fat man whose tennis shoes are always pristine and whose investigative methods are always unorthodox.

Hermes must investigate a brutal crime, thwart the petty machinations of the town's ex-mayor and his cronies, and try to settle the troubled waters of two sisters' relationship. But how can he unravel a mystery that not even the victim wants solved?

Set against a radiant Mediterranean backdrop, THE DOCTOR OF THESSALY is a spellbinding mystery about the dark consequences of envy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316217859
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	12/04/2012
Series:	Seven Deadly Sins Mystery Series , #3
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Anne Zouroudi was born in England and has lived in the Greek islands. Her attachment to Greece remains strong; the country is the inspiration for much of her writing. She now lives in northern England.

Editorial Reviews

Zouroudi is an artfully restrained writer. Her hints are subtle, and her plot twists, while satisfying, are never outlandish. In The Doctor of Thessaly, as in her previous novels, the crime is dramatic…but not sensational. It will ultimately make sense—human as well as dramatic sense—because Zouroudi's characters and the society she describes are so convincing. The petty, spiteful village politician; the lonely daughter tending her disabled mother; the fall of darkness on a quiet shore; the silence in an abandoned orchard—this unassuming novel is 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.

The Washington Post - Anna Mundow

Sophisticated classic mystery fans will welcome Zoroudi’s third Deadly Sins mystery (after 2011’s The Whispers of Nemesis). Her Poirot-like sleuth, Hermes Diaktoros, whose exact employers remain obscure, arrives in the small Greek village of Morfi at a delicate time. Town doctor Louis Chabrol, a Frenchman, has stood up his bride-to-be, Chrissa Kaligi, but an innocent if horrific explanation is soon forthcoming. Someone has thrown a caustic chemical into Chabrol’s face after luring him to a remote spot, blinding him. Diaktoros, an easy-going gourmand who’s very particular about his appearance, subtly insinuates himself into the village’s life in an effort to identify Chabrol’s assailant. Apart from her empathic lead, Zoroudi’s evocative prose is a plus (“When the wind blew, the corrugated iron roof—lashed down with rope and weighted with rocks—sang like the haunting dead, rattling its own percussion”). (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"This elegant mystery has the hallmarks of a classic Greek tragedy."

Carole E. Barrowman

PRAISE FOR THE DOCTOR OF THESSALY:

"Zouroudi's latest mystery brings the Hellenic vibe tantalisingly close...The plot works well, but more diverting still is Zouroudi's atmospheric portrait of this austerely beautiful backwater."

Emma Hagestadt

PRAISE FOR THE MESSENGER OF ATHENS:

"Riveting...as surprising as a classic detective story, and as sad and inevitable as an ancient Greek drama."

Tom Nolan

PRAISE FOR THE TAINT OF MIDAS:

"Appealing...In Anne Zouroudi's talented hands, Arcadia comes across as a once-lovely place with traces of the old, fresh, aromatic island still intact, but with ever larger swaths smashed by the machinery of industrial tourism."

Richard Lipez

"In Zouroudi's third Hermes Diaktoros novel (following The Taint of Midas, 2011), the Athenian investigator's employers and origins remain undeclared, but Diaktoros still commands authority, somehow beyond the state. Waylaid by car trouble in the coastal village of Morfi, Diaktoros is present when the village's doctor is rushed into town, rescued from a vicious, blinding attack with chemicals. Although the blinding will surely end his career and may threaten his relationship with a local spinster, the doctor declines to alert authorities, and the village quickly loses interest. Diaktoros' interest is piqued, however, and he employs time-honored techniques - inquisition and observation - to dig for a motive beneath village rumors. As always, these methods provide the most honest glimpses of human nature, and his guided tour through the villagers' envy, lost loves, and hard-edged justice is as enlightening as it is entertaining. Zouroudi's straightforward style wisely allows room for the characters' relationships to provide the story's complexity. Recommended for those who would enjoy Alexander McCall Smith darkened a shade or two." - Booklist

"Sophisticated classic mystery fans will welcome Zouroudi's third Deadly Sins mystery. Apart from her empathic lead, Zoroudi's evocative prose is a plus ('When the wind blew, the corrugated iron roof-lashed down with rope and weighted with rocks-sang like the haunting dead, rattling its own percussion')." - Publishers Weekly

"A plus-sized Poirot with a more puckish personality... [Hermes'] droll interactions with hapless locals, along with Zouroudi's intricately detailed depictions of small-town dynamics, should hold readers' interest." - Kirkus Reviews

"Zouroudi's latest mystery brings the Hellenic vibe tantalisingly close... The plot works well, but more diverting still is Zouroudi's atmospheric portrait of this austerely beautiful backwater." - The Independent (UK)

From the Publisher

[Diaktoros'] guided tour through the villagers' envy, lost loves, and hard-edged justice is as enlightening as it is entertaining. Zouroudi's straightforward style wisely allows room for the characters' relationships to provide the story's complexity. Recommended for those who would enjoy Alexander McCall Smith darkened a shade or two.

Booklist

No one on the Greek island of Arcadia can keep a secret from the comforting and apparently harmless investigator known as the fat man. Strange and seemingly unrelated events plague the little village of Morfi. Bride Noula angrily casts her wedding garlands into the sea when her groom is a no-show. Hard-drinking Adonis Anapodos discovers a doctor in a local churchyard, beaten and blinded and left for dead. The victim speaks fluent Greek but with a decidedly French accent. Evangelia, a chatty and self-involved trattoria owner, is regaling an alert and mysterious "fat man" with the sad story of the aborted wedding when Adonis carries the injured doctor in and the emergency service is called. Bringing his Mercedes in for repairs, the fat man, grandly introducing himself as Hermes Diaktoros of Athens, stirs the pot with visits to the post office (a hub of local power) and Adonis' home to question him more closely about his rescue of the unnamed doctor. At length, we learn that the victim's name is Louis and he is the fiance of Chrissa, the sister of the jilted bride, Noula. News of the fat man's presence spreads, but still the locals readily open up to him, helping him move steadily to a solution. A plus-sized Poirot with a more puckish personality, Hermes (The Taint of Midas, 2011, etc.) may be a bit twee for conventional whodunit fans. But his droll interactions with hapless locals, along with Zouroudi's intricately detailed depictions of small-town dynamics, should hold readers' interest.

Kirkus Reviews