Expecting a political trick to shift blame onto his team, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis doesn't want anything to do with investigating a case that involves suspicious forest fires that occurred in Greece the previous year. However, he quickly begins to wonder if the forests were set on fire for profit-- and for something worth far more than the usual low-level business corruption.
There are vague rumors that foreign powers may be trying to establish a secretive mega-internet presence on the island of Syros, a presence they want to use to take over the digital world.
Kaldis and his team find themselves working to stop the hostile takeover of an idyllic island before it's too late.
~
I always look forward to a new Andreas Kaldis mystery from Jeffrey Siger. I can rely on him for a fast-paced thrill ride of a story steeped in the culture of ancient and present-day Greece. By the time of this, his thirteenth Kaldis novel, his characters had become part of my fictional family, and in At Any Cost, I became much better acquainted with Andreas' sister, Gavi, and her daughter, Anna.
Although the premise of building a mega-internet presence that could take over the digital world was a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around, I've come to trust this author's prescience. I just sank into the story and enjoyed the ride. While I did that, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Greek food has been mentioned here and there throughout the series, but in At Any Cost, the author took a page from Martin Walker's Bruno Chief of Police series and sat me down right in the middle of a Greek feast. Yum!
Story... check. Food... check. But what keeps me coming back for more are the characters. As I said before, Andreas Kaldis, his family, and his team have become part of my fictional family. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they take me in and make me feel welcome among them. I feel that I know them very well-- so much so that when a member of his family was in danger, I smiled and thought, "Those bad guys aren't going to know what hit them."
Even though you can pick this book up, not having read any of the others in the series, and not feel lost, it would be a shame to miss everything that has gone before. (The first book is Murder in Mykonos.) Now I find myself in the familiar position of being forced to wait for the next book. Ah well.
At Any Cost by Jeffrey Siger
eISBN: 9781448312115
Severn House © 2024
eBook, 256 pages
Police Procedural, #13 Inspector Kaldis mystery
Rating: A
Source: Net Galley
That's just it, Cathy: you go along for the ride with Siger. He fleshes out the characters effectively, and he tells the story in a believable way, so that even if there are things that are hard to wrap your head around, you still buy them. I also like Kaldis as a character.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to seeing Siger again at The Poisoned Pen this week.
DeleteI haven't read any of this series. Another one to add to my list.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly given me a greater appreciation of Greece.
DeleteAt least you're all caught up with this series! ;D
ReplyDeleteYes-- because there are dozens that I'm soooo far behind on! LOL
DeleteOh, another good series I haven't been able to dig into. But I know one thing: Greek food is delicious. Also, I know one important date in Greece's history and learned it from Jeff Siger's blog at Murder Is Everywhere. Oct. 28 is Oxi Day, marking that date in 1940 when the Greek Prime Minister said Oxi (no) to the Italian ambassador who gave him three hours to surrender to Italy. He said Oxi and Italy invaded, but they couldn't beat the Greek people. So the Germans went in. I know Greek people from a store nearby and they are kind and generous. And when I say Happy Oxi Day, they love it. My mother visited the Greek islands and Siger often writes about and takes photos of them. Absolutely beautiful and the art and history are incredible. I grew up on Greek myths my father told us, not fairy tales. And I have his three-book set of writings by Greek philosophers. So Happy Reading.
ReplyDeleteThe woman who cut my hair for over thirty years is Greek. She'd occasionally go home to visit family before her health grew too poor to travel.
DeleteOh, too bad for her. I saw that the Siger event at PP was cancelled and thought of your and Denis's planned sojourn there. I hope he reschedules. And I am reading a book which goes below my 1-5 rating system; it would get a -5. It's picking up a bit to a 2 perhaps. I couldn't stop reading as it's a legal mystery and I want to know the result. But wow, if I were the publisher I'd have edited out the gory scenes of torture of women. Women are the main readers and purchasers of crime fiction, and I know none who want to see this. Can't writers just say 'women were tortured brutally" and leave it at that? One of my pet peeves.
ReplyDeleteFor some unknown reason, my tolerance level for that is higher when it's on the written page. When it's on film or TV, I have no tolerance for it at all. You'd think I'd feel the same way about both. Perhaps it's because it's easier to skip those parts in a book...
DeleteYes, often I do skip this torture porn in books, but for some reason I didn't expect it and later on it came up in court proceedings, etc., and there are twists in the whodunnit aspect and I wanted to know this.
ReplyDeleteI understand.
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