The Bull of Mithros: (6 The Mysteries of the Greek Detective)

It is summer, and as tourists, drawn by the legend of a priceless missing artefact, disembark on the sun-drenched quay of Mithros, the languid calm of the island is broken by the unorthodox arrival of a stranger who has been thrown overboard in the bay. Lacking money or identification, he is forced to remain on Mithros. But is he truly a stranger? To some, his face seems familiar. The arrival of the investigator Hermes Diaktoros, intrigued by the island's fabled bull, coincides with a violent and mysterious death. This violence has an echo in Mithros's recent past: in a brutal unsolved crime committed several years before, which, although apparently forgotten, may not yet have been forgiven. As Hermes sets about solving the complex puzzle of who is guilty and who is innocent, he discovers a web of secrets and unspoken loyalties, and it soon becomes clear that the bull of Mithros may only be the least of the island's shadowy mysteries.

About the Author :
Born in rural Lincolnshire in 1959, Anne moved to South Yorkshire at the age of two. Following her education at Sheffield High School for Girls, she went into the IT industry, a career which took her to both New York’s Wall Street and Denver, Colorado. In America she began to take seriously her ambition to write fiction, and bought a typewriter for her first short stories. On returning to the UK, she booked a summer holiday with her sister. The location they chose was a tiny island in southern Greece. “We arrived at night; there was nothing to see,” she recalls. “But the next morning, I opened the shutters of our rented house, and bam! Love at first sight. The brilliant blue sea, the scent of herbs on the breeze, the timelessness of the place… It was the first moment of a love affair which has lasted twenty years.” Anne spent a number of years living in the islands; she married a Greek, and her son was born there. Returning again to the UK, she was still writing, but the short stories had grown into novels. Anne“I wrote three, and whilst I was getting interest in my writing, those novels didn’t find publishers, though a northern-based thriller came close,” she says. “Then I decided to write a novel set in Greece, based on a character who’d come to my mind whilst I was living there. He became Hermes Diaktoros. I sent the manuscript to an agent, and went off to spend some time in Greece. When I returned, I got the call I’d been waiting for. I’d written the right book at last.” Sean Barrett has won numerous Earphones Awards and two prestigious Audie Awards for his audiobook narrations. He started acting professionally at the age of 12, and has since appeared on television and in film in Minder, Brush Strokes, War and Peace, Sons and Lovers and Return to Oz. His stage credits include performing on the West End with Noël Coward in Suite in Three Keys. He has worked extensively on BBC Radio and has also narrated several television series, including People’s Century and Crash.

Review :
'Greece has never appeared more beautiful or damaged, and secrets lurk behind every ruin. Fortunately, Zouroudi's masterfully compelling detective Hermes Diaktoros is on hand to sort the facts from the myths surrounding the violent death of a mysterious stranger.' 'Diaktoros is a delight. Half Poirot, half deus ex machina, but far more earth-bound than his first name suggests, the portly detective has an other-worldly, Marlowesque incorruptibility as he waddles through the mean olive groves.'