Athenian Blues
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Stratos hates being called a hitman. He takes care of problems. Permanently. Problems that people pay handsomely to have solved. His clients don’t want to know the details, but Stratos is conscientious. He will only take on a job if his research shows that the targets deserve their fate.
In the midst of the Greek economic crisis, Stratos takes on the highest-profile case of his career. The most celebrated lawyer in Greece and his beautiful actress wife both bid for his services, but which one is telling the truth? Helped by his three childhood friends, Drag, a homicide cop, Teri, a high-class transgender sex worker, and Maria, the love of his and Drag's life, he realises that truth is always relative.Especially when shattered loves and broken families are involved.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Koutsakis makes his English-language debut with an intriguing crime novel, his first to star Stratos Gazis, a virtuous hit man who boasts of killing only people who deserve it. Glamorous supermodel Aliki Stylianou hires Stratos to kill her jealous husband, celebrity super-lawyer Vassilis Stathopoulos, before he can murder her. Aliki claims that during their three-year marriage Vassilis has regularly beaten her, sending her to the hospital twice with fractures. When Stratos finally meets Vassilis, the lawyer offers to employ Stratos to protect his deluded wife from an unknown killer. Aided by his three best friends, including homicide detective Costas Dragas, Stratos tries to cut through the tangle of lies and delusions, while people who should be on the periphery of the case start dying violently. American film noir shaped Stratos's view of life, and Koutsakis effectively translates that half-lit, morally ambiguous milieu to seedy modern-day Athens. Noir fans will look forward to the next installment.
