Overview

A Greek American tourist, Lydia Pappas, stumbles upon a child's body in the ruins of an ancient temple, well hidden on the top of a cliff. The boy has been bled dry, though no blood is in evidence, leading the Greek police investigator, Yiannis Patronas, to believe the killer must have collected it. Greece's financial crisis has reduced the police force on Sifnos to one officer, Petros Nikolaidis, so Patronas has been summoned from his home base of Chios to aid in the case. Accompanying him are his colleagues, Giorgos Tembelos and Evangelos Demos, as well as Papa Michalis, an ancient Orthodox priest with a vast knowledge of detective fiction and an uncanny ability to ferret out the truth. Though eccentric and often irritating, Michalis has been an asset to Patronas over the years in a land where homicide was, until recently, a rare occurrence. But Greece is changing daily, with a tide of migrants straining the country's already diminished resources and occasionally bringing out the worst in her people. The child appears to have been sacrificed according to the rules of a pagan religious ritual. Is someone on Sifnos reviving the old ways? Or is there a thrill killer loose on the island? Is the culprit a Greek national or one of the many foreign migrants crowding its refugee camps? Book 3 in the Greek Islands Mystery series.

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9781603812443

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Reviews

The Devil Takes Half: (Starred Review Featured as a Best Summer Debut) Serafim s dense prose is perfect for lovers of literary and scholarly mysteries. Her plotting is methodical and traditional, with subtle nods to Sherlock Holmes, Greek mythology, and historical events. Library Journal Set on the island of Sifnos, Serafim's timely third Greek Islands mystery (after 2015's When the Devil's Idle) centers on the murder of an unidentified boy who appears to be seven or eight. Lydia Pappas, a Greek-American ceramicist, found the blood-drained, trussed body of the likely refugee suspended over a fire pit near the shrine ruins of Thanatos. The crime scene offers few clues, and the inhabitants of the island's refugee camp, who live in tents and hovels, are mistrustful of the police and handicapped by the language barrier. Chief Officer Yiannis Patronas interviews Lydia (with whom he becomes smitten), as well as maverick American professor Richard Svenson and his three students from the U.S. Partonas also visits the refugee camp, where he meets a Syrian woman who says she's the victim's aunt. Serafim grounds her tale in Greek history, ancient and present, and provides a brutal and effective resolution to the case that will surprise most readers. -Publishers Weekly (11/18/2016) The Devil Takes Half: (Starred Review-Featured as a Best Summer Debut) Serafim's dense prose is perfect for lovers of literary and scholarly mysteries. Her plotting is methodical and traditional, with subtle nods to Sherlock Holmes, Greek mythology, and historical events. --Library Journal Set on the island of Sifnos, Serafim's timely third Greek Islands mystery (after 2015's When the Devil's Idle) centers on the murder of an unidentified boy who appears to be seven or eight. Lydia Pappas, a Greek-American ceramicist, found the blood-drained, trussed body of the likely refugee suspended over a fire pit near the shrine ruins of Thanatos. The crime scene offers few clues, and the inhabitants of the island's refugee camp, who live in tents and hovels, are mistrustful of the police and handicapped by the language barrier. Chief Officer Yiannis Patronas interviews Lydia (with whom he becomes smitten), as well as maverick American professor Richard Svenson and his three students from the U.S. Partonas also visits the refugee camp, where he meets a Syrian woman who says she's the victim's aunt. Serafim grounds her tale in Greek history, ancient and present, and provides a brutal and effective resolution to the case that will surprise most readers. --Publishers Weekly http: //www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60381-244-3 As with Serafim's previous mysteries, From the Devil's Farm combines a clever mystery, a spectacular setting (the island of Sifnos), and Greek culture with a good dose of humor mixed in. The tale takes readers from the Greek Islands to Athens and Turkey as the solution unfolds. Throw in romance as Patronas finds himself attracted to a pretty, redheaded pottery instructor, and the result is an enormously entertaining story. --Mark Lardas, The Daily News, Galveston County, Feb 25, 2017 http: //www.galvnews.com/books/article_51e3f5e6-9b49-5985-9d21-bfc9bd45fbef.html Set on the island of Sifnos, Serafim s timely third Greek Islands mystery (after 2015 s When the Devil s Idle) centers on the murder of an unidentified boy who appears to be seven or eight. Lydia Pappas, a Greek-American ceramicist, found the blood-drained, trussed body of the likely refugee suspended over a fire pit near the shrine ruins of Thanatos. The crime scene offers few clues, and the inhabitants of the island s refugee camp, who live in tents and hovels, are mistrustful of the police and handicapped by the language barrier. Chief Officer Yiannis Patronas interviews Lydia (with whom he becomes smitten), as well as maverick American professor Richard Svenson and his three students from the U.S. Partonas also visits the refugee camp, where he meets a Syrian woman who says she s the victim s aunt. Serafim grounds her tale in Greek history, ancient and present, and provides a brutal and effective resolution to the case that will surprise most readers. --Publishers Weekly http: //www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60381-244-3

The Devil Takes Half: (Starred Review Featured as a Best Summer Debut) Serafim s dense prose is perfect for lovers of literary and scholarly mysteries. Her plotting is methodical and traditional, with subtle nods to Sherlock Holmes, Greek mythology, and historical events. Library Journal

Author Information

Leta Serafim is the author of the Greek Islands Mystery series, published by the Coffeetown Press, as well as the historical novel, To Look on Death No More. She has visited over twenty-five islands in Greece and continues to divide her time between Boston and Greece. You can find her online at letaserafim.com.

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