The Messenger of Athens: A Novel (40 page)

—Nancy Fontaine,
Blogcritics.org

“This powerfully atmospheric mystery embraces Mediterranean passion, mythic meddling, and patriarchal persecution…. Zouroudi proves a natural at the dark arts of writing Euro-crime.”

—Emma Hagestadt,
Independent

“The author spins this tale slowly and languidly…. What really drives the novel is local color, the sights, sounds, and above all the smells of Greece—from the crisply fragrant lemon trees to the everlasting stink of fish…. In the end, the reader is left with the sense of having just voyaged to a beautiful but strangely melancholy land.”

—Joan Bugbee,
Roanoke Times

“Atmospheric…. Zouroudi has a deft way with words and an uncanny ability to create a sense of place.”

—Jo Ann Vicarel,
Library Journal
(starred review)

“Wonderfully written…. A fascinating thriller…. A fantastic tale of passion and corruption.”

—
Woman’s Own

“The beginning of a series that will be set entirely on the Greek islands. Evocative and tantalizing with an old-fashioned feel steeped in tradition,
The Messenger of Athens
stars a mysterious but very likeable protagonist, the fat man.”

—Sarah Broadhurst,
Bookseller

“Quirky crime gains an appealing new detective in this soulful, affectionate series debut.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“With Diaktoros’s sometimes magical elixirs and always trenchant observations and prodding, he is comically cherubic as well as witty and wise. Fortunately, this is just his first appearance in Zouroudi’s planned series on the seven deadly sins.”

—Kathe Connair,
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Copyright © 2007 by Anne Zouroudi

Map © 2007 by John Gilkes

Reading group guide copyright © 2011 by Anne Zouroudi and Little, Brown and Company

Excerpt of
The Taint of Midas
copyright © 2008 by Anne Zouroudi

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Reagan Arthur / Back Bay Books

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
.

www.twitter.com/grandcentralpub
.

Reagan Arthur Books is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. The Reagan Arthur Books name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

Second eBook Edition: July 2011

ISBN: 978-0-316-08413-0