Devil of Delphi
Book 7
Think Breaking Bad, Greek style.
In ancient times, Delphi stood at the center of the world, a mountainous, verdant home to the gods, where kings and warriors journeyed to learn of their fates from its Oracle, and disobeyed its preaching at their peril.
In modern day Delphi, a young Athens emigree seeks to re-build his life in anonymity among its pastoral, rolling hills and endless olive groves. But the man’s dark past is too celebrated, and his assassin skills are too much in demand for his fate to be left to his own hands.
When he’s given no choice but to serve the ruthless aims of an international criminal mastermind, he agrees, but on his terms. His methods bring unexpected death to a member of one of Greece’s most prominent and feared political families, and draws Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis into the eye of a political and media firestorm threatening to bring down the nation’s government.
It is a gripping, fast-paced story played out against a backdrop of World Heritage Sites, an annual global trillion-dollar legitimate alcoholic beverage industry preyed upon by counterfeiters of the industries’ most celebrated brands, and political infighting among Greek revolutionaries, movers and shakers. Kaldis and his team soon find themselves battling purveyors of life-threatening adulterated booze, struggling to bring a cold-blooded killer to justice, and laboring to outthink a political chess-master determined to destroy Kaldis’ ailing boss, Greece’s Minister of Public Order—all without turning themselves and their families into deadly targets.
Full Praise
2016 Barry Award Nominee for Best Novel
Included on Deadly Pleasures 2015 list of Best Novels
Best New Reads of 2015 (Crime Watch)
“Mr. Siger is more than a master storyteller; he’s a historian and diarist for modern Greece. Devil of Delphi keeps you gripping the edge of your seat, right to the unexpected explosive ending, with more than a few twists and surprises—especially for our hero, Kaldis. Powerful and not to be missed.”
—New York Journal of Books
“There are multiple sources of appeal here: the fast-paced plot, the landscape, and, as always, the appealing camaraderie shared by Kaldis and his crew, as well as the bantering relationship between the inspector and his well-connected wife, Lila. The final plot twist proves well worth the wait, but it won’t take readers long to get there as they will be turning pages at a ferocious clip.”
—Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Captivating villains elevate Siger’s seventh mystery featuring Chief Insp. Andreas Kaldis.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Siger’s sublimely malevolent villains make the book a page-turner.”
—Kirkus Reviews
—Shelf Awareness
“The seventh book in Siger’s Greek procedural series [Devil of Delphi] features a strong sense of place and a devious plot.”
—Library Journal
“I don’t know how he does it, but Siger outdoes himself each time. His gripping stories take you on an adventure; you can’t put them down. Kaldis, his family, and his co-workers have become our friends. We cheer them on, and we get scared for them too. Adept at creating plots so believable, Siger gets to the heart of issues in Greek society, peeks into the minds of the bad guys, and shows us that good guys still exist.”
—Windy City Greek
“As exciting and as timely as Siger’s plots are, it’s his sense of humor and his characters that really make me come back, book after book….Rating:A”
—Kittling Books
“Riveting plotting, wonderful characters, an attractive setting. Jeffrey Siger’s Devil of Delphi has it all.”
—Lesa’s Book Critiques
“Jeffrey Siger’s Devil of Delphi has an electric ending. I could see it coming, but then again, I couldn’t…The Andreas Kaldis books are among the best police procedurals I read.”
—Joe Barone
“WOW! I just finished reading this extremely engrossing novel. I’ve now read all seven of the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis police procedurals set in Greece. I think this one is the best and that is saying a lot. Jeffrey had me laughing out loud several times while reading when I least expected it. He even had me rooting for a bad guy and that rarely happens to me. I gave Devil of Delphi five stars.”
—John Bohnert, DorothyL
“This is the seventh novel by this very gifted author…The author has a light touch and there is a lot of very wry humour in his books to offset the often very dark violence…extremely readable examples of the best international police procedurals, similar perhaps to those of authors such as Donna Leon and Joseph Wambaugh…
Highly recommended.”
—Terry Halligan, Eurocrime
“In an ocean of police procedurals splashed across the globe, Jeffrey Siger thrusts his head above the waves not only with the sweltering Greek setting of his Andreas Kaldis series, but the verve of his writing…I really liked this book…Siger does a great job crafting a real vitality in his stories, characters, and settings—injecting in enough twists or new takes to ensure that in a genre that can be a bit same-same even when enjoyable, he’s created something quite distinctive.”
—Craig Sisterson, Crime Watch
Excerpt
He was born precisely one year after his mother’s death. At least that’s what the birth certificate read. His father wasn’t around to notice the mistake, having vanished immediately after his fateful one-night stand. Nor did the orphanage pick up on the error; they simply treated him as the child of an unidentified itinerant mother, born on the day she died giving birth in one of Athens’ worst public clinics.
He learned of the mistake a dozen years ago, slightly shy of what he believed to be his fourteenth birthday. The surprise came in the form of a copy of his birth certificate shown to him just before his lawyer presented it to a court along with a citation to provisions of the Greek Criminal Code absolving a minor under thirteen from any criminal responsibility for his acts. He stood expressionless as a visibly angry judge ranted on and on before ordering him to spend his next five years in programs alongside other minors deemed in need of reformative measures.
But he never spent a moment in confinement for the murders.
© Jeffrey Siger
Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mysteries
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