The Taint of Midas
For over half a century the beautiful, ruined Temple of Apollo has been in the care of the old beekeeper Gabrilis. But when the value of the land soars, he is persuaded through unscrupulous means to sign away his interests - and hours later he meets a violent, lonely death. When Hermes Diaktoros finds his friend’s battered body by a dusty roadside, the police quickly make him the prime suspect. But with rapacious developers threatening Arcadia’s most ancient sites, there are many who stand to gain from Gabrilis’s death. Hermes resolves to avenge his old friend and find the true culprit, but his methods are, as ever, unorthodox.
The Taint of Midas is the second book in the Mysteries of the Greek Detective series. Its theme is the sin of avarice.
Readers who were captivated by the Fat Man in The Messenger of Athens will be thrilled to rediscover him. Those new to the series will meet a detective who breaks the mould - a Greek Poirot, who keeps a number of unusual tools to hand.
Praise for The Taint of Midas
‘Diaktoros is a delight There is also a cracking plot, colourful local characters and descriptions of the hot, dry countryside so strong that you can almost see the heat haze and hear the cicadas - the perfect read to curl up with as the nights draw in’ Guardian
‘While Zouroudi has a lightness of touch, she is unflinching in her condemnation of corruption, and a sticky end is meted out to those, and there are many of them, who are in thrall to Mammon. There is realistic horror in The Taint of Midas but Hermes, operating as a kind of deus ex machine, dispenses his own particular brand of justice’ Times Literary Supplement
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