TARGET: TINOS by Jeffrey Siger

TARGET: TINOS by Jeffrey Siger offers a rarely seen glimpse into the modern police force of Greece.

Andreas Kaldis, head of Greece's special crimes division, is called to the small island of Tinos to investigate a double homicide. Two charred bodies were found chained inside a burnt out husk of a car with pieces of the Greek flag around them. Attached to the steering wheel is a small cylinder with a cryptic message; Revenge or death. When the victims are identified as gypsies, media and political interest in the case evaporates, but Andreas refuses to give up on the victims.

Siger sheds light on the prevalent attitude towards immigrants in a world that is torn apart by poverty and corruption. The austerity measures imposed on Greece and the influx of thousands seeking refuge, a better way of life, or as some would say easy pickings leave Greece open to power struggles within the ever growing minorities of Greece.

It's this candid view of the Greek modern world that drives the story. At times cynical and harsh but with an undeniable thirst for justice and survival, it mimics the landscape that forged the Greeks into the society they are today. The history, the landscape, and the people of this nation are vividly captured on the pages in a way I found truly fascinating.

The pacing of the crimes, the slow reveal of facts was expertly done, but the finale was anti-climactic for me. I'll admit that I was surprised by who committed the crime and I'm not going to reveal who it was, but looking back over the clues, I couldn't quite put them all together in my head to form a complete picture or that moment when you're like 'Ohhhh, I should have known! It makes perfect sense'.

TARGET: TINOS allows readers to view Greece through the eyes of an incorruptible and dedicated police officer who loves the country of his birth and struggles to bring justice to the victims no one else seems to care about.

In an isolated olive grove on the idyllic Aegean island of
Tinos, revered by pilgrims around the world as the Lourdes
of Greece, the remains of two bodies charred beyond
recognition are discovered chained together amid bits and
pieces of an incinerated Greek flag. An enraged press
screams out for justice for the unknown victims, until the
dead are identified as gypsies and the story simply falls
off the face of the earth.

Is it a gypsy clan war, a hate crime, or something else?
With no one seeming to care, the government has no interest
in resurrecting unwanted media attention by a search for
answers to such ethnically charged questions and orders the
investigation closed.

But Andreas Kaldis, feared head of Greece’s special crimes
division, has other plans. He presses on in his inimitable,
impolitic style to unravel a mystery that yields more dead,
a modern secret society rooted in two-hundred-year-old
ways, and a nagging suspicion that his answers lay in the
sudden influx of non-Greeks and gypsies to Tinos.

It is there, on Tinos, Andreas learns of priceless hoards
of gold, silver, art, and precious gems quietly amassed
over centuries out of the offerings of grateful pilgrims.
He has found a motive for murder and an irresistible
inspiration for robbery.

All that is left for Andreas to do is find the killers
before more die, stop the robbery of the century, and get
married in the process.