Prey on Patmos

November 1, 2010
In Siger's less than engaging follow-up to Assassins of Athens (2009), the violent, inexplicable murder of a beloved monk, Kalogeros Vassilis, takes Chief Insp. Andreas Kaldis to the Greek island of Patmos, a sacred site where St. John is reputed to have written the Book of Revelation. There Kaldis encounters international political currents swirling around himself, the late Vassilis, and the victim's monastic community. A strange document with apocalyptic writing and cryptic images suggests danger to eminent religious leaders and upheaval in the Orthodox church from Istanbul to Russia. Though readers may enjoy spending time with Kaldis's colorful team of investigators and other associates such as his very pregnant significant other and a gossipy spy turned Patmos restaurant owner, the lack of a climax and the tendency of characters to talk about actions that have occurred offstage rather than directly involving them lend the tale a passive air.

Here's a case in which an acclaimed narrator diminishes the excitement of a murder mystery. Gravelly voiced Stefan Rudnicki adds a somber background to this installment in a well-respected police procedural series. Another narrator might have injected more passion through cadence and intonation, but Rudnicki keeps the tone low-key--so low sometimes that his voice almost disappears. The island of Patmos, the site of more than a thousand years of Christian meditation, is said to be the place where John the Apostle received the Book of Revelation. Now there's intrigue among the monastery inhabitants and among factions of Eastern orthodoxy, all explored by Inspector Kaldis, who is working on a murder. D.R.W. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine