It's Greek to him--and that's a good thing!

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((and the winner of Caught Up In It from yesterday is Beverly Fontaine! Email Hank via her website!)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Can you imagine a more glorious historic romantic suggestion than—let’s go off to the Greek Isles? Have you ever been there? We’ve talked about setting in mystery, of course and chosen the places we’ve adore to go.

But whoever chose the Greek Isles—you win. Because the amazing Jeff Siger will take us there. In his books, of course, but hey. We love that.

(Do you know Jeff? He’s absolutely fascinating, with a jaw-dropping resume, and you can see all that below).

But we are so thrilled to have him here today. Got your passport? Let’s go to Greece.

HANK: When you made the decision to start a crime series, why did you choose Greece as the setting?

JEFF: When I started writing about Andreas Kaldis with Murder in Mykonos, I thought I’d be writing a stand-alone novel telling the story of a Greek island I had come to know intimately over the course of several decades. I wanted to write about the people, culture and politics of Mykonos, and only settled upon the mystery format because it struck me as the best vehicle for exploring how a tourist island society might respond to a threat to its newfound economic glory.  

Mykonos 

Greece provides an inexhaustible source of material for the two central elements of this series:  a serious, modern day issue that my characters must confront and overcome, and  a perspective on that issue to be found in the ancient past.  There is no place on earth more closely linked to the ancient world than Greece—it is the birthplace of the gods, the cradle of European civilization, the bridge between East and West. 

Spartan courage, Athenian democracy, Olympic achievement, Trojan intrigue—all sprung from this wondrous land.  

As for Greece’s place in the modern world: just look at a map, and you'll immediately realize how many of the greatest issues facing the modern world are centered in Greece’s Mediterranean neighborhood.  I’d venture to say no western country is closer to what challenges our planet today than Greece.

HANK: And your setting shifts from one Greek island to another. I’m losing my geography here—but seems like you won’t soon run out of new places.

 JEFF: In order to run out of Greek island locales —not to mention the plethora of utterly intriguing mainland venues—I’d have to live more than a thousand years… and that would be at a two-book-a-year pace!

HANK: Okay, then! Setting solved. But you also use of timely contemporary issues as a centerpiece. In THE MYKONOS MOB, it’s the island’s ever-expanding popularity with the tourist trade upon the lives of its native occupants. What else are you thinking about?

JEFF: So many things happening in our world call out for Kaldis to intervene, but at the moment there’s an idea percolating in my mind that's got its hooks deeply into me.  It’s a battle raging on an island close by Mykonos that has islanders seeking to preserve their agrarian ways pitted against those seeking to maximize tourism profits.  It is a dilemma facing many of the world’s tourist paradises, but particularly so the Greek islands. And it can lead to murder.  That's all I have to say on that for now. Stay tuned....

HANK: How about you--who do you read? Who do you revere as an author? Who has influenced you? 

JEFF: That’s such a hard question for me to answer, because those I think of as having most influenced my style of writing are not commonly associated with the crime writing genre.  Cormac McCarthy is a favorite of mine on so many levels, as is Steinbeck, and I admire the pacing of Tom Clancy—but in my approach to dialog I think of myself as influenced more by the cadence of poets (Robert Frost, believe it or not) and the decisive rigor of playwrights (such as August Wilson).

I see Inspector Kaldis and his crew as having naturally evolved without any conscious input on my part.  Having said that, my work is most often compared to that of Ed McBain and Donna Leon, two literary legends to whom I am deeply honored to be compared.

HANK: Whoa. That’s quite the pedigree! Okay, now I can’t resist. Were Netflix or HBO to come calling with a plan to develop an on-location film or miniseries based on one of the Kaldis novels, which one would you suggest they start with?  And play casting director for a moment.

JEFF: Funny you should mention that. Let’s just say that I don’t count my film deals—or leading actors—until they’re hatched. :) However, and hypothetically speaking, I’d say the place to start is with the first in the series, MURDER IN MYKONOS, because it plumbs the spirit of Greek islands in general, and Mykonos in particular, while establishing the personal integrity of Andreas Kaldis that carries forward throughout the series. As for lead actors, I’m so bad at that, but others have suggested Clive Owen or Bradley Cooper.  

HANK:  Hmm. Investigative reporter me is hearing…secrets.

So, Reds and readers, do you imagine Greece? Or have you been there? Like to go?

And a copy of  THE MYKONOS MOB  to TWO  lucky commenters!

THE MYKONOS MOB

When corruption lies deep beneath the surface, how can truth come to light?

"A perfect setting and first-rate storytelling."

   Ragnar Jonasson

The Mykonos Mob, the tenth book in the Greece-based Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis mystery-thriller series, reveals the wildly lucrative dark side of an internationally renowned Aegean Island playground for the world's rich and famous, those battling for control of its vices, and the innocents affected by it all.

Jeffrey Siger   

Jeffrey Siger is an American living on the Aegean Greek island of Mykonos. A Pittsburgh native and former Wall Street lawyer, he gave up his career as a name partner in his own New York City law firm to write mystery thrillers that tell more than just a fast-paced story. His Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novels are aimed at exploring serious societal issues confronting modern day Greece and the world at large, while touching upon Greece’s ancient roots.

The New York Times Book Review honored his work by designating Jeff as Greece’s thriller novelist of record, the Greek Government’s General Secretariat of Media and Communications selected him as one of six authors—and the only American—writing mysteries that serve as a guide to Greece, and Library Journal named his ninth book in the series, An Aegean April, as one of the best mystery books of 2018. He’s also received Barry and Left Coast Crime Best Novel award nominations.

Jeff’s work is published in the US, UK, Germany and Greece He is honored to have served as Chair of the National Board of Bouchercon, the world's largest mystery convention, and as adjunct professor of English at Washington & Jefferson College, teaching mystery writing.

His new novel, The Mykonos Mob, is the tenth in the widely praised Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series, and explores the wildly profitable dark side of this renowned 24/7 island playground for the world’s rich and famous, the forces battling for control of its vices, and the innocents affected by it all.

Jeff blogs about Greece every Saturday onwww.murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com and can be reached atwww.jeffreysiger.com, on Facebook @jeffrey siger, and on Instagram at jeffrey_siger

The Mykonos Mob: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery—the tenth in the series—will be published on April 2 by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks.

Jeffrey Siger: Crisis in Greece

INGRID THOFT

I'm so happy to welcome today's guest, Jeffrey Siger, to the blog.  You may know Jeff from from his terrific series featuring CI Andreas Kaldis set on the Greek Island of Mykonos (his latest adventure "An Aegean April" is out now) or from his leadership roles in Bouchercon.  Jeff lives on Mykonos part-time, and although his books are a great source of entertainment, they also provide readers with some insight into the challenges facing Greece and the rest of Europe.  When I invited Jeff to be a JRW guest, we talked about potential subject matters.  The one I found most intriguing isn't necessarily an easy topic, but I thought it was perfect for the engaged and thoughtful readers of Jungle Red.  Thanks, Jeff, for sharing your insights with us.

From the Lips of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin is attributed to have ruthlessly said, “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.”  Whether or not he actually said that, or did so in quite that way, from his actions few would doubt he didn’t believe it.  And from the way our world continues to abide mass deaths and suffering, but is drawn to action by the image of a single lost life, we should not delude ourselves into thinking we have evolved far, if at all, from Stalin’s image of our world. 

Perhaps we’re not wired to consciously process so many deaths as anything more than a blur, yet in a single death we see the potential end of our own time on this earth. Or is it something else?

What prompts me to raise such an upbeat subject on this fine Sunday morning, is an ongoing catastrophe that many forward thinking minds on all sides of the issue consider the severest challenge confronting the West.  But for many it’s a hard one to get your head around because of the large numbers, and many strange names and distant places associated with it.

I began thinking seriously about it when Greece became its new ground zero, for I live on a Greek island half of each year, and write a mystery-thriller series exploring issues confronting contemporary Greece in a way that touches on its ancient roots.  The result is my new CI Andreas Kaldis thriller, "An Aegean April," in which I seek to humanize the many aspects of that tragedy, one far too often summarily described and dismissed with the simple phrase, “the refugee crisis.”

The long simmering issue of refugee migration into Greece via Turkey came to a boil in 2015, when over a matter of months, more that 600,000 men, women, and children fleeing the terrors of their homelands (mainly Syria), flooded out of Turkey across the narrow Mytilini Strait onto the largely pastoral northeastern Aegean Greek island of Lesvos.  They came in the hope of making it from there to northern Europe.  Another 400,000 refugees found their way into Greece along other routes, bringing the total number of refugees descending upon Greece in less than a year to nearly ten percent of its eleven million population.

Are your eyes glazing over from the numbers yet?  Just wait, there’s more.

At 600,000 refugees, we’re talking about seven times the population of Lesvos.  That’s the equivalent of more than 60 million people landing by boat in New York City or 28 million in Los Angeles.

How could Greece, a country in the throes of its own Great Depression, deal with such massive numbers unaided, much less how could the inhabitants of Lesvos? 

Hello, EU.  If ever there were a crisis befalling one EU member that should be shared by all members, this would seem to be the one. But despite Germany’s promise to open its arms to a million refugees—a decision many argue triggered the flood into Greece—Greece found little more than platitudes coming from the EU.  Perhaps because the EU considered Greece, Italy, and Spain its refugee filter traps, and this was simply Greece’s turn for shielding the rest of the EU from unwanted immigration.

Whatever the reasoning, as often occurs when governments cannot get their acts together, there are those who will profit off government inaction. In this instance, it turned people-smuggling into a multi-billion-euro industry in Turkey.  The smugglers, their sex-and labor-trafficking colleagues, ancillary businesses, and, of course, those protecting them, all became very rich.

But even as armadas of dangerously overloaded refugee boats made their way across treacherous seas toward a waiting frenzy of media, NGO and celebrity attention, for much of the world all remained business as usual.

That is, until the day when a single photograph of a lone child lying dead on an isolated stretch of beach galvanized world attention, and sent governments scurrying to act.

We can't show you the actual photograph due to copyrights issues.

Cue the Stalin quote.

Years have past since then, but the refugee crisis continues in Greece with 50,000 still detained in relocation centers—as they’re officially called, though some refer to them as hotspots, and others as concentration camps.  Worldwide, more than 65 million refugees remain displaced and in dire need of protection and care.

It is a crisis that shall not go away, certainly not as long as there are leaders who regard Stalin’s words an action plan for dealing with their own populations.

Refugees arriving on Lesvos

So, what is the civilized world to do?  How about looking at refugees as individual human beings, not statistics, and building an overall plan up from there.  That might just work.

At least that’s my take, and why I wrote "An Aegean April."

Jeff is joining us today to answer your questions, big and small.  Thanks, Jeff, for educating me this Sunday morning!

Gorgeous Mykonos

About Jeff Siger
I am an American living on the Aegean Greek island of Mykonos. A Pittsburgh native and former Wall Street lawyer, I gave up my career as a name partner in my own New York City law firm to write mystery thrillers that tell more than just a fast-paced story. My novels are aimed at exploring serious societal issues confronting modern day Greece in a tell-it-like-it-is style while touching upon the country's ancient roots.

Some Mykonian friends told me if I started sprinkling murders with a message across my adopted country's tourist paradises, I'd likely be banished, if not hung. No one was more amazed than I when my debut novel, Murder in Mykonos (a sort of Mamma Mia setting for a No Country for Old Men story), became Greece's #1 best selling English-language novel (and a best-seller in Greek, as well).

As of September 2017 I have eight Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novels out there with a ninth coming in January 2018 and receive no more than the customary number of death threats. I'm diligently trying to improve my percentage in that regard with posts about Greece each Saturday on the Murder is Everywhere blogsite I share with nine renowned mystery writers from around the world.

It's been a remarkable journey, punctuated most notably by The New York Times selecting the fourth in my Andreas Kaldis series (Target: Tinos) as one of its five "picks for the beach" while calling the entire series, "thoughtful police procedurals set in picturesque but not untroubled Greek locales;" Left Coast Crime's nomination of the fifth in the series (Mykonos After Midnight) in 2014 as Best Mystery in a Foreign Setting; a 2016 Barry Award Best Novel Nomination for my seventh in the series (Devil of Delphi); starred reviews and official government citations; and this quote from Fodor's Greek Islands Travel Guide under a section titled "Mykonos After Dark," which colleagues say I should consider the equivalent of winning an Oscar: "Some say that after midnight, Mykonos is all nightlife—this throbbing beat is the backdrop to Jeffrey Siger's popular mystery, Murder in Mykonos."

My work is published in the US, UK, Germany (German), and Greece (Greek and English), and I'm honored to have served as Chair of the National Board of Bouchercon, the world's largest mystery convention, and as Adjunct Professor of English at Washington & Jefferson College, teaching mystery writing.