Zone defence - Petros Markaris

The endearingly un-PC, dictionary-reading Chief Inspector Haritos is back at work in heat and smog shrouded Athens, shunning his wife's concerns for his ailing health he pushes on with his investigations.

Inspector Costas Haritos of the Athens CID has finally made time for a holiday. But when a minor earthquake causes his holiday beach to spit up a corpse, he finds there is no such thing as being off duty.

Back in Athens, and working on the mystery of the as-yet unidentified body, Haritos is assigend a second case. A well-known nightclub owner and entrepreneur has been murdered, and neither the victim's beautiful young wife, his estranged daughter or his junkie son seem keen to offer up any clues.

Haritos delves into the worlds of organised crime, football, and even opinion polling in his hunt for the killers. But it seems there is more than one person who would rather these crimes remained unsolved.

Petros Markaris was born in Istanbul in 1937. Having studied Economics, he made his literary debut in Greece in 1965 with a theatrical work,The Tale of Ali Retzo. This was followed by several other plays and film scripts. Markaris recently published a Greek translation of Goethe'sFaustto critical acclaim.