Ashes - Tapa blanda

'Billed as Greek noir, I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did. The word 'noir' tends to put me off with its connotations of dark and hopelessness. Two-thirds of the way through, however, I was frantically googling to see if there were more books featuring these characters ... this is a gripping, gritty tale of love and loss and revenge and I look forward to the next book from Segios Gakas' Eurocrime. (Eurocrime)

When Sonia Verika, a former actress who takes solace in alcohol and isolation, is pulled from the fire, her body is burned almost beyond recognition. The house she shared with a retired director and a small family of African refugees is entirely destroyed, and she is the only survivor. For her ex-lovers, Police Inspector Chronis Halkidis and Simeon Piertzovanis, a failed lawyer and the landlord of the gutted property, her fate is a heavy reckoning. Reflection gives way to guilt, and then to a fanatical desire to uncover the truth behind the blaze and hold those responsible to account - by any means necessary. But with corruption rife throughout the force, Chronis soon finds his investigation shackled from within. Fuelled by their need for revenge, and by their twin addictions to alcohol and cocaine, Simeon and Chronis must resort increasingly to violence if they are to unmask a conspiracy that unites church and state against the interests of justice. A classic noir thriller, Ashes is unflinching in its examination of the violence and extortion bred by corruption, but at the same time tender in its treatment of human weaknesses, of guilt, addiction and regret.