Murder in Mykonos

Andreas Kaldis is unhappy with his recent appointment as police chief on the Greek island Mykonos. Although it has the appearance of a promotion, it's actually an exile from Athens after he riled his superiors in his last investigation. Mykonos has a reputation as a party island, and crimes often go unacknowledged to avoid negative publicity that might damage the tourist economy. When Kaldis discovers evidence that a serial killer has been murdering tourists for nearly 20 years, he knows he's in hot water. The investigation becomes more urgent when he learns that the deputy minister's niece is missing on Mykonos. Kaldis and his men are in a race against time to find the missing woman before she becomes the killer's next victim.

This show more first in series book has all the ingredients of a film thriller. Since this is the first book in a series, it's hard to say at this point which path the series will follow – thriller or police procedural. The setting, characters, and politics that underlie both professional and social interaction all seem authentic, probably because the author lives in Mykonos for part of the year. This series will appeal to readers who enjoy crime novels with exotic settings. The occasionally strong language and sexual content may be too much for readers with a preference for cozy/gentle reads. show less

No spoilers here. A shifting viewpoint narrative between detective, killer, and victim becomes impossible to put down about a third of the way through. Great descriptions of the harsh landscapes of the Aegean islands and the divide between Greeks and the tourists that are so important to the economy of the modern Greek world. Kaldis, our hard-boiled detective with little to lose after being demoted from the big city (Athens) to the Mykonian backwater, is fun to watch and follow through the Byzantine machinations of a parochial Greek island and its elites and ways of doing things. The only issue here is the ending, which couldn't really pay-off the fever pitch of the action that built up over the last 200 pages or so. The murderer, one show more of at least three suspects still plausibly in the running by the end, seemed selected by the author somewhat at random--even the detectives don't know who it is until they are literally seeing him with their own eyes essentially in the act with red hands. Readers should not expect to do better. But, I think, most will enjoy the ride anyway. show less

First Line: Just past midnight the massive Rodanthi ferry silently made its grand entrance into Mykonos' narrow, crescent-shaped harbor.

Athens, Greece knows just how to deal with hot-shot, outspoken, politically incorrect homicide detectives. Promoted out of Athens to serve as police chief for the island of Mykonos, Andreas Kaldis is certain his homicide days are done. He's going to be right in the middle of tourist heaven, and people just aren't murdered in such places. Famous last words, right?

When the remains of a young woman are found ritually bound and buried on a pile of human bones inside a remote mountain church, Kaldis teams with a savvy local homicide chief to find the killer before the news leaks out and destroys the island's show more reputation as a fun-- and safe-- place to party. Then a young woman disappears, and the race is on to identify a cunning predator.

I almost couldn't turn the pages fast enough as I read Murder in Mykonos. Siger put out a banquet for me, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss a crumb. Ancient and modern Mykonos was vividly brought to life, and Kaldis is a strong central character who longs to return to Athens-- and he's smart enough to know that the best way of doing that is by turning his department of officers fresh out of the academy into topnotch policemen.

The plot was engrossing as well, with a worthy villain whose devious mind kept him out of the spotlight and free to continue his spree. Tracking him down led me all over the island and into the history and lore of Mykonos which I really enjoyed.

As much as Kaldis wants to return to Athens, I'm hoping he'll stay on the island for another book or two. He and I both do well in such a beautiful setting! show less

Athenian detective Andreas Kaldis has been removed from his position in that city and assigned as police chief on Mykonos. His new job takes an unexpected turn when the discovery of the remains of a female tourist leads to the gruesome finding of more bodies and the revelation that there has been a serial killer at work on the island. When another young woman tourist goes missing, the race is on to find her and save her from a tortuous death. There is no shortage of suspects, and the search is hampered by the political desire to keep news of a serial killer suppressed lest it affect the reputation of and thus business on the island.

Originally published in 2008, this is the first in a fourteen-book series featuring Chief Inspector show more Andreas Kaldis. It is being re-released in November 2025.

This was a suspenseful and riveting read. The picturesque setting of the island of Mykonos almost felt like its own character. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the island’s topography and cultural history. I also liked Chief Inspector, Kaldis, who was one of the few likable characters in the story. However, the corruption, some of the police tactics, and the treatment of females were off-putting, and the narrative was a bit too graphic for my taste.

Some have said that this series is for fans of Donna Leon and Andrea Camilleri. I do enjoy both of these authors and their detectives, but I am not sure if this series is truly for me, although I am willing to try another one.

Thanks to @NetGalley and @SevernHouseImprint for the DRC. show less

I liked this book better than I thought I would mostly because I'm not a big "suspense" fan. However this one did a lot of character building which often suspense doesn't manage to do.

Andreas Kaldis has been "promoted" out of Athens to be Police Chief in Mykonos. His goal is to survive this tour of duty and get back to Athens.

Very shortly into his time in Mykonos a construction worker finds a body in a church crypt. More bodies are then found scattered across small churches in the countryside. Since there has never been a serial killer in Greece Andreas is fighting time and also the establishment of both Mykonos and Greece to try and find the killer before he kills again.

The story moves along pretty quickly and you get a taste of life show more on an island in the Aegean Sea, especially the party island of Mykonos.

I'll probably read more in this series but it might be a while, I need to space out my suspense books with things less, intense. show less

Murder in Mykonos is the first in Jeffrey Siger’s police procedural series featuring Andreas Kaldis, a homicide investigator in Greece. There are already eight in the series, which means there are several more to look forward to reading. Andreas Kaldis has just been “promoted” to Chief of Police of Mykonos, the famous tourist destination island in the Cyclades islands of Greece. He is unhappy about being pushed out of Homicide to babysit tourists, recognizing that his promotion was a way to cut short investigations that were drawing too close to those in power.

Tourism is everything in Mykonos and crimes are carefully swept under the rug. It is a shock when a body of a tourist is discovered. So when he finds that a serial killer show more has been operating with impunity for the last eighteen years or more, he threatens the entire industry of the island. Working with the Chief Homicide Investigator for the Cyclades, a jovial older man who knew Kaldis’ father, he bargains with the mayor, agreeing to investigate quietly for the moment, assuming there would be an interval between the recent murder and another.

Meanwhile, Annika Vanden Haag is licking her wounds after discovering her boyfriend cheating on her. She is heading to Mykonos for some sun and sea and restoration. We readers know that she is heading for more than that as she perfectly fits the profile of the serial killer’s victims.

Murder in Mykonos is a successful procedural. It is scrupulously fair in giving us just enough information on a cluster of suspects fit for the Orient Express. I appreciate that Annika is not merely a victim, but a smart, resourceful and determined woman who will not surrender meekly to her fate. I also like the interplay of politics and policing, the annoying, but realistic back-scratching and wheel-greasing that is so much a part of bureaucracy. The somewhat unsatisfying resolution, that seems more realistic and honest than the usual fare in procedural novels.

I do not like the “inside the killer’s head” perspective that gives us insight into his motives, but recognize that has become pretty common in these kinds of stories. I would rather not know. There’s a voyeurism and prurience in that element of serial killer hunts that creeps me out, but just about every single book with a serial killer in it includes the killer’s perspective. Siger does not dwell, so it’s tolerable.

Siger does a good job of bringing Mykonos to life. The sense of place is extraordinary. He is less successful with character development, leaving most of them rather two-dimensional. However, given that it is a series, the development of the main characters over time can become caricature if they are too fully realized at the outset. As each story in the series moves forward, we come to know the characters more deeply and it makes sense to hold back from the beginning. Otherwise you end up with Kinsey Millhone cutting her damn hair with a nail scissors and scrunching up her wash and wear LDB into her purse in every book until the moment the read comes across those nail scissors one time to many and the book flies across the room and the writer is consigned to the dustbin forever.

Murder in Mykonos succeeds at what it sets out to do, introduce a new procedural series, present a fair and complex investigation, and entertain. It does all of that.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/murder-in-mykonos-by-jeff... show less

Pretty well done but I’m not a fan of descriptively detailed torture, so it lost a star there. The main character and many of the supporting characters were well drawn and the climax was tense and compelling. The end, however, was a bit of a cheat.