Doctor At Thessaly by Anne Zouroudi

My book is a Kindle e-book.

 If you would like to feel as though you've taken a trip to Greece, this is the perfect novel. Anne Zouroudi in The Doctor of Thessaly has written a mystery filled with true to life characters or at least, characters you would not mind getting to know. The characters are a mite eccentric but very real. There is the woman in the village who cooks bad coffee. The whole town knows it. They still choose to go to the establishment for a chat and a cuppa. There are the two sisters, Noula and Chrissa. The eldest is expected to marry first. That would be Noula. Life doesn't always happen in the pattern we pick. There is the mechanic's wife. She keeps hundreds of old, old photographs taken by her father. She will not try to sell them because the sales would disappoint her sick mother. There are more characters. The most important character is the Fat Man. He is a private investigator visiting from Athens. 

There is a jilted bride,  Chrissa. Her fiancee doesn't show up at the church on time because of a horrible injury. An injury that is not a mistake. An injury that will change the medical doctor's life forever. An injury that will bring to light the doctor's French past. The whole novel is about this crime. The fat man goes about the village asking questions trying to figure out who tried to murder this man and why. I had one problem with the novel, The Doctor of Thessaly. It seemed far fetched to have no policemen around in the village watching the private investigator. No one really questions why he has so many questions. This seems odd because he is a newcomer to the village. All the fat man has to do is just give a tiny squeeze and the neighbors spill their guts. It's so easy, too easy for them to give up the secrets about the people they've known for years and years.

I also hated the name the fat man. His real name is given, Hermes D. The real location where he lives is given. It is Athens. May be the name seems politically incorrect. I cringed each time his name came up. I tried to picture in my mind what this man looked like really. I got the impression he's not fat at all. After all, he is able to squeeze through a door. I would love for the author to include black and white sketches in her novels. This would give extra flavor to the novel. I feel people like the postmaster would look like Charles Dickens' characters. Why can't we know the private investigator by his first name or last name or both names like Sherlock Holmes? The fat man? It just doesn't work for me. 

Altogether the novel is splendid. The reason why the doctor is injured so seriously is shocking. I also had never heard of >>>>>>>>>>, a psychological or psychopathic or may be sociopathic ailment. Fascinating and terribly frightening for those of us with older parents and relatives or who are aging ourselves. It shook me to my boots. Also, surprising is what will happen to the victims of the crime. Is this plausible? Is it feasible that everyone walks away agreeing to keep their mouths shut? Can secrets be kept to the grave? I don't know if this was just the author's wishful desire that every person involved walk away and live a normal life never hearing about the dreadful wedding day again or is it just a way to quickly end the case.

There is a quiet love story going on beneath all these intricate layers of fabric. The lover is a violin player who we almost lose to the bough of a tree and a rope. After a suicide notion is halted by the fat man, there is a kind of lighthearted true love situation to think about after so much heavy drama. I loved the book. Look forward to reading the rest of the series. The series is about the Seven Deadly Sins. The Doctor of Thessaly is about the sin of envy.  http://www.annezouroudi.com/books/the-doctor-of-thessaly/ By the way, Thessaly is described as a town where people believed in laying curses or the evil eye on one another.  For the next novel, I should have violin music playing in the background. It would just add to the wonderful Grecian atmosphere.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Catherine E. Mckinley had a deep desire to know about Indigo. It became her purpose.

First Chapter First Paragraph

Are these the types of lives we are seeing and reading about in the news today?