Published by
Arcade Crimewise,
7 July 2020.
ISBN:978-1-950691-60-9 (HB)
7 July 2020.
ISBN:978-1-950691-60-9 (HB)
When FBI
agent, Nick Damigos, arrives in a small village on a Greek island, all is not
well. He has come to investigate a series of fires that have been
threatening the village and it’s not long before he discovers that a large fuel
tank is probably the target for the next and final fire – a fire that is likely
to destroy the whole village. Who would want to do that and why?
Like everybody else in Greece the villagers are struggling with a sharp
downturn in their economy and an influx of refugees that is discouraging the
normal quota of tourists. Burning a village and ruining people’s
livelihoods will only add to their problems. Faced with malicious fire
from the moment he arrives on the Island, Nick also faces a continuous battle
to come to terms with the traumatic origin of the multitude of burn scars
disfiguring the skin on his own back.
There are
some strange people living in the village. One of the strangest is the priest
whose agenda is to get himself a decent parish in a proper town and to make
enough money to buy his mother a good flat. His methods, which include
deliberately damaging his church’s bell tower, and making and selling brilliant
copies - or even the originals - of icons from the churches he serves, are
unorthodox to say the least. As, incidentally, is the way the Lord rewards him
for his troubles.
Vassoula
and her ‘accidental’ brother Takis (they are not related but were adopted by
the same set of parents) are another odd couple. Of Turkish descent, they
possibly have an axe to grind because their ancestor’s land was taken by the
Greeks after the great exchange a few generations previously. Is
Vassoula’s affair with the Captain of the coast guard - he who is in charge of
the fuel tank - as innocent as it seems? And what will become of Nick’s affair
with Takis?
Mystery or
no mystery, for me the joy in this story lies in the interrelationships between
its warm and resilient characters. Lydia’s family is a case in
point. She, her husband, Lefteris, her mother and father, Shirley and
Lukas, and her teenage daughter, Athina, leap off the pages as living,
breathing individuals with their own sets of values, aspirations and
problems. Athina is desperate to grab life and love with both hands. Has
she enough strength of will to withstand her mother’s wishes for a supposedly
better life for her daughter off the island? Young as she is, can Athina
recognise where, and with whom, her future lies?
Fire on the
Island provides a delightfully easy holiday read whilst
never for a moment disguising just how hard life is for the islanders and their
refugee guests. As befits the setting there is plenty of romance and
intrigue in the air as individuals and couples struggle to come to terms with
life as it is and not the utopian dream they wish it could be.
------
Reviewer
Angela Crowther
Timothy Jay Smith has travelled the world collecting
stories and characters for his novels and screenplays which have received high
praise. Fire on the Island won the Gold Medal in the 2017
Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel. He won the Paris Prize for Fiction
for his first book, A Vision of Angels. Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s
Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of
2012. Tim was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize for his short fiction,
"Stolen Memories." His screenplays have won numerous international
competitions. Tim is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theatre. He
lives in France.
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