MYKONOS AFTER MIDNIGHT

On Mykonos, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis plays a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a volatile crime kingpin.

After failing to show up for his morning coffee for several days, nightclub owner Christos Vasilakis is discovered by his Yugoslavian maid bludgeoned to death. Tongues wag about Christos' new girlfriend, Anna, a 20-year-old Ukrainian pole dancer. Formerly an impoverished, rugged paradise, the island has recently been overrun by developers and turned into a playground for the rich and famous, to the disapproval of most locals. The reader learns that Anna is indeed responsible for the crime, along with the dangerous, charismatic criminal Sergey and his henchmen. Anna is deeply, blindly in love with Sergey. Absent any signs of forced entry, investigators Costas and Tassos identify her as the prime suspect, a conclusion they share with their boss, Andreas, head of Greece's Special Crimes Division, while they also offer best wishes on his recent marriage to the lovely Lila. When Sergey kills Anna, the investigation hits a pothole. Far from feeling a need to flee, Sergey sets out immediately to muscle his way into the role of king of the island's nightlife. Teacher, a mysterious female financier with a dark past, has given him carte blanche. She allows him to eclipse her island factotum, a local nicknamed Wacki, who's content to wait for his opportunity.

From the easy banter of its three cops to its clutch of unpredictable villains, Kaldis' fifth (Target: Tinos, 2012, etc.) reads more like an Elmore Leonard caper than a whodunit.