Exciting police procedural involving refugees streaming into Lesvos. A refugee is falsely accused of the vicious killing of a rich shipowner aiding an NGO. Kaldis sets out to prove the man's innocence and catch the perpetrator. There are scenes in both Greece and Turkey. The novel did give me some insight into the plight of the refugees and some idea of the traffickers who prey upon them. ( )

A very good books, a good and tense mystery and a book to have a better understandment of the current situation of migrations in the Mediterranean sea.
I really enjoyed the plot, the characters and found really interesting the part on the migrations.
Very interesting and entertaining.
A recommended read ( )

An Aegean April is the ninth book in Jeffrey Siger’s series featuring Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis. I have missed a few in the series, but was happy to find him happy and enjoying his hard-earned success–a long way from his exile in Murder in Mykonos. He still has his nose for murder and his determination to seek out the truth even though, or perhaps because, it may reveal government corruption.

An Aegean April takes us to Lesvos, an island very much in the news lately as it’s where the boatloads of Syrian refugees come ashore seeking escape from the war at home. The people of Lesvos have been amazing in their welcome and generosity, particularly considering the difficulty Greece is suffering economically. And just purely as an aside, it would not hurt to remember that Greece forgave Germany’s debt in 1953.

This story, then, is “ripped from the headlines” and it begins with a gruesome assassination, using a sword, no less. A local community leader, someone proposing a solution to some of the refugee crisis is slain, gruesomely. A warning from the traffickers. Dana, an NGO leader, calls Kaldis for help as her employee, a refugee, has wrongfully been arrested. Kaldis looks into it, agrees and gets his team involved. Meanwhile, the murderer is wreaking havoc in Turkey among the traffickers. He, too, has a solution for the refugee crisis. One that involves him taking a leading role in the the industry.

Jeffery Siger uses his characters to convey his support for humane and generous acceptance and treatment of the refugees. I agree with him completely. I think he wrote this book as a means to voice his position and persuade more people to be welcoming and accepting. Unfortunately, that changes the book quite a bit and it makes the characters a bit preachy. The book would have been better without the agenda and, to be honest, the agenda would have been better served. Trust people to draw their own conclusions, and they may surprise you.

There were a few things that made this a less satisfying book than it could be. We are too much in the killer’s head and it’s an unpleasant place. Siger has a tendency to create almost superhuman villains, this one is not very credible. On the other hand, he creates a magnificent sense of place. You can almost feel the angle of light as he writes about the island. It’s beautiful. I want to go there and he makes me want to go there more.

I should add, I was reading this book and writing this review in the hospital under the influence of morphine. I don’t think it made me a harsher reader, but my reading has been frequently interrupted, breaking up the story over and over again.

I received an e-gally of An Aegean April from the publisher through NetGalley.

An Aegean April at Poisoned Pen Press
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/01/07/9781464209451/ ( )

Jeffrey Siger can always be trusted to bring the country, the history, and the customs of Greece to life and this ninth book in his Chief Inspector Kaldis series is no exception. Kaldis and his team, along with their wives, girlfriends, and children are a true family whose bonds are every bit as strong as blood. These people have worked together for a long time, and they've learned how to work smart and take few chances with their lives. Since I'm attached to this entire group, I like seeing them use intelligence instead of brute force to get the job done.

In An Aegean April, readers get an up-close-and-personal look at the refugee crisis and the resulting plague of human traffickers that has grown up around it. There is money to be made from thousands upon thousands of desperate people, especially since the governments involved would rather look the other way than do something that would actually alleviate the situation. There is even more money to be had if leaky boats are used and defective equipment sold to what "others in the smuggling trade call...fish or cement blocks."

To this sickening situation, Kaldis and his team bring their talents and their determined focus, aided by two strong (and sometimes misguided) women, one American and one Greek. We also meet another character who's been seen in a previous book, and as soon as I saw that person, I knew it wasn't a one-scene-only appearance. I was right. This character appears at the end in a sort of deus ex machina, and although I might pick this apart in almost any other book, I have to smile. If you're going to use the deus ex machina device, it has to be in a book set in Greece, and Siger's books are so Greek, the pollen from the olive trees makes me sneeze.

If you haven't read a Chief Inspector Kaldis novel before, I suggest you begin at the beginning (Murder in Mykonos) so you can see how this group of people come together and become a family. This is one of my favorite series, and I hope it will become one of yours, too. ( )