Rotten from the top down

Ashes by Sergios Gakas has a strong theme of institutional corruption, including the police itself. Here's a short passage revealing how the problem stems from the top down.

I decided to tell him. Not because he was my friend; it had not taken me long to realize that in this job you cannot have friends. I had to talk to him because he was my boss and in this case I needed him onside. The Chief was one exhausted technocrat, handpicked by the Prime Minister himself, a dull negligible character, who, for the last three years, had been failing to keep the ship afloat, a ship sailing under too many different flags. A ship that in its hold concealed some very good intentions, as well as bad ones, incompetence, corruption, hard work, bureaucracy and, above all, personal ambition. He had spent quite some time on the other side of the Atlantic, and was in all likelihood, in the pay of the Americans. Perhaps that was why he moved with such ease through the huge, worm-infested, third world sewer the Hellenic Police was still fed on. However convinced he was that the police were dealing heroin, he was just as convinced that the situation would never change in a million years. Besides, Zorro had never been a particular hero of his. He preferred to proceed with caution and settled for small improvements. "The police force is never going to change society, get used to that," he would say when we had been knee-deep in shit on various cases.

The problem with thinking ...

I've started to read R.N. Morris' The Cleansing Flames. Only sixty or so pages in, but came across a nice passage last night about the opportunities and dangers of thinking.

To think - to think deeply and honestly and freely - was to make yourself vulnerable. It involved cutting yourself loose from the security of received ideas and laying yourself open to new ones. It was an unsettling activity. Eventually, if one perservered, it led to greater strength. But first there was a period of uncertainty and anxiety to endure, from which some never emerged. They would spend their whole lives in a state of crippling doubt, cowering beneath a shell of cynicism.

One of the joys of being a social scientist, I think, is to spend an entire career intellectually vulnerable and in doubt, though hopefully not of the crippling kind.

Ashes by Sergios Gakas (MacLehose, 2011)

When a small cottage owned by an alcoholic lawyer, Simeon Piertzovanis, is burned to the ground the only survivor is Sonia Varika, a former actress. She is badly burned and is rushed to an intensive care unit. The three victims are an elderly man, an African woman and her young daughter. Colonel Halkidis of internal affairs pulls in a favour to be assigned the case. A former lover of Varika, he's determined to bring the people responsible for the arson to justice. Halkidis soon discovers that the cottage has been targeted by a right wing group for some time. Teaming up with Piertzovanis, also one of Sonia's former lovers, they start to uncover the truth. However, their investigation is quickly blocked by powerful forces both within and outside the police. Rather than retreating, the pair decide to fight fire with fire, pursuing justice and revenge with deadly consequences.

Ashes is a fine slice of Greek noir. All of the principle characters and institutions are deeply flawed. Although in charge of internal affairs, Colonel Halkidis is addicted to cocaine and is prepared bend the law in savage ways, though he does so for justice not financial gain. Piertzovanis is an alcoholic and prone to depression and melancholy. Raina is cheating on her boyfriend. Sonia is vain and a lush. Just about all the other characters are corrupt or prepared to turn a blind eye. The police, the government, the Church and businesses are all riddled with taken-for-granted corruption and cronyism. The story is well plotted, though it does become a little unconvincing in the latter pages as Halkidis' revenge spirals out of control and goes unchallenged. The story is told in the first person from three perspectives - Halkidis and Piertzovanis in alternating chapters, and Sonia whilst in a coma. This works surprisingly well, with Gakas able to maintain three distinct voices whilst revealing what each thinks of the other, as well as fleshing out their back stories. Indeed, the characterisation is strong throughout. There is a good sense of place and as well as being a fine crime story, Ashes is a searing social commentary on the Greek society and its institutions. Having read the novel it is certainly much easier to understand the events in the country over the past couple of years. I thoroughly enjoyed Ashes and if any of Gakas' other books are translated I intend to give them a go. There's an interesting interview with the author on the publisher's website.

Lazy Sunday Service

I've just finished Sergios Gakas' Ashes set in Greece just prior to the 2004 Olympics. The whole book is searing social commentary on Greek society and its institutions, but one sentence in particular made me pause for thought. 'If your funeral was a ticket only affair, how much would you make?' Now there's strong assumptions here about what constitutes a valuable life, but an interesting question to reflect upon ...

My posts this week
Cover rage
Review of Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason
Animal sidekicks
November reviews
Review of LA Requiem by Robert Crais
China's ghost cities
I'm meant to be grateful?

I’m meant to be grateful?

‘To NAMA!’ Jimmy raised a pint of Guinness.

‘Fuck NAMA!’ Tom snapped.

‘We’d be bust without them. The whole lot gone.’

‘Has to be better than being slowly bled to death on life support.’

‘Ah, come-on, Tom. You’d have lost your house. Your cars. Holiday homes. Everything.’

‘House is in the wife’s name and we’ve a wee nest egg in a daughter’s account in the Isle of Man. Fuck’em.’

‘They bailed us out big time,’ Jimmy persisted.

‘They bailed themselves out. They get our developments at half price, we pay back the full whack and I’m meant to be grateful?’


A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

Review of LA Requiem by Robert Crais (Orion, 1999)

Elvis Cole runs a PI agency in LA with the silent, brooding Joe Pike. Both are former elite soldiers and are highly skilled investigators. When Karen Garcia goes missing her father calls on Pike, a former lover of Garcia, to find her. A few hours later she's found next to a lake, shot in the head. The investigation is to be conducted by detectives from Robbery-Homicide headed up by the weasely Krantz. Pike and Krantz have a troubled history stretching back to when Pike was a rookie cop and his partner was under investigation by internal affairs. Garcia's father has some political juice and uses his influence to allow Cole and Pike to shadow the police investigation. Frustrated by Krantz's lack of cooperation and ineptness they strike out on their own, quickly discovering that Garcia was the fifth victim of a serial killer, one who seems determined to exact revenge for some unknown reason.

Without wishing to offend either author, LA Requiem reminded a lot of Michael Connelly's LA stories, especially those concerning Harry Bosch. The writing style, setting and focus seemed very similar to me - LA, Robbery-Homicide, serial killer, investigators who are Vietnam vets. This is no bad thing as I think both are very fine writers, rather just an observation. LA Requiem rattles along at quick, steady pace. Crais writes with an assured hand. The story is well crafted, with a nice layering of various subplots and back story that add to the overall narrative rather than detracting from it. Crais paints a good sense of place, the characters are well penned, and the story builds to a nice climax. There were a few elements that unsettled me a little, however. Maybe it's because I don't live in the US, but I had a hard time believing that two private investigators could get any meaningful access to a serial killer investigation, especially not through a councilman (perhaps maybe something more significant like a governor I could have gone along with). The Samantha Dolan character didn't quite seem to ring true, especially in her quest for Cole. And regardless of any material evidence relating to Pike, the fact that he escaped from incarceration would have legal consequences. Despite the niggling doubts about credibility, LA Requiem is an enjoyable read and I'll be looking out for other Elvis Cole books.

November reviews

I've five 4 star reviews for November. A reasonably good month, though on reflection I suspect I've been a little over-generous with the ratings for a couple of them (they felt right at the time). Difficult to pluck one from the pack, but I'm going for The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still by Malcolm Pryce. Whilst it was a little uneven, the first half was excellent; it was inventive, witty and engaging.

Outrage by Arnaldur Indridson ****
Call for the Dead by John Le Carre ****
The Red Coffin by Sam Eastland **.5
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris ****
The Somme Stations by Andrew Martin ***.5
The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still by Malcolm Pryce ****
Greenwich Killing Time by Kinky Friedman ****