THE SCHOOL OF HOMER

A Chicago cop unravels a Homeric murder in Marriott’s debut mystery.

Thirty years ago, Virgil Colvin and his wife, Janet, honeymooned on the Greek island of Ithaca. About a year ago, Janet died, and Virgil realized he couldn’t go on living in the Windy City without her. Six months ago, the 51-year-old left his job with the Chicago police and relocated, with his extensive personal library, to Ithaca’s biggest town, Vathy, to try to replicate those happy times with Janet. It turns out that starting over in a new country is harder than he anticipated. Perpetually buzzed on ouzo and with no knowledge of Greek, Virgil makes few connections aside from Costas Pantakalas, the Vathy police chief who rarely handles crimes more serious than tourists getting pickpocketed. Then, two remarkable things happen: A violent late-night earthquake jostles the island, and, the next morning, the body of a murdered tourist is found at the foot of the Odysseus statue in Vathy’s town square. Unused to dealing with crimes of this magnitude, Costas requests Virgil’s help in finding the killer. When Virgil discovers that the tourist was actually a British spy, he realizes that he, too, is out of his depth—but by that point, he’s become enmeshed in a history-inflected mystery like something out of his books. The author’s breezy prose details the food, landscape, and picturesque architecture of Ithaca, giving the book a pleasant vacation atmosphere: “Vathy was too small and compact to really have a locals-only area, or a hidden hideout—tourists in the high season went everywhere with ease, clumsy innocence and curiosity. However, Circe’s Well taverna was as close to a locals-only haunt as one could find.” Greek history buffs will enjoy Marriott’s inclusion of archaeological sites, mythological references, and academic disputes about the location of Homer’s Ithaca. The plot is a bit shaggy (the book checks in at over 400 pages), but hopefully the author will slim things down for the further Virgil and Costas mysteries he undoubtedly has planned.

A leisurely murder story that could use a little tightening up.