Eastern Mafia

Author: Roger W Thompson
Release Date: 31st July 2011
Format: Paperback
ISBN 978-1908098-17-7

Spy thriller set in 1994. With the death of a British agent on the island of Petromos, MI6 send an agent to uncover the truth – but there is more to this than meets her eye on this idyllic island. Set with intrigue at each turn, where people are not who they appear to be and love calls her to question her loyalty.

The collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989 allowed the evil shadow of Eastern Mafia to spread across Europe, with the Greek islands proving to be a haven of obscurity for Russian and Romanian gangs. To counter the threat to British interests on the islands, MI6 establish the ‘Greek Unit’. It’s now 1994 and the Unit reacts quickly following the death of a British agent on the island of Petromos by sending a female agent, her cover – a tourist supposedly taking few days break from London. Born in Athens she bears the rare intense eyes that modern Athenian women associate with those of the goddess Athina. As the action unfolds she realises that a special bond with that mythical figure has existed all her life. A chance meeting with a man from her youth causes personal misgivings about her own future and when she finds friendship and love on the island, it conflicts with her dedication and loyalty to the ‘Unit’; she questions her strange bond with Athina. Its strength will be tested in the days ahead. She uncovers drug and gun running activities organised by an unsavoury ex-London gang-boss hiding in unusual circumstances on Petromos. Then, amidst the politics of the small island-minded community, she finds herself the target of a Romanian hit man!

Recent Review

“Local author Roger W Thompson has a little too much fun researching his novels. It’s not for nothing that exotic locations in far-flung corners feature in his writings (he’s also a successful travel writer), but it must be said, his uncompromising diligence works. For this novel, the Greek Islands played host to the author’s labyrinthine imagination. The story delicately entwines a contemporary spy drama, unfolding post Berlin Wall, with ancient myth. Unusually for a male author, his protagonist is female; the un-ruffable Katie Simpson, working for the good guys in the ‘Greek Unit’. It’s quite a task to set oneself, writing the thoughts and emotions of the opposing gender, but he manages it admirably, I think, while driving a speeding plotline along very twisting, winding Greek-island roads (or is that, Rhodes?). She has a pretty hard time of it, our heroine; Mr. Thompson doesn’t spare her any of the canon of spy-tomfoolery – shootings, break-ins, guns in Bibles, muggings, sneaky Russians, betrayal – the usual suspects, but his intertwining of the mythical element elevates Athina from the genre’s pack. It’s made all the more intriguing by the knowledge that many of the underpinning ‘facts’ within the narrative are in fact, facts. Appropriately, we’re kept in the dark – but the sequel may shed some light, set in Bosnia… Watch this space.”

Geoff Stubbs, Editor PURBECK! Journal www.purbeckjournal.co.uk

Eye of Athina

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