Publisher's Synopsis
The Byzantine hard-boiled sleuth is back against a femme fatale! And some religious bigots as usual. Since I have been accused, in this one action is less and characters are mainly focused upon. When I manage to combine both I will turn out to be a best seller author! Till now, with six Vardas books out, first three in one tome (trilogy), I still introduce myself as an old retreated man, an ex-cooking chef but a passionate cinephile with a sweet tooth for the Noir, old and new, films and novels, and Jazz music. Not as a writer! I navigate and travel into Byzantine era situations and I try to be as accurate as possible when real Historical event and characters move into my novels. I become deliberately provocative but I only try to excite your curiosity and find out yourselves about the History's black pages globally forgotten. Apart from all this, this is fun to write. I hope it is fun to read too. In the Noir fiction, both on paper and cellulose, hard-boiled sleuths all look like having been out the same mold. I don't see a reason why my sleuth would be more romantic and less cynical. These days, around 2020, one must be careful of what he's saying. It seems like a general hysteria out there to pin up a tag on anyone. There's a whole variety of tags for all tastes. Sexist, misogynic, homophobe, anti-Semite, politically wrong. Lack of respect, nihilism, insolence and sarcasm are one step behind becoming misdemeanors and hence punished by law! Give me a break! Fictional Sleuths have been mavericks from the beginning, take it or leave it. Forget what you have been told! Crack out a laugh is not a sin. Laugh as much as you can hoping it becomes contagious. Noir, History and laughs have always walked hand in hand. Why change it?
