Review Rating
With the October 2004 review, we began rating the books on the basis of one to four trowels;
one trowel= don’t bother, to four trowels= run right out to your local book store and buy the hard cover!
Golden Oldies - reviewing previously unreviewed books by previously reviewed “greatest hits” authors!
As we approach nearly twenty-five years of the MVAC reviews of archaeological fiction, I thought it would be fun to re-visit six of the authors whose works have been reviewed in the past. Three of these authors have sadly passed away since I first reviewed them (Margot Arnold, Lynn Hamilton, and Elizabeth Peters); two have “retired” their archaeologist protagonists, Gideon Oliver (Aaron Elkins), and Emma Fielding (Dana Cameron); and one, (Kate Ellis) continues to put DI Wesley Peterson and his friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, in harm’s way as solve contemporary crimes that have their roots in the distant past. While these authors have been reviewed previously, these books have not.
The House in Apiranthos by Vanessa Gordon
Reviewed on: September 1, 2025
Dolman Scott LTD: Thatcham, UK
2024 (PB)
In 1944, a man is buried in the basement of an abandoned house in the center of the town of Apiranthos, on the Greek island of Naxos. The task is carried out by a group of local men, who reverently lay the body to rest along with a small pouch of ancient artifacts—and all memory of the incident is then, it would seem, lost to the ages.
More than seventy years later, archaeologist and “film presenter,” Martin Day, is drawn into the mystery of the forgotten burial—but in a distinctly circuitous fashion.
The adventure begins with Martin preparing to undertake a new and challenging media project: a televised exploration of some of the most outstanding archaeological sites in the Aegean. He is excited to develop the series, working with free-lance journalist and visiting lecturer at University College London, Mark Hijazi, whose study of Bronze Age trade networks in the Mediterranean, makes him an ideal collaborator. Mark will craft the scripts and Martin will be the on-camera presenter. The series will take them on a journey of discovery that will include the fabled site of Akrotiri, the ancient ruins on the island of Santorini, dubbed in the popular press as the “Lost City of Atlantis;” Phaistos, the powerful center of the Minoan civilization, destroyed around 1450 BC (by earthquake, invasion or internal strife—scholars are undecided); and to sites on islands closer to Martin’s “home” island of Naxos.
While Martin and Mark continue their film odyssey, Martin’s wife Helen, a successful scholar and writer in her own right, remains on Crete to do research for her latest interest—the Cretan resistance to the Nazi invasion of World War II. That research will have a significant impact on Martin’s activities in the days to come.
Coincident to the planning and execution of the television series, Martin recommends the excavation of site he discovered in the Naxos countryside. Dr. Aliki Xylouri, a highly respected authority on Mycenean pre-history, agrees to head up the dig, which hints at being an ancient burial chamber—a tholos (beehive-shaped) tomb dating back more than a thousand years before the Common Era. Such a tomb might hint at the existence of at least a small settlement, which might provide valuable information pertaining to early Naxian lifeways. If it is, in fact, a tomb, Dr. Xylouri assures Martin he will be the first to enter it—a distinct honor.
Meanwhile yet another challenge is tossed into Martin’s professional lap. Not far from Martin’s home on Naxos, his old friend Nick Kiloziglou, a Greek-Australian restorer of historic buildings, has undertaken the restoration of house in a piteous state of ruin in the village of Apiranthos. The owners had abandoned the property before World War II, and now a later generation wished it to be restored for occupancy. The renovation had unearthed the remains of a body, hidden in the basement for perhaps fifty to eighty years, along with a small bundle of artifacts. Nick convinced the local police chief that Martin should view the burial, not for the body itself, but the cache of artifacts which prove to be a varied collection of coins, some pre-dating the Roman era.
Like pieces of a complicated jigsaw puzzle, the answers to the mystery of the body found in Apiranthos begins to emerge. The painfully exacting police inquiries led by Inspector Korres identify the human remains as those of a World War II British airman, missing in action somewhere in the Cyclades. Meanwhile Helen’s research efforts on the Resistance based on Crete found references to the Greek Sacred Squadron, a daring underground operation helped liberate Naxos from the Germans in 1944, rescued downed Allied flyers whenever possible, and were instrumental in salvaging Greek antiquities and hiding them from Nazi looters. These latter efforts were verified as Nick Kiloziglou and his team discovered more artifacts that had been removed from collections and museums in advance of the Nazi invasion. Heretofore it had been assumed that it was the Nazis who had spirited away the heritage of the Cyclades.
But it soon becomes apparent that the lust for hidden treasures continues to the present day and Martin and his comrades must confront these contemporary looters of the past.
Vanessa Gordon has written yet another mesmerizing “Naxos Mystery,” seamlessly linking the past and present. Martin Day continues to be an appealing, albeit reluctant protagonist. This reader appreciated the greater role the Helen Aitchison played in The House in Apiranthos, and hopes that role will continue to grow in subsequent Naxos adventures.
Four trowels for the latest entry in the Naxos series: The House in Apiranthoes.
