A Breeze Across The Aegean

This was an easy read, an ideal beach read. I read it in the cold brisk winter but Robert Cole did such an excellent job of getting me to daydream about being in Rhodes myself! Rhodes is where the story primarily takes place. I feel like Robert Cole truly captured the essence of Rhodes in this novel and did so effortlessly. I don't care for authors who are unnecessarily "wordy” and Robert Cole provided a perfect amount of details to set the stage for this story and the characters in it. The main characters were memorable and now I REALLY want to go to Greece, or just any beach. I wasn't so sure about where the ending was headed, because after the climax things seemed to fall flat, BUT it worked out and the ending was satisfying. I recommend reading this book and would read more novels by this author.

Lately I've been attracted to books in faraway places, probably because I can't travel myself. So this book about a British widower who travels to Rhodes for a holiday appealed to me. A chance meeting with a museum employee on a ferry leads him to investigate the mystery of her disappearance. Clearly there are some very powerful people involved, and it's very dangerous for him to delve into this. But he's drawn by some sort of connection he felt with her. The plot is very engaging and I think this might make a very interesting film. Descriptions of the scenery and the archaeology of the Colossus of Rhodes add to the interest of the book.

This is a nice mystery, with interesting characters and a rich background. I found the history the most engaging part. Reeling from a tremendous loss our hero ventures out to new places and has a 'cute' meet with an interesting and attractive woman. But when she doesn't show for a later date, he moves on. When he discovers she has going missing, he decides to see if he can figure out what happened. In the course of this, we learn some really fascinating things about early history. We also learn about the business of history and how far some will go to assert their hold on it. The romance is a little cloying, but I guess that is the price we pay for the other good writing. It's a good story, some characters that are interesting and in a fantastic setting. I would hope this could be the start of a series.

Taking a sabbatical from work after the loss of his wife and child, and now on holiday in Rhodes, Nicholas decides to explore some of the surrounding islands. He starts by taking the ferry to the tiny island of Halki. On the same ferry is a lady called Alessandra who is also taking a trip to the island to catch up with her good friend. Nicolas and Alessandra meet and they find that they get on well together so they arrange to meet again on the return journey back to Rhodes. She is very knowledgeable about the history of the Dodecanese island group, the largest of which is Rhodes. Alessandra also offers to show Nicholas around the Old Town of Rhodes. She works at the museum on Rhodes and is a frequent visitor to several of the cluster of islands and is currently carrying out active on-site research there. On the outgoing trip to Halki they find that they become fiends very easily. Alessandra has moved to Rhodes from her home in the UK and is fluent also in Greek. It will be nice for Nicholas to have a guide and some company. For the first time in a couple of years, Nicolas has something to look forward to. He looks out for Alessandra on the return ferry to Rhodes, but alas she is nowhere to be seen. He makes the rendezvous for the Old Town exploration but again she does not show up. He is so disappointed. Soon his holiday is over and he is on the plane back home to the UK. After a good few months back at home he hears that Alessandra has been reported as missing. Could this be the reason for her being unable to make contact with him both in Halki and back in Rhodes? He feels compelled to return to Rhodes because, after all, the dates coincide with his holiday and he may even have been the person with the last sighting of her. Back in Rhodes once more, hoping he can move the police investigation on, he is shocked to learn the police have hit a brick wall and their investigation has been scaled down. This is when he makes the decision to initiate his own investigations and in so doing he puts himself in the spotlight of villains who threaten him in no uncertain terms that people will get hurt if he does not stop muddying the waters and stirring up trouble for these master criminals. He has no option but to book a flight home straight away. But will he be able to adhere to his word. Not a bit of it! ‘A Breeze Across the Aegean' is Robert Cole's exciting and assured debut novel. Here he has created a sizzling novel about organised crime, kidnapping and physical coercion. It is masterfully written and the storyboard is alive with action, thrill and spills and twists and turns. The settings are vividly lyrical and the characterisation well developed with diverse and interesting characters. I thought Nicholas was very brave and gentlemanly to come to the rescue of Alessandra, the stunningly attractive and friendly black haired historian. I thought the ending was excellent and nail-bitingly electrifying. I liked that some of the characters were unreliable participants, keeping secrets and not being what they wanted you to believe they were. This twist was totally unexpected but in the end it turned out to be discretionary and you could understand why. I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Troubador Publishing Ltd through my membership of NetGalley and I would like to thank them for my copy, sent out to me in return for an honest review. I really enjoyed this novel and award it a well-deserved 4.5*. I recommend it as a very good read and I shall look forward to a second novel from this author.

I absolutely love the psychological thriller about a missing woman. It's mostly a first person narrative about a man who meets a mysterious woman who disappears. The backdrop is the Mediterranean. I highly recommend this book I really enjoyed it.