The Age of Olympus: Duncan Forrester Mystery 2

The intriguing impulse for The Age Of Olympus is Duncan Forrester’s discovery of a Minoan artifact in a cave in Crete during World War II. Back in Greece after the war to excavate his find, his plans are derailed by the murder of a local poet. Suspects are plentiful and exotic: a Greek general, a former BBC broadcaster, a member of the Greek royal family, a British professor of history, and, lurking in the background, a sinister Dutchman. Motives, mostly arising from wartime events and romances or the impending civil war pitting royalists against communists, also abound. The adventures befalling the hero–including several near-death escapes and the unearthing of the murderer as well as the actual recovery of the long-lost object–are enough to keep the reader entertained. Sadly, though, any mystery surrounding the historical significance and meaning of Forrester’s archaeological find is explained rather routinely, to the detriment of the story’s interest. The prose, clear if lacking inspiration, carries the tale easily with one exception–the classical allusions popping up everywhere quickly wear thin. If well-plotted mysteries with a liberal dash of adventure are your cup of tea, then this book will satisfy but perhaps not much beyond that.