The Dead Hours

istos publishing Greek Noir selection continues with The Dead Hours by Vasilis Danellis, who is one of the founding members of the Greek Club of Crime Writers (ELSAL) and known in Turkish for his novel Siyah Bira (Black Beer) and Yunankarası: Yunanistan’dan 11 Çağdaş Polisiye Öykü (Greek Noir: A Compilation of 11 Contemporary Detective Stories from Greece). The novel was translated from its Greek original by Damla Demirözü.
The Dead Hours, a noir detective thriller flowing confidently and sharply at a rhythm of sixty heartbeats per minute, takes its audience from Athens to Piraeus, Lesbos to Nicosia, while accompanying the reader with the inner voice of a professional hitman lurking like a shadow over the slums, spacious boulevards, harbor taverns, night clubs, secluded beaches, luxury hotel bars, casinos and the “safe space” of the houses that will turn into murder scenes.

“Who can say for sure when something started? What matters is to be able to tell when a story is over. And mine is over now.”
Could this be the title of the last part of my story? Or the title of the next chapter, which will be dull because there is no one to kill and that woman won’t be by my side? Or…if only my story had ended here. While drinking ouzo against the sea lying beneath my feet… No matter if there are three bodies left behind. Not everything has to be perfect.