EL accionista mayoritario. (The Majority Shareholder)

Reviewed by Ana Katherine Bonfante, Berwyn, IL -- Críticas, 7/15/2008

Márkaris, Petros.
tr. by Joaquim Gestí & Montserrat Franquesa. Spain: Tusquets, dist. by Urano Pub. 2008. 365p. ISBN 978-84-8383-040-6. pap. $23.95. SUSPENSE

Commissioner Kostas Jaritos, the principal character in Márkaris (b. Istanbul, 1937) past four detective novels (Noticias de la noche, Defensa cerrada, Sucicido perfecto and Un caso del comisario Jaritos), enjoys being part of the police department, in which he has worked for many years. He has no aspirations to move up within his career and he is content knowing that he performs his job to the best of his abilities. The first half of the book reveals Jaritos’s personal life, including wife Adriani, his only daughter Katerina, and his daughter’s boyfriend Fanis. When Fanis and Katerina are kidnapped, Jaritos and Adriani agonize while trying to get their daughter back safely from the unidentified terrorists. Jaritos is called back to work to investigate a major criminal case, and his concentration is divided between his daughter’s safety and solving the crime. Katerina’s kidnapping is solved in the first half and the reader is left to make the connection with the book’s title. El accionista mayoritario is identified in the second half of the book when the second crime is solved. Márkaris uses descriptive narrative to transport the reader to the streets of Athens and its surrounding towns. The author’s precise descriptive vocabulary gives the reader the opportunity to feel within the city itself. Márkaris names all towns, companies, bars, and even streets where the commissioner performs his investigations. At times, the constant naming of all city streets and highways that are unfamiliar to the reader get annoying, yet the richness of the language used allows the reader to overlook the over-the-top narrative. The book has a surprising and fair ending; highly recommended for large bookstores and general collections. 

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