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Fire on the Island: A Romantic Thriller Kindle Edition

by Timothy Jay Smith (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 138 ratings
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For lovers of crime fiction and the allure of the Greek islands, Fire on the Island is the perfect summer read.

** "Smith offers the perfect blend of intrigue, romance, and travelogue."--Publishers Weekly **

FIRE ON THE ISLAND is a playful, romantic thriller set in contemporary Greece, with a gay Greek-American FBI agent, who is undercover on the island to investigate a series of mysterious fires. Set against the very real refugee crisis on the beautiful, sun-drenched Greek islands, this novel paints a loving portrait of a community in crisis. As the island residents grapple with declining tourism, poverty, refugees, family feuds, and a perilously damaged church, an arsonist invades their midst.

Nick Damigos, the FBI agent, arrives on the island just in time to witness the latest fire and save a beloved truffle-sniffing dog. Hailed as a hero and embraced by the community, Nick finds himself drawn to Takis, a young bartender who becomes his primary suspect, which is a problem because they're having an affair. Theirs is not the only complicated romance in the community and Takis isn't the only suspicious character on the island. Nick has to unravel the truth in time to prevent catastrophe, as he comes to terms with his own past trauma. In saving the village, he will go a long way toward saving himself.

A long time devotee of the Greek islands, Smith paints the setting with gorgeous color and empathy, ushering in a new romantic thriller with the charm of Zorba the Greek while shedding bright light on the very real challenges of life in contemporary Greece."This book is a thriller, but it also boasts an almost travelogue feel too - and then there's the romance, threading through everything and creating a cozy glow even in the face of fires, tragedy and - yikes - spiders! It's a tough ask for a writer to combine all of these elements and create a satisfying reading experience, but Timothy Jay Smith deserves a pat on the back for pulling it off with aplomb." -- Crime Fiction Lover "Timothy Jay Smith's Fire on the Island: A Romantic Thriller follows a gay Greek-American FBI agent Nick Damigos to a gorgeous town in the Greek islands to investigate a mysterious arsonist. More than the mystery of who's setting the fires and why, Smith creates a sensitive portrait of a small Greek community set against the refugee crisis and Greece's suffering economy. It's the town itself--a chorus of voices--that is the most compelling character and our reason for "traveling" to Greece. -- Lambda Literary"The author does a good job of creating a vivid cast of characters, and several of them make for plausible suspects - even the village priest! Your suspicions veer from one suspect to another, and then back again, as the plot cleverly works itself out. The book works because all the characters are credible, their backgrounds and behaviour believable, and the Greek island setting totally convincing. Highly recommended." -- Greece Travel Secrets "Timothy Jay Smith's Fire on the Island unveils the complex layers that guise the sun-drenched, bougainvillea-tinted Greek isle, blighted by declining tourism and the seemingly intractable refugee crisis. There are family feuds and a corrupt clergy. There is racism and homophobia. But there is romance, humour and mystery too! An engaging summer read for the travel-deprived, all the more transporting in our confined times." -- Athens Insider "The book is told in a bunch of different perspectives of various people that live in this village and I think it was perfectly blended to facilitate one good storyline. It's like a puzzle that you are slowing putting together and trying to figure out what that end picture will look like and when you finally do, it's not what you expected but you still like it none the less." -- Breakeven Books
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  1. Print length
    315 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Arcade Crimewise
  5. Publication date
    July 7, 2020
  6. File size
    1014 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is a thriller, but it also boasts an almost travelogue feel too - and then there's the romance, threading through everything and creating a cozy glow even in the face of fires, tragedy and - yikes - spiders! It's a tough ask for a writer to combine all of these elements and create a satisfying reading experience, but Timothy Jay Smith deserves a pat on the back for pulling it off with aplomb." -- Crime Fiction Lover

"Timothy Jay Smith's Fire on the Island: A Romantic Thriller follows a gay Greek-American FBI agent Nick Damigos to a gorgeous town in the Greek islands to investigate a mysterious arsonist. More than the mystery of who's setting the fires and why, Smith creates a sensitive portrait of a small Greek community set against the refugee crisis and Greece's suffering economy. It's the town itself--a chorus of voices--that is the most compelling character and our reason for "traveling" to Greece. -- Lambda Literary


"The author does a good job of creating a vivid cast of characters, and several of them make for plausible suspects - even the village priest! Your suspicions veer from one suspect to another, and then back again, as the plot cleverly works itself out. The book works because all the characters are credible, their backgrounds and behaviour believable, and the Greek island setting totally convincing. Highly recommended." -- Greece Travel Secrets


"Timothy Jay Smith's Fire on the Island unveils the complex layers that guise the sun-drenched, bougainvillea-tinted Greek isle, blighted by declining tourism and the seemingly intractable refugee crisis. There are family feuds and a corrupt clergy. There is racism and homophobia. But there is romance, humour and mystery too! An engaging summer read for the travel-deprived, all the more transporting in our confined times." -- Athens Insider


"The book is told in a bunch of different perspectives of various people that live in this village and I think it was perfectly blended to facilitate one good storyline. It's like a puzzle that you are slowing putting together and trying to figure out what that end picture will look like and when you finally do, it's not what you expected but you still like it none the less." -- Breakeven Books

About the Author

Tim has traveled the world collecting stories and characters for his novels and screenplays which have received high praise. Fire on the Island won the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel. He won the Paris Prize for Fiction for his first book, A Vision of Angels. Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012. Tim was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize for his short fiction, "Stolen Memories." His recent novel, The Fourth Courier received tremendous reviews. His screenplays have won numerous international competitions. Tim is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater. He lives in France.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B084MN8Y4L
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arcade Crimewise (July 7, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 7, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1014 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 315 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 138 ratings

About the author

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Timothy Jay Smith

Timothy Jay Smith

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Raised crisscrossing America pulling a small green trailer behind the family car, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he’s hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that saw him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.S. at the highest levels of foreign governments, and stowaway aboard a ‘devil’s barge’ for a three-day crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail.

Tim brings the same energy to his writing that he brought to a distinguished career, and as a result, he has won top honors for his novels, screenplays and stage plays in numerous prestigious competitions. Fire on the Island (to be released by Arcade Publishing in July 2020) won the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel, and his screenplay adaptation of it was named Best Indie Script by WriteMovies. Another novel, The Fourth Courier, set in Poland, published in 2019 also by Arcade Publishing, received tremendous reviews and is currently competing in many competitions. Previously, he won the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the Paris Literary Prize) for his novel, A Vision of Angels. Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012.

Tim was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. He’s an avid theater-goer and playwright himself. His stage play, How High the Moon, a gay love story set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award. He is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
138 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mary Bartlett
5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Read for Right Now!
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2020
Verified Purchase
To be transported to a Greek island, surrounded by a cast of characters who are alternately charming, heartwarming, deceitful and funny, is a gift. I was immediately taken by the story but it was the island and the people that will remain with me. Smith is a master of the precise detail that makes his characters come to life. Very, very enjoyable.
2 people found this helpful
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DAE
4.0 out of 5 stars Nick
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2021
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75% of the book exceeded my expectations. The characters were fully developed and engaging, highly engaging with many great scenes. The setting was vivid. It all worked. As the plot seemed to be pulling to a conclusion the naturalness ,cleverness, the style created, seemed to become sacrin. Everything came together to sweetly, to perfectly.
One person found this helpful
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Stephen L. Brayton
3.0 out of 5 stars Not the usual mystery but interesting
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2020
Plot

A series of fires have ravaged one of the Greek islands. FBI agent Nick Damigos is on hand to investigate. The small village is full of problems and controversy and there are no shortage of suspects. With all that’s going on, can Nick track down the arsonist before it’s too late.

This is the basic plot, and it’s a good one. However, once I was well into the story I realized the story centered around the people of the village more than Nick’s investigation. Some of the issues and history of the locals do tie in but I was expecting more investigation than soap opera.

Characters

Nick Damigos: Greek-American, FBI agent, homosexual, scars on his back

Lydia: Married with daughter. Operates a café, red hair, freckles

Takis Vatis: Bartender, has siblings, homosexual

Dimos Elefteros:mayor

Father Alexis: church priest

Vassoula: bar owner, 30s, black hair and eyes, smokes

A couple other characters that round out the story. It wasn’t difficult keeping them straight. Everybody has a history. But I think the characters were distinctive enough and had enough information to get a feel for.

Dialogue

Pretty good. Not much to say here. Athina, the daughter, sound like a teenager. Ridi, the waiter, sounded like a fresh young kid. I saw nothing wrong with the conversations.

Writing

A bit of profanity.

As mentioned, this was not the usual mystery with the story centered around the investigator picking up clues. There was that, yes, but not as much as I usually enjoy. I kept wanting the story to go back to Nick and the fires. There was a part where he was visiting a couple of the sites of the fires, but that didn’t continue. I was hoping he’d find clues or red herrings to lead him down certain paths.

There are some homosexual love scenes but nothing too graphic. Homosexuality does hold a theme throughout so if one prefers not to read about it, then this is not the book to read.

I was expecting a different climax but the high point where Nick finds the arsonist was pretty good.

My rank:

Green Belt
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Leonor C. Gillette
5.0 out of 5 stars Modern Greek Mystery
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2020
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Set in a Greek island village, Fire on the Island immerses the reader in every day village life. The sections in the restaurant makes the reader almost smell the food. All the characters are well developed and contribute to the book. I did not guess who the arsonist was until it was revealed. Good mystery and easy reading. I want to return to Greece and live there for a while.
2 people found this helpful
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Rich Petersen, Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story based on current events and political happenings in Greece and Turkey.
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
The author describes the physical locale in fine detail because he has lived and worked in those areas. Other of this author's books show the same attention to detail with respect to the setting. Very good character development as well. I applaud the inclusion of a gay protagonist who shows that being gay doesn't preclude working for and with important government agencies around the world.
3 people found this helpful
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Groundhog
5.0 out of 5 stars Sets a mood of inclusion
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2021
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A well woven story that makes you feel that you are on the island, getting to know the villagers, their joys and hardships. Covers all ranges of emotions in a beautiful landscape, touches modern problems like ethnic and sexual prejudices. A pretty good whodunit as well.
One person found this helpful
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Martina Benavente
4.0 out of 5 stars Totally worthy!
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2020
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful small greek village seems to be in danger because of some mysterious fires happening. Because of it, a half greek FBI agent, Nick Damigos, is sent to investigate while undercover and stop an imminent disaster. Among the suspects, we have a handsome priest with a seemingly secret agenda to save his bell tower, an apparently naive Albanian waiter, and beautiful Takis, whose past makes him the prime suspect, which is a major problem since Nick is falling for him. Sadly, the time is counting and our "Superman" has to make a decision. ¿Which one of them is the vengeful arsonist?

So, first of all, I really liked this book. It's been a while since I've read anything of this genre, but even though it took me a while to attune myself with the continuos changing pov's, once I got the hang of it, the book went soooo smooth. The characters, in general, were so entertaining and interesting. I mean, I felt like Koufos, Omar and Markos' stories kinda stole the show... you'll get it after reading it. And the fact that we got to know the rest of them by themselves instead of it being like Nick reading reports about everyone on the island was awesome. By the end of the book I was like, "I need X's pov on this" so I take it as a win. Besides, holy sh*t, how many secrets do they have? They kept coming out.

About the context regarding immigration and refugees, I just found it so interesting. I myself I'm not familiar with such conditions or the way they come across to a community, so reading about it, even though this is a book of fiction, got me. Like, it seems so awful and devastating to be in such a situation, and the lack of empathy shown by some villagers kinda made me want to throw-up. Simply heartbreaking.

The other thing that I'd like to rescue from the book is that it touches a lot of "contemporary" themes (I say it this way bc they have been since forever), not deeply, but it's appreciated to seeing them. Like; xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, discrimination, the mocking of "disabilities", and I could go on forever. And on the same note, I really liked that Athina wasn't portrayed just as a stupid teenager that lots of authors seem to love, but as someone with opinions that's discovering herself. So kudos for it.

All in all, a totally worthy read that will keep you engaged, especially if you like a little bit of romance in a pool of thriller. See ya!
One person found this helpful
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Hayday
2.0 out of 5 stars Greek setting is the best
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2023
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The story line is boring
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Top reviews from other countries

AJC
5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2023
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Why did I buy this book? It is set in Molyvos on Lesvos and I have visited there several times so could visualise the places mentioned. An excellent story line and a real page turner. Would definitely recommend.
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