Deadline in Athens — Petros Markaris

The first Inspector Costas Haritos Mystery from the acclaimed Greek thriller writer. “A tale well told, set in a novel and engaging locale” (Los Angeles Times).
 
When an Albanian husband and wife are found dead in their home, Inspector Costas Haritos, a veteran junta-trained homicide detective on the Athens police force, is called to what seems at first to be an open-and-shut case. But when Albania's celebrity television news reporter Yanna Karayoryi insists that the case was closed too early, Haritos becomes unnerved.
 
Moments before she is to go on the air with a startling newsbreak, Yanna is suddenly murdered. Caught between a bumbling junior officer and higher-ups all too easily influenced by news executives determined to protect their own, Costas Haritos sets out to get to the bottom of the matter -- and ends up neck deep in a dark form of smuggling that has emerged in Albania after the dictatorship.
 
“The material is rich, the characters are drawn with depth, and Haritos himself is an intriguing find.” -- Paul Skenazy, The Washington Post