Cassandra Calling

By Evelyn De Morgan )1898)

Jeff—Saturday

I’m in San Francisco at the moment, less than a week into my book tour for The Mykonos Mob, and I planned in this week’s post on sharing photos of my past weekend at Left Coast Crime and The City by the Bay, but Thursday morning something so uncanny occurred that I knew I just had to share the experience. Some might take it as a continuation of last week’s BSP about my new book, but it honestly is not meant as such. It’s more about passing along some serious goose bumps.

Here’s the background leading up to what happened on Thursday morning.

The subject of my new book is rather self-evident from the title, and it opens with the assassination of a mobster who controls the protection rackets on Mykonos through his security businesses there tying him into the island’s highly lucrative nightclub and drug trade.  I refer to that seamy side of life in paradise as the World of the Night. Without giving away any spoilers, the hit occurs as the victim gets into his Mercedes, and the assassin turns out to be a Bulgarian.

I wrote that over a year ago, and submitted the final manuscript to my publisher last summer.

Two mornings ago I read an article appearing in The National Herald, America’s largest circulation Greek-American newspaper, in which it reports on developments in an event that occurred in Greece on October 31, 2018—long after I’d written and submitted the finished version of my book to my publisher.

Here’s that article, with the most goose bump raising similarities to my work highlighted in bold, and editorial comments in italics.

***

ATHENS – Greek police said a 30-year-old Bulgarian was detained for questioning in the Oct. 31, 2018 murder of 46-year-old Greek-Australian businessman Yiannis Makris, gunned down outside his home in the suburb of Voula.

Police also said they believe the man, whose name was not released in line with Greek privacy laws that don’t identify suspects unless they are politicians or celebrities, pulled the trigger, said Katherimerini [a Greek newspaper], which had published exclusive footage of the attack from CCTV cameras outside the home of Makris, who ran a security business but didn’t have a bodyguard.

The shooting happened just after Makris left his home and climbed into his Mercedes Smart car, the killer running up and firing through the driver’s window….

Australian investigators had been looking into Makris who was linked to a case in that country over the trafficking of  $13 million worth of drugs and the attempted murder of an underworld crime boss in Sydney, media reports had said.

[NB. Up to this point the parallels between that event and my fictional story are uncanny, but here comes the part that literally blew me away]

Makris is said to have owned a company offering security services … and to have recently invested heavily in nightclubs on the island of Mykonos where wealthy customers are routinely gouged and charged hundreds or thousands of euros for champagne and other luxury menu offerings, the restaurants often evading taxes but allowed to operate.

It was the first major outbreak of violence in three years in the country’s underworld, which the Greeks call the World of the Night the paper said, with criminal gangs able to use the country’s coastline to bring in drugs without detection.

***

My editor, Barbara Peters, has long called me Cassandra, and I’ve always laughed it off.  Perhaps it’s time to take a more serious look at how she ended up.

By Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1806)

 OUCH.

—Jeff

My Upcoming Book Tour Events

Saturday, April 6, 3:00 PM

San Francisco, CA

BOOK PASSAGE (Ferry Building-Embarcadero)

Author Speaking and Signing

Sunday, April 7, 3:00 PM

Orange, CA

BOOK CARNIVAL              

Author Speaking and Signing

Wednesday, April 10, 7 PM

Pasadena, CA

VROMAN’S (East Colorado)

Author Speaking and Signing

Friday, April 12, 7 PM

Dallas, TX

Interabang (Preston Oaks)

Author Speaking and Signing

Monday, April 15, 2:00 PM

Fountain Hills, AZ

Fountain Hills Community Center

Fountain Hills Friends of the Library Author Event

Tuesday, April 16, 7:00 PM

Scottsdale, AZ

POISONED PEN BOOKSTORE

Author Speaking and Signing

Wednesday, April 24, 6:30 PM

Houston, TX

MURDER BY THE BOOK

Author Speaking and Signing

Friday, April 26, 7:00 PM

Denver, CO

TATTERED COVER (East Colfax)

Author Speaking and Signing

Monday, April 29, 7:00 PM

Pittsburgh, PA

MYSTERY LOVERS BOOKSHOP

Author Speaking and Signing

Wednesday, May 1, 6:30 PM

New York, NY

MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP

Author Speaking and Signing

Thursday, May 2, 7:00 PM

Naperville, IL

ANDERSON’S BOOKSHOP

Author Speaking and Signing

Friday, May 3, 7:00 PM

Chicago, IL (Forest Park)

CENTURIES & SLEUTHS  BOOKSTORE

Author Speaking and Signing

Saturday, May 4, 2 PM

Milwaukee, WI

BOSWELL BOOK COMPANY

Author Speaking and Signing

Thursday May 9, 5:00 PM

BRISTOL, UK

CRIMEFEST—Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel

Panelist on “Nobody Would Believe it if You Wrote it: Fake News, Post-Truth and Changing Words,” with Fiona Erskine, William Shaw, Gilly Macmillan, moderated by Paul E. Hardisty

Friday, May 10, 5:10 PM

BRISTOL, UK

CRIMEFEST—Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel

Panelist on “Sunshine Noir,” with Paul Hardisty,  Barbara Nadel, Robert Wilson, moderated by Michael Stanley

October 31-November 3

DALLAS, TX

BOUCHERCON 2019---Hyatt Regency Dallas

Panel Schedule Yet to be Announced