The tag for Stav Sherez’s The Black Monastery is “paradise can be murder”, but the island of Palassos has never been a utopian paradise of sun and sand. Littered with the remnants of a past that included a cult and the uprising against and slaughter of a Turkish navy, its present is drug riddled and seems to beget spasmodic waves of terrible violence. The cafes, night clubs, and beaches are strewn with the detritus of the drug and tourist trade, and the islanders themselves are torn between hatred of those invading their land and a desperate need for the income they bring. The present seems to be winning over the past as more and more tourists arrive, but, buried under the gloss of too much partying is a much more terrible secret, one that the island has been attempting to hide even from itself.

Nikos, Palassos’ police chief, has returned from Athens to serve his remaining years on the force in his birthplace. Thirty years earlier, he had been a new member of the police force on Palassos and a part of the investigation into the ritual murders on the grounds of the local monastery. The mystery was solved only when a local cult committed mass suicide, and Nikos left the island for Athens. Now, he is back, with the promise of early retirement if he can make some inroads and shut down the drug trade. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that the mystery of the past and the violence it revealed in the island was never fully laid to rest and soon more bodies begin appearing next to the Black Monastery that stands, watching, at the top of the island.

Into this tense setting bolts Kitty Carson, a best selling author with writer’s block and a troubled marriage. She flees England for what she believes will be a vacation full of sun and relaxation. Desperate for a chance to get her latest mystery back on track, she is almost immediately distracted from her goals with a mugging and meeting Jason, an aspiring writer who is also staying on the island. Both Kitty and Jason are fragile characters, and Sherez carefully crafts their relationship as a melding of the needs and worries that each of them carried onto the island. They quickly become partners, searching for more information on both the older mystery of the cult and ritual murders and the newest terror to occur.

It becomes immediately apparent that the islanders are not interested in helping Kitty and Jason in their search. Their inquiries are met with open hostility, and they are hampered by the fact that the islanders blame most of their troubles on the modern life that has invaded the island. Although it would be an obvious, and expected, ploy to have Nikos fulfil the role of the informative islander willing to work with the two outsiders, Sherez instead has him working in opposition. The police chief does not treat them with the open hostility of the rest of the town, but he has his own agenda and does not become a pawn in their investigation.

Each of these three characters carries secrets that they refuse to share with the others. Sherez does an excellent job of allowing them to keep information from each other without making it seem as if it is merely to further the plot. Although the murders and violence in the book are gruesome enough, they are not the true focus. Instead, the loneliness and loss that each character carries fuels them to continue probing and investigating. The end of the book is taut and tightly written with revelations tumbling one after another from the results of the characters’ actions. In the end, the Black Monastery itself is one of the few things left untouched, a reminder of the devastation of blood and secrets.

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