THERE LIES A HIDDEN SCORPION

Nick and Julia Lambros close their restaurant and travel to Tarpon Springs, Florida, to help celebrate the wedding of children of Greek immigrants who are close friends of Nick’s. Naturally, instead of enjoying their rare vacation, they end up having the Greek version of a detective’s holiday: Amid the colorful Epiphany and nuptial festivities, someone is perpetrating an ugly series of pranks, complete with a curse delivered by UPS, a weeping icon, and the theft of an ancient coin. At first the pranks appear designed to prevent the wedding, but they soon escalate into murder. Nick and Julia, seasoned by previous adventures (Go Close Against the Enemy, 1998, etc.), investigate the incidents to clear suspicion directed at Nick’s friend, the volatile father of the bride. In the meantime, the detective duo will also sort out a matched pair of extramarital flirtations and baby-sit Julia’s Scottie in their luxurious hotel room. The plot dances around a number of villains, not necessarily murderers, and a set of compelling motivations: greed, ambition, family pride, and unrequited love. Through it all, Nick remains a scaled-down Zorba figure manfully protecting Julia while she snoops around. Still, many of the secondary characters are well-developed, and the weaknesses and injustices that drive people to murder and lesser crimes are drawn with genuine sympathy. Warning: Julia describes the customs surrounding the festivities and the Greek community of Tarpon Springs with the sometimes tedious thoroughness of a tourist, providing a narrative that relies heavily on details of what people are wearing and how rooms are decorated.