The White Sea: An Alex Mavros Mystery

In Johnston’s solid seventh Alex Mavros mystery (after 2013’s The Black Life), the Greek police coerce Alex, who has retired from looking for missing persons to work at his mother’s Athens publishing company, into joining the search for kidnapped shipping magnate Kostas Gatsos. With no ransom note, a family ambivalent about finding its patriarch, and the potential involvement of a Russian crime syndicate, Alex turns for help to his private operator friend, Yiorgos Pandazopoulos (aka the Fat Man), among others. Their investigation takes them to the island of Lesvos, where they uncover a conspiracy involving Alex’s old nemesis, known only as the Son. Meanwhile, Kostas’s kidnappers confront him with evidence of his many crimes. Johnston skillfully conveys the politics and problems of contemporary Greece while further developing his compelling cast. An overly tidy ending mars what’s otherwise a suspenseful, fast-paced work with an array of fascinating twists. Agent: Broo Doherty, Wade and Doherty (U.K.). (Oct.)