"Tell it to your night"

The first literary book by Professor of Economics Panagiotis Petrakis.

Set in Athens during the years of crisis, it tells a metaphysical - detective story. Its evolution will be determined by the forces of chance and human relationships. It is a novel of magical realism, where the unraveling of a murder goes hand in hand with the significant aspects that define the lives of its heroes: randomness, companionship, happiness, uncertainty, and loss.

One night in Greece in 1998. While life in the country flows carefreely, or almost carefreely, Mr. Balomenos, a humanitarian and middle-class man, is brutally murdered. His precious collection of "heads of Hermes," the dream of every philatelist, disappears. Inspector Vellis dedicates his life to solving the crime, even though the evidence he has is minimal. The mysterious murder is connected to the lives of six friends.

The novel follows sixteen years in two parallel worlds: one follows the investigation of the collector's murder, while the other focuses on the upheavals that the economic crisis brought to the heroes' lives. The two worlds communicate subtly with each other, piecing together the puzzle of the case bit by bit.

Is it chance or the ghost of the murdered man that, like a deus ex machina, unites the two worlds and influences the investigation of the murder? In search of redemption, the spirit of the collector is initially a metaphysical presence that keeps the protagonists’ interest in the crime alive, guiding them in its unraveling. But who has truly been murdered? The collector and humanitarian or the lives of the heroes, victims of the economic crime that has occurred in the country? Relief and optimism return through the exercise of the redemptive addiction of humans: the art of survival.

Panagiotis Petrakis