The Medusa On My Island

Leaving behind a turbulent and politically volatile Holland, two Dutch criminals by the name of Roger and Marc, arrive on the island of Crete to start a new life.  Here on the island of myths and legends they devote themselves to the most expensive and ambitious project of their lives; the creation of Medusa Bar.  Build from scratch, Medusa Bar soon came to represent the most impressive, opulent and expensive bar the island had ever seen.  So not surprisingly the bar became the most talked about bar in Rethymno, the pretty little town where this saga unfolds.

After the initial novelty wears off and the locals settle down with the new bar in their midst, the true and ugly nature of the Dutchmen also becomes apparent.  The project although impressive, also came with a price tag that has gone way beyond their original budget, forcing them once again to turn to crime.  Deciding that an illegal prostitution business was their only hope, they go about this new adventure with great cruelty and recklessness.

This is how the young Englishman Peter, and the Russian Mikhail become involved with the Dutchmen. The Dutchmen trick them into coming to Crete after promising them a well-paid job in Medusa Bar. But bringing Peter and Mikhail to the island of Crete was going to be the biggest mistake of their lives.  Helped by the English girl Linda, and the giant Albanian Ben, both employees in Medusa Bar, the two escape.       

Peter upon returning to England, reports them to the police, and puts into motion the tragic and devastating consequences for Marc and Roger. It was to cost them their lives.  Their brutal and sadistic murder attracts huge international media attention, and was to become most high-profile murder case that Greece had seen for decades.

What made this murder case even more exceptional was the fact that the accused was to put forward the most extraordinary motive for committing such a heinous crime: sleepwalking. This was to be Greece’s first ever automatism murder case, and it begged the question; Is it possible that during sleepwalking the mind is independent from the human conscious mind, and therefore the person is not responsible for his or hers actions, even if the actions are savage beyond belief?         

Nothing was ever going to be the same for all the characters in this novel. Medusa Bar was going to change everything in their lives forever.  The real twist in the novel comes right at the end when Mikhail, who is about to board an aeroplane for Russia, makes a devastating confession. This confession will also reveal to the Reader, why this really was an appalling modern-day Greek tragedy.   Inspired by true-life events, this is a story of how lives and fates become intertwined.  It’s about how we fail and excel as human beings.  It is a story about ambition, cruelty, revenge, greed, and redemption. 

The whole drama also involves a modern-day Greece that is literally falling apart as a civilised nation.  Linda and Ben watch in horror as their adopted country falls into civil anarchy, third world poverty, mass unemployment and suicide.  The human cost of the European Union’s bailout package that came with strict austerity measures, is laid bare.  The tragedy of modern-day Greece is a warning to the whole of Europe; that we are all in danger of social and political chaos. The lesson to be learned from Greece’s folly and destruction is that human civility and civilisation hangs by a very thin thread. Whether we mock or sympathise with Greece’s plight, either way Europe cannot escape the ripples of this Greek tragedy. We are all involved.