Not a Creature Was Stirring

Author(s): Jane Haddam

Location(s): Philadelphia

Genre(s): Mystery

Era(s): Modern

When we meet Gregor Demarkian he is a fifty five year old man, retired after twenty years at the FBI. His beloved wife, Elizabeth, is dead – Demarkian had retired mainly to care for her – and now he is a man without purpose. He has returned to his childhood Armenian ethnic neighbourhood in Philadelphia and this place, Cavanaugh Street, and his neighbours are all very important to Demarkian’s character and the books. In many ways, this novel really sets the scene for a series which becomes (like all good series) filled with characters who seem like old friends.

Of course, this first novel also introduces the important character of Bennis Hannaford, whose family are wealthy, influential and extremely dysfunctional. When Robert Hannaford, father of Bennis and her six siblings, contacts Father Tibor (an eccentric Armenian priest) and asks him to arrange for Gregor Demarkian to attend a dinner at his family home, events are set in motion which end in murder. When Demarkian is asked to act as a consultant in the case, he finds a reason to go on living.

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