Petros Markaris, born in 1937 in Istanbul, is a playwright and the creator of a popular Greek television series. He was a co-author with Theo Angelopoulos (director of The Beekeeper, The Weeping Meadow, etc.) and has translated German playwrights such as Brecht and Goethe into Greek, most recently Faust I and II in verse form. He only began writing crime novels in the mid-nineties. Today, he is the Greek voice in contemporary literature. His novels are published in 13 languages and have won international awards, most recently the Pepe Carvalho Prize for crime literature. Petros Markaris lives in Athens.

He loves to eat souvlaki from a bag while flipping through the dictionary and absorbing the latest Americanisms. However, his work with the Athens police is no walk in the park. Amid the turmoil surrounding the murder of a reporter from Hellas Channel, Kostas Charitos always manages to remain himself - a hot-headed loner, a nostalgic figure in modern Athens.