"The novel about Cyprus that Lawrence Durrell couldn't write..." The Hour of the Grey Wolf is set in Cyprus during 1973. The CIA and its Greek Junta proxy are gunning for Archbishop Makarios, the democratically elected first president of the Republic, and because of this a civil war, where Greek would be fighting Greek, is looming. The narrator is Steve Carpenter, a New Zealand journalist of Cypriot descent. Wounded in Vietnam where he has worked for REUTERS, he chooses to go to Cyprus to recuperate. However, as a new chapter in Cypriot history unfolds, he becomes drawn into solving a murder that occurs in Mpalloura, the village where he is living. Knowing that he may be putting his own life at risk, Carpenter gingerly delves into the deadly politics of the time and the labyrinth-like complexity of a peasant village whose inner darkness one is rarely exposed to.
"... is a crime story ... in many ways, it defies the genre. It is literary fiction as well, experimental in form, so experimental that, simply linked together with logic, the parts should not work together to form that coherent whole. And yet they do. ... a compelling page-turner, a classic whodunit. ... I kept turning the pages and am certain other readers will too. The overall effect of
The Hour of the Grey Wolf
cannot be denied: the setting and characters are still resonating with me ..."
ANTONY MILLEN
- Crime Watch
"... is for those who like comedy, tragedy, a murder mystery, and romance along with a wide range of cultural and historical references, conservation ethics and political insight. The New Zealand/Cypriot narrator can offer both an insider and an outsider view of the situation in Cyprus when tensions between Greeks and Turks, as well as factions within the Greek community, were at their height. Surely, something for everyone."
NELSON WATTIE
"... I recommend it on two levels - a literary experiment and a ripping good yarn."
PAUL BROOKS -
Midweek
and
NZ Herald
"... is a handsome book and something to be really proud of. A real achievement - and a remarkable work in broadening the range and the depth of inquiry of the New Zealand novel."
KEVIN IRELAND - NZ poet and novelist
"... Moisa takes the readers on an exciting journey influenced by his roots with this compelling literary page-turner ... Moisa delivers a unique and atmospheric whodunnit that is richly textured with history, philosophy and labyrinthine politics. Pleasingly it's the first in a series."
CRAIG SISTERSON -
New Zealand Books