Fire on the Island
Author
Timothy Jay Smith
Raised crisscrossing America pulling a small green trailer behind the family car, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that saw him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.S. at the highest levels of foreign governments, and stowaway aboard a ‘devil’s barge’ for a three-day crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail. Tim brings the same energy to his writing that he brought to a distinguished career, and as a result, he has won top honors for his novels, screenplays and stage plays in numerous prestigious competitions. Fire on the Island (Arcade 2020) won the Gold Medal in the Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel, and his screenplay adaptation of it was named Best Indie Script by WriteMovies. Another novel, The Fourth Courier (Arcade 2019), set in Poland, received tremendous reviews, and was a finalist for Best Gay Mystery in the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards. Previously, he won the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the de Groot Prize) for his novel, A Vision of Angels. Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012. Tim was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. His stage play tribute to Matthew Shepard, How High the Moon, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award. His screenplays have won competitions sponsored by the American Screenwriters Association, WriteMovies, Houston WorldFest, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Fresh Voices, StoryPros, and the Hollywood Screenwriting Institute. He is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater.
Description
FIRE ON THE ISLAND is a playful, romantic thriller set in contemporary Greece An arsonist threatens to burn down a Greek island village by blowing up a fuel tank in its harbor. Alarmed by the possible disruption of the Coast Guard’s rescue operations, especially given a surge in the number of refugees crossing a treacherous channel from Turkey, Nick Damigos, the FBI agent posted to Athens, arrives to investigate. He finds the village embroiled in a conflict over which of two public works projects to undertake: relocate the fuel tank to thwart the arsonist, or repair the church’s bell tower which is in imminent danger of collapsing The village only has enough money for one project, and the debate over which one to carry out has evolved into a proxy fight over whether or not to help the refugees. The arsonist has struck eleven times in as many months, each followed by a mysterious poison pen letter. The last one makes it clear that he plans to strike the village within days. With no clues, Nick hunts for a motive why someone would want to burn it down. Through an array of colorful characters, who paint a portrait of Greece both humorous and soulful, he uncovers earlier crimes and conflicts, some dating back generations, that cast a wide net of suspicion. Caught in that net is Takis, a young waiter with whom Nick has an affair, and who becomes his chief suspect. Nick, badly burned on his back as a child, has always been self-conscious about his scars, but they don’t bother Takis. Their lovemaking is liberating, and he resists the notion that the young waiter is the arsonist despite the evidence against him. Miscalculating the plan of attack, ultimately Nick has only minutes to stop the arsonist and races for the fuel tank. The arsonist, he discovers, is Takis’s sister, who wants revenge on the village for a brutal attack on her husband that went largely unpunished. She sets herself on fire intending to fall into a pool of petrol to ignite the tank. Nick throws himself on her, knocking her away and saving the village.
Book excerpt
Nothing had prepared Nick for the sheer beauty of the village perched above the purpling sea. Atop the steep hill, the last rays of sunset licked Vourvoulos’s lofty castle walls while necklaces of red-tiled roofs clung to the cliffs below. He pulled the small car off the road and grabbed his binoculars. His socks collected burrs as he trudged through the dried weeds to stand as close to the cliff’s edge as he dared in the gusting wind. Through the binoculars, Nick slowly panned the houses spilling down to the water’s edge. From a mile away, he couldn’t make out much detail, but after too many hours flying economy class, he was just glad to know that somewhere in that tangle of stone buildings was a bed with his name on it. He heard the putt-putt-putt of a motor and spotted a fishing boat aiming for the village’s small port. Shifting the binoculars, he searched beyond Vourvoulos’s headland for the black speck of an approaching raft silhouetted against Turkey’s distant shore. Nick didn’t expect to see one. The refugees usually arrived at dawn not sunset, and with winter approaching, their numbers had started to drop; though the traffickers would ensure that they didn’t stop altogether. Misery drove their business, and a few refugees drowned in the narrow channel wouldn’t change that. Nick was still looking for rafts when he smelled the smoke. The wind carried it to him. He panned the village again, looking for its source and saw nothing. Then he scanned the cove-dotted shoreline. At first he mistook the flames for the sunset’s reflection off a limestone outcropping, but with a second look, he saw the wind pushing the fire quickly uphill in the dry brush. A gust sent sparks into the tops of the tall trees overhanging a lone house. In its yard, a dog, barking frantically, strained at its leash. Nick sprinted back to his car.
Genre Fiction
Author Website https://www.timothyjaysmith.com
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Email smithtimothyjay@gmail.com