David Hart
The book centers around the Country of Greece. With its Prime minister trying to take advantage of their external debt, he partners with Germany and Russia to give them exclusive mining rights of the Aegean region with the aim of enriching their own personal pockets. Unfortunately for them, the CIA infiltrates Greece’s cabinet and tries everything in their power to stop the Prime minister from going on with his selfish plan. Rape of the Aegean is my first read from Philip Cooper and I must say he really put out a unique and wonderful piece.
Xenakis made the story more relatable as his character showed us how greedy and selfish the average human can be. Philip did a good job in his personality build up thereby making him the main villain of the story. Hence I would say he was a very important character in the book.
I loved the way Philip with his knowledge about finance tried to explain things concerning trading and the rise and fall in prices of currency pairs. Also he did give great details on Greece culture and monuments which to me, added more value to the story.
The storyline and plot twist is another thing that kept me hooked into this book. I loved the way Philip provided us -the readers- with background information of all the major characters. It brought their different roles to life and helped me relate more to them, Alex in particular.
English people like me might find it a little difficult to pronounce the many Greek names mentioned in the book. I don’t think the dates and months at the beginning of each chapter was necessary because in reality, the reader won’t be able to keep count of them all. Because of the X-Rated chapters, the book would be limited for people at 18 years and above. There were still some mysterious happenings at the end which were not so easy to comprehend and I honestly wished that Philip would have explained better especially during Alex’s handover as Prime minister and the broker of the deal with CIA.
The book embraced a whole lot of culture from Greece, takes a little dive into Trading Economics and also entertains the reader with action and suspense filled scenes. People who are into politics, mystery, tourism and action will find the book insightful. With that said I will rate the book four out of five stars and look forward to getting my hands on more works by Philip.