Fire on the Island - by Timothy Jay Smith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Set against the very real refugee crisis on the beautiful, sun-drenched Greek islands, Fire on the Island paints a nuanced and loving portrait of a community in crisis while shedding light on the challenges of life in contemporary Greece.

After a string of mysterious fires breaks out on a small Greek island, undercover FBI agent Nick Damigos arrives to investigate, showing up just in time to save a beloved truffle-sniffing dog from the most recent inferno. But as Nick searches for the arsonist responsible, he finds himself navigating a community rife with conflicts, some of which go back generations. As the threat of the next fire looms, Nick begins to uncover the villagers' countless buried secrets. But Nick has secrets too, and as he falls for a young bartender who becomes his prime suspect, he becomes entrenched in the very mystery he's trying to solve. With time running out to prevent catastrophe, will Nick expose the truth and save the village, or will the island be engulfed in a blaze of vengeance and heartbreak?

Review Quotes

"Smith offers the perfect blend of intrigue, romance, and travelogue."

- Publishers Weekly

"Smith skillfully bridges police procedural and espionage fiction, crafting a show-stealing sense of place and realistically pairing the threats of underworld crime and destabilized regimes."

- Booklist

"Timothy Jay Smith's Fire on the Island: A Romantic Thriller follows a gay Greek-American FBI agent Nick Damigos to a gorgeous town in the Greek islands to investigate a mysterious arsonist. More than the mystery of who's setting the fires and why, Smith creates a sensitive portrait of a small Greek community set against the refugee crisis and Greece's suffering economy. It's the town itself -- a chorus of voices -- that is the most compelling character and our reason for "traveling" to Greece."

- Lambda Literary Review

"Timothy Jay Smith's Fire on the Island unveils the complex layers that guise the sun-drenched, bougainvillea-tinted Greek isle, blighted by declining tourism and the seemingly intractable refugee crisis. There are family feuds and a corrupt clergy. There is racism and homophobia. But there is romance, humour and mystery too!"

- Athens Insider

"[Smith's] writing is humane, precise, relentlessly exciting. I dare you to read the opening and not want to race to the finish in one tightly held breath."
- #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Goolrick

For lovers of crime fiction and the allure of the Greek islands, Fire on the Island is the perfect summer read.

About the Author

Timothy Jay Smith was raised traveling across America in a small trailer, sparking a lifelong wanderlust that has taken him around the world and inspired the vivid, international characters in his work. His extraordinary career includes smuggling banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, navigating occupied territories, representing the United States at high diplomatic levels, and even stowing away on a "devil's barge" to Africa - experiences that inform his award-winning writing. Smith has earned top honors across novels, screenplays, and stage plays, including the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for Fire on the Island, the 2023 Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize for Istanbul Crossing, and the Paris Prize for Fiction for A Vision of Angels. His novel Cooper's Promise was named one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2012, and he was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. A dedicated playwright and theater enthusiast, his play How High the Moon won the Stanley Drama Award, and he founded the Smith Prize for Political Theater. Timothy lives in Nice, France.