Vanessa Gordon Books in Order

Returning to Naxos during its literary festival, archaeologist Martin Day discovers a visiting novelist's burned body beside an ancient bronze horse. Family connections and a troubled conscience draw him into an investigation whose explanation may lie in a shared past.

Hoping for a quieter life on Naxos, archaeologist Martin Day researches a local historian's concealed obsession. A hotel murder and suspected antiquities smuggling pull him into a second inquiry, where his disbelief in the victim's guilt challenges the official explanation.

An elderly visitor anticipating a reunion connected to his first love apparently takes his own life. Archaeologist Martin Day suspects murder, and threats against the man's sculptor friend make uncovering the truth more urgent than settling questions about the past.

Martin Day's former lover arrives on Naxos seeking help, then vanishes before explaining her problem. With police unwilling to investigate, he follows a local legend about a lost artifact, risking his settled life to discover where she has gone.

Recipes and anecdotes introduce the food traditions of Naxos and the Cyclades, including local ingredients and ways to cook abroad. A Martin Day mystery story and food-centered passages from the novels connect the region's dishes with Gordon's fictional world.

Martin Day agrees to help investigate suspected antiquities trafficking while lecturing at a luxurious Naxos villa. Moving among wealthy festival patrons offers a distraction from personal troubles, until deaths turn an apparently comfortable assignment into a dangerous search for hidden dealings.

A decades-old body and buried antiquities draw archaeologist Martin Day to an abandoned house in Apiranthos. Traveling around the Cyclades brings further possibilities, but solving the skeleton's identity threatens people determined to keep the house's history concealed.