The Secret of the Geometric Cemetery: Mystery in the Aegean Islands

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The hold of the Venetian Republic on the Aegean islands, Cyprus and Crete started when the Fourth Crusade was diverted by Doge Enrico Dandolo from Islamic Cairo towards the Christian metropolis of Constantinople, conquered and looted in 1204. The occupation lasted for several centuries, until the last castle in Crete, Candia, succumbed to the forces of the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim the Mad in 1669. Despite the Ottoman occupation and the dissolution of the Ducat of the Archipelago, the Aegean Islands were never densely populated by the Ottomans, who were appeased by the payment of taxes by the Venetian families who retained the commercial and financial control of the islands until the Greek state liberated and took command of the island of Naxos in 1832 respecting their property rights.
To the present day, in many of the Aegean Islands remnants of the Venetian occupation still exist in the form of medieval castles together with isolated pockets of Greek speaking Catholic communities in the midst of the main body of Christian Orthodox. Few of these families still retain part of their fortunes and properties gained during the Venetian occupation, as the Ottoman conquerors never claimed possession of the arid lands of the tiny Aegean Islands, invading the fertile soils of larger islands, like Euboea, Crete, Chios, Lesbos, Rhodes, Samos.
Today any inquisitive visitor traveling to these tiny islands scattered in the Aegean may still admire medieval castles and towns built by the Venetians, still proudly displaying the lion of Saint Mark along with various noble family insignia, remnants of an era when feudal customs and knights ruled these presently forgotten pieces of real estate. As with other commodities, the true worth of every piece of land is determined by the indisputable law of supply and demand expressing human greed much more eloquently than any specific racial, religious or political doctrine.
Nevertheless, despite the fierceness, the massive scale, and the historical significance of these past military conflicts, often a more subtle but equally determined struggle still continues among the family descendants. Its scale is minuscule, and fails to register in the world news reports, unless it exceeds in terms of violence the socially acceptable limits as prescribed by the local laws and traditions. However, even then, as the reader will realize going through the pages of this mystery novel, there are invisible forces combating full disclosure, as the preservation of order and the ‘common good’ are the supreme principles, dwarfing every other moral consideration. This is probably why the mysterious events described in this manuscript have still failed to attain the envious status of a reliable TV reportage.
In similar cases, when events cannot be easily explained by common logic, the inhabitants of this singular corner of the world, isolated from rest of the world by the erratic water element, have no other choice but to summon their own supernatural forces to combat evil. Among them the most powerful saints are, Saint Nicolas protector of the sailors from the fury of the Poseidon, Saint George the protector of the army, and Saint Dimitris prosecutor of the villains, who are all responsible for preserving the social peace.
One crucial question naturally arises as the reader travels through the pages of this mystery novel. Are the Aegean Islands a safe destination for summer vacations? Unfortunately, despite the lucrative promises of travel agencies, the answer must be negative, unless the tourist takes special care and dares to roam only upon beaten tracks, warily avoiding solitary visits to secluded remote locations where evil spirits of the past may still lurk ready to pounce on any intruder who dares to disturb their peace oblivious of their capacity to inflict terrible wounds and torturous deaths.