Death at the Olive Press

About the Book

Everyone wants to build a dream house.   What could be better than restoring a picturesque, century-old olive press on a captivating Greek island?

Alexis Davidov, teacher at an American school in Athens, soon discovers the trials of house restoration when crude and greedy neighbors harass her in ingenious ways to force her to buy their land.  The feud with her neighbors becomes lethal when one of  them turns up dead -- his corpse planted near her home to frame her for murder.

In jail, Alexis makes up her mind  to figure out who's behind the vicious plot.  Once freed from jail, she pursues a crime trail that lands her in the clutches of menacing smugglers.  She must outwit both the petty criminals who do the dirty work and the powerful Athenian mastermind

Desperately needing help in unraveling the conspiracy against her, Alexis turns to Theo Argiros, her Greek Albanian stonemason.  Her collaborator on the restoration, Theo evolves from workman to lover.  The relationship of Alexis, a foreigner, and Theo, an immigrant, meets with disapproval from many elements of Greek society.  That doesn't stop Alexis, who follows her heart to get to the bottom of the story and to make a connection to an unusual human being.

Here's what authors have said about Death at the Olive Press:

"Ellen Boneparth has written an intelligent,  thrilling story with guts, but without gratuitous violence.  Her unconventional characters and exotic settings expand the genre of the  murder mystery."

        Alexis Masters, The Giuliana Legacy

"A philhellene but without blinders, Ellen Boneparth reveals her intimate knowledge and deep love of Greece on every page."

                                                Eleni Fourtouni, Greek Women in Resistance

"I was drawn to Alexis Davidov because of her passion, intelligence and integrity.  Ellen Boneparth's depiction of Greek life is vivid and deeply satisfying.

               Dr. Mara Keller

                          Director, Women's Spirituality Program, CIIS

REVIEWS

From THE SONOMA COUNTY INDEPENDENT, September 14-20, 2000

Death at the Olive Press

Ellen Boneparth is a former U.S. diplomat to Greece.  Now a part-time

resident of Santa Rosa, Boneparth spends her summers on a small Greek

island, where her home is...an olive press.  An ancient edifice that has

been fully restored, the olive press has now become her inspiration.

DEATH AT THE OLIVE PRESS is not the Agatha Christie knockoff the title

suggests.  With simple, uncluttered prose and authentic sounding

dialogue, the author weaves a tale of Alexis Davidoff, an expatriate

American who attempts to restore an old olive press while enduring

harassment from a handful of unfriendly locals.  When she is framed for

murder, Alexis fights to save her own life and keep her adopted home. --

D.T.

From KATHEMERINI -- ARTS & LEISURE

ATHENS, Thursday, September 14, 2000

Love and death at the olive press

Author and habitue of Greece, Ellen Boneparth launches a romantic

thriller

of treachery and

intrigue

        Wordsmith. Author Ellen Boneparth inside the renovated olive

press

on the Greek

        island she has made her second home.

By Jena Woodhouse

Kathimerini English Edition

For many foreigners whose travels lead them to Greece, this country comes

to represent an elusive but

persistent dream. Seduced by its physical beauty and the aura of an ideal

(though perhaps id

About the Author

for softcover:Ellen Boneparth has had a deep connection to Greece for over twenty years -- as director of women’s studies programs, former U.S. diplomat, and writer of fiction. She spends summers living in her restored olive press and winters in Santa Rosa, California, marveling how “Greece mysteriously slips into all my writing.” for hardcover:Ellen Boneparth has been deeply connected to Greece for over twenty years as Director of the International Women’s Studies Institute with programs throughout Greece, former diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Athens in the 1980s, and writer of fiction. A former academic, she has taught political science and women’s studies, and worked in university administration at San Jose State University and the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Her book, Women, Power and Policy appeared in two editions, Pergamon Press, 1982 and 1988 (with Emily Stoper). She has recently begun writing fiction -- from suspense to women’s fiction to historical fiction --and marvels how “Greece mysteriously slips into all my writing.” She spends summers on a Greek island living in an olive press which she and her husband, Jim Wilkinson, converted to a home and winters in Santa Rosa, California.