Fondas Ladis: Men and Mannequins or “When the murder is committed at the end of the story!”

 “What’s a murder nowadays, anyway?” These words, uttered by the hero in one of Dashiell Hammett’s novels, are quoted in Fondas Ladis’ book Men and Mannequins, published in Greece by ‘Exandas’ Publishing House.

The book contains seven adventures of Detective Phoebus Black. They are short stories that revolve around the singular personality of the private eye, and strike a new chord in the detective story genre. While in most stories, the crime is committed in the beginning or the middle of the narrative, Phoebus Black’s adventures — as is usually the case with life itself — end with a crime.

It is the first book by a Greek writer to be included in the ‘Noir’ series which has published Chandler, Chase and other well-known authors of serious detective fiction.

The short stories in Men and Mannequins are adaptable to the small or large screen. Some have already been translated into English.