For lovers of crime fiction and the allure of the Greek islands, Fire on the Island is the perfect summer read.  ** "Smith offers the perfect blend of intrigue, romance, and travelogue." — Publishers Weekly **  FIRE ON THE ISLAND is a playful, romantic thriller set in contemporary Greece, with a gay Greek-American FBI agent, who is undercover on the island to investigate a series of mysterious fires. Set against the very real refugee crisis on the beautiful, sun-drenched Greek islands, this novel paints a loving portrait of a community in crisis. As the island residents grapple with declining tourism, poverty, refugees, family feuds, and a perilously damaged church, an arsonist invades their midst.   Nick Damigos, the FBI agent, arrives on the island just in time to witness the latest fire and save a beloved truffle-sniffing dog. Hailed as a hero and embraced by the community, Nick finds himself drawn to Takis, a young bartender who becomes his primary suspect, which is a problem because they’re having an affair. Theirs is not the only complicated romance in the community and Takis isn’t the only suspicious character on the island. The priest is an art forger, a young Albanian waiter harbors a secret, the captain of the coast guard station seems to have his own agenda, and the village itself hides a violent history. Nick has to unravel the truth in time to prevent catastrophe, as he comes to terms with his own past trauma. In saving the village, he will go a long way toward saving himself.   A long time devotee of the Greek islands, Smith paints the setting with gorgeous color and empathy, ushering in a new romantic thriller with the charm of   Zorba the Greek  while shedding bright light on the very real challenges of life in contemporary Greece.   "This book is a thriller, but it also boasts an almost travelogue feel too - and then there's the romance, threading through everything and creating a cozy glow even in the face of fires, tragedy and - yikes - spiders! It's a tough ask for a writer to combine all of these elements and create a satisfying reading experience, but Timothy Jay Smith deserves a pat on the back for pulling it off with aplomb." -- Crime Fiction Lover "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 "The author does a good job of creating a vivid cast of characters, and several of them make for plausible suspects - even the village priest! Your suspicions veer from one suspect to another, and then back again, as the plot cleverly works itself out. The book works because all the characters are credible, their backgrounds and behaviour believable, and the Greek island setting totally convincing. Highly recommended." -- Greece Travel Secrets "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! An engaging summer read for the travel-deprived, all the more transporting in our confined times." -- Athens Insider "The book is told in a bunch of different perspectives of various people that live in this village and I think it was perfectly blended to facilitate one good storyline. It's like a puzzle that you are slowing putting together and trying to figure out what that end picture will look like and when you finally do, it's not what you expected but you still like it none the less." -- Breakeven Books Tim has traveled the world collecting stories and characters for his novels and screenplays which have received high praise. Fire on the Island won the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel. He won the Paris Prize for Fiction for his first book, A Vision of Angels . Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012. Tim was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize for his short fiction, "Stolen Memories." His recent novel, The Fourth Courier received tremendous reviews. His screenplays have won numerous international competitions. Tim is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater. He lives in France.