The Threshing Circle

On the Greek island of Crete, traditions run deep and there are often secrets that are best left buried. Weaving myth and magic, history and adventure, The Threshing Circle is a powerful exploration of honour, betrayal and revenge.

Visitors Eleni and Patrick seek to uncover the story of a beautiful English woman who was executed on the island during the 1940s Nazi occupation. Their questions begin to unpick a web of forbidden love, betrayal and greed, murder and vendettas. Then they vanish.

A feisty Scottish woman and an irascible, Zorba-like Greek form a reluctant and unlikely alliance in a race to find them. The journey leads them to remote villages abandoned after decades of vendetta, hidden rituals and characters good and evil. Very soon though, the hunters become the hunted, as the murderous family behind the original crime seek to remove all threats to their honour and position of power.

Revised edition: This edition of The Threshing Circle includes editorial revisions.

Neil Grimmett was born in Birmingham. After being expelled from school at 14, he spent the next decade on the road and in recording studios playing the drums with various rock bands. He has also worked making high explosives at a top secret establishment for the Ministry of Defence; as a gamekeeper for minor aristocracy; as a professional handler of show dogs; and as a teacher of creative literature.

He has published more than 85 short stories in anthologies and journals including London Magazine, Strand, The Yale Review, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, as well as online at Blackbird, Web Del Sol, and The Dublin Quarterly, to name just a few.

He has won seven Oppenheim John Downes awards, five major British Arts Council awards, a Royal Society of Authors award, and the Write On poetry award. His work has made the storySouth Million Writers Notable Short Story list for the last three years.

Neil lives in north Somerset with his wife Lisa.