Alexander Marriott's Blog

One of my two greatest friends in the world, and long-time editing partner, Daniel Roberts has a great new podcast for serious readers–and writers–of all manner of literature. I have been a guest multiple times, but don’t let that put you off!

Many of the guests are big time writers and industry insiders–and one of Dan’s listeners wrote intro and outro music for the pod, which is awesome!

Check out my appearances and all the other episodes here: The Dad Lit Podcast – Podcast – Apple Podcasts

Episode 1: Interview with Alex Marriott (Author & Dad Lit Triple Threat) by The Dad Lit Podcast

Episode 14: Another Interview with Alex Marriott (Dad Lit Triple Threat) by The Dad Lit Podcast

On Saturday, July 26, we had our launch for Virgil Colvin’s second adventure, Murder with a Glass of Malvasia, at Houston’s iconic mystery and thriller bookstore, Murder by the Book.

https://www.murderbooks.com/Marriott

The event went very well–we had a great turnout and sold a lot of books. Really good Q&A. Can’t wait for the next one!

“Jesus Christ,” I said to myself, “what have I gotten myself into? What am I doing here?” I stared up at Mytikas, the highest of the two peaks atop Mount Olympus in northeastern Greece. At 9,572 feet, Mytikas is the easier of the two, but the final approach requires ropes, clips, and the ability to do some very steep scrambling without suffering vertigo or otherwise freaking out. As my guide prepared the ropes for the final ascent, I couldn’t help but ponder what would become of my wife and children if I suffered some manner of catastrophe here at this most dangerous part of the journey. What was I trying to prove on this quest of physical and spiritual fulfilment anyhow? The guide, Dimitrios, began climbing. I was to follow once the rope became taught and began to tug at my end. There was no running away. After the suffering of the previous day, and the suffering to come, I waited—pondering my mortality in a way that I have never really pondered it. I usually don’t really care about the fact that I will die one day. It is a fact of reality. It will happen. There are things I can do to put it off and I try to do many of them. But, at the end of the day, ‘live the best life you can’ is my usual credo. Here, as I watched Dimitrios spring from rock to rock like an agile old Greek goat, I felt a fear of death that was quite novel. The tug arrived. I began to climb.

***

The previous morning was filled with anxiety, excitement, and trepidation. We were going to climb Olympus! My friends and I had journeyed from Texas for this purpose—and for a general vacation in Greece to celebrate life and my 40th birthday. My wife and son would arrive a couple of days after we summitted, but everything that morning was last minute prep. Did I have a proper buff for when we got past the tree line? No. Should I really carry a bottle of Metaxa all the way to the overnight lodge? Probably not, but ‘yes’ anyway. Did we have enough water? Maybe? Would the guide actually show up? Fingers crossed.

Echoes of the previous night were still with me. I had been out with Chase (not his real name—or is it?) too late to drink and try to gin ourselves up for the hike to the summit lodge in the morning. Ironically, we stuck to beer and brandy. We were taking turns encouraging each other while bemoaning the prospects facing Jason (again, is that his real name—who knows?) who had not been with us during the various training sessions throughout the spring and early summer. We had gone on hikes and walks under the burden of weight for miles and miles with unpleasant conditions of one sort or another. We even strapped packs and did the stairs outside the Museum of Fine Arts—Houston in the rain, over and over and over. It was far more fun than it sounds, seriously! But Jason had always balked. He hadn’t been with us during any of the joint training sessions. Jason had been all bravado and assurance in the months leading to the trip, but his concern for what was coming became palpable as the trip actually got closer and closer. He was fairly openly predicting his own demise. How would he do in the morning? We could only guess.

To add to the worry on this front, Jason had announced a chronic and incurable back condition only a couple of months before we landed in Athens. Weight loss would help, but this otherwise irreversible diagnosis would be with us on the climb to the summit. Another thing to ponder as we drank in one of the lovely round-about plazas of Litochoro the night before we were to begin the climb to the seat of the twelve Olympian gods and goddesses.

Chase didn’t look great, but I had seen him worse. He was recovering from a serious Cancer diagnosis more than a year before as well as the heroic and experimental treatment he had undergone to survive. Despite all this, he never wavered from the goal of surmounting the home of the Olympians. His ascent had become, in large part, my motivation for continuing the effort in the first place. Given the ringer the guy had been through, he looked good enough.

***

When I conceived this scheme in January 2022, I was about to turn 38. I had returned the previous July from a three-week journey of renewal and exploration undertaken in the midst of a slow COVID recovery in the land of the Hellenes. I was alone and recently divorced. It was the most splendid trip of my life and much needed. I was jazzed especially by Mt. Olympus. I had gone there mostly to hike, check it out, and otherwise play it by ear. Instead, I fell in love. The whole thing was enchanting. The beautiful beaches just down the road from the slopes; the great bars and restaurants by the sea; the delightful gyro at a restaurant in Litochoro; the fantastic goat dish at the Prionia taverna, the literal end of the road if you’re going to drive up Mt. Olympus; the stunning hike that preceded the goat from Litochoro to Prionia, taking about six hours over 10 kilometers and about 600 meters of elevation; and, the cold and refreshing Enipeas River flowing from Olympus to the town of Litochoro. Quite simply, everything about it. It was one of the true highlights of the trip–as my friends would come to know since I didn’t stop talking about it once I was back home.

But while the July 2021 trip to Greece was an individual quest to claim the country back for myself, practice my Greek, and otherwise see a host of things I wanted/needed to see; this 2024 trip would be something to share. So, to that end, I invited the friends I thought most up for what I had in mind—a grandiose two-week voyage of sailing, sightseeing, and mountaineering that would begin in Athens and the Saronic Gulf before heading to Olympus and then, finally, Crete. The response was silence from some, wifely vetoes from others, and unbridled enthusiasm from the start from Chase and Jason.

In the meantime, I met the woman who turned out to be the love of my life. We had a beautiful baby girl, we got married, and we settled into raising two wonderful children together (she brought her son from her first marriage to my life—one of the greatest gifts I never could have expected). Chase got gravely ill and then underwent a wildly experimental treatment. And my father had an emergency quadruple bypass only a few months before the trip. Mortality was in the air?

Which is all to say, the fact that the trip survived at all is a testament to Chase’s perseverance and will to live, Jason’s enthusiasm, my stubbornness, and my wife’s generous sense of life that allowed this to move forward. The trip had to shrink however to a more economical and shorter excursion that allowed everyone to settle in Athens after the flight, get up the mountain, and then relax on Crete for several days. My wife and son would fly into Crete to meet us the day that we arrived there and enjoy the remainder of the trip with us.

So now you know the plan. Chase, Jason, and I all rolled into Litochoro after being in country for a couple of days. Our loved ones were all following the trip from the States, hoping we wouldn’t all be horribly injured on the mountain. While I was celebrating my 40th birthday year, Jason was halfway to fifty, and Chase was already well past that milestone. We enjoyed some beach time and a fine dinner and lots of wine at a great place right on the sea called Medusa’s. It was Jason’s first time abroad–aside from his dread of the morning, he seemed to be enjoying himself, and that made me happy.

Chase and I enjoyed the aforementioned nightcap before the next day arrived. Finally, we had to climb. Dimitrios nearly flaked entirely by forgetting which day we were climbing. Living across the country in Petras, he realized his mistake at the last possible moment and hauled ass from the early morning to arrive only marginally off schedule–in the best of moods. When Dimitrios arrived to take us to the starting place for the climb, he asked about our water—while simultaneously talking about the weather and his dire expectations that it would rain and we couldn’t afford for it to rain and therefore must get to the refuge as quickly as possible. Aside from the annoyance of the late guy talking to us about getting a move on, the water was important. We had plenty of reusable water bottles but I assumed we would be starting at the taverna where I already knew there was a delightful fountain to fill up on water. Dimitrios, however, wanted to start the hike hours ago and planned to begin at an easier point on the road, before reaching the taverna. He groused as we drove past the starting point and arrived for the water. He thought we needed bottles and went inside while we went to the fountain I had promised and filled up our canteens and metallic water bottles. When he came out, you could tell this miscommunication had only further annoyed him. I obligingly stuffed two of his 1-liter water bottles into my bag, next to the Metaxa, and we drove back to the starting point.

At this point, I would like to turn this over to my journal from the trip and allow the remainder of the climb to be told through my real-time words (commentary on some of what I wrote will appear bracketed, in red):

Day 1 – July 25, 2024

Then the climbing finally commenced. The first leg was 3.5 miles and took us roughly 1000 meters to the first refuge. [Jason] called it and walked back to Prionia for a cab 18 minutes in. He declared he was in way over his head and who could say he was wrong[?] [Chase] continued but at an uncharacteristically slow pace and with sticks—which I haven’t seen him use before. We waited for him a few times and at one point I could see from his face that something really wasn’t right with him. I hadn’t seen the look since one of his final lunches before the surgery… But we made it to the first refuge where I could check in with [my wife, my sister, and Jason]. [Jason] had made it back to Prionia where he had the world’s best goat stew (I know, I had it three years ago).

When [Chase] arrived I asked if he would be able to continue on. He said he was spent and would remain at the refuge. It was sad to part ways with my training companion, but I wanted him to be comfortable and safe more than anything. We hugged before Demetrios and I commenced our 2.5 hour, 3.5 mile march to the second refuge, which was very scenic—breathtakingly so—that is, if I had breath. The second half was so much more difficult than the first with extremely steep portions that seemed impossible when you looked at the entirety of what section you were on. Demetrios was very encouraging and seemed pleased with our pace. But I was finally feeling the effects of the exertion, especially as we gained altitude. It became noticeably harder to get enough air. One plus was the first appearance of the Olympus goats which are remarkable creatures that more resemble deer. The first summit led into a lovely respite of a saddle before switchback climbing up to the next peak that would allow us to see the muses’ plateau. The last part of getting to that peak was a five meter climb up the rocks with the help of an embedded steel cable. This might have been the most obviously dangerous part of the climb and I will not be using it on the way down. [I most certainly did use it! It was faster than the alternative and required far fewer steps–and on the descent, far fewer steps was an important consideration.] Then we were in the Muses’ Plateau, which is a beautiful meadow overlooked by one of the peaks of Olympus (Zeus’s Throne) which we could not see clearly before reaching the refuge. Then a fork in the road and a final climb to the refuge. Here my left thigh began to get a little stiff. But we made it! [And it never rained, not once. The weather was actually perfect.]

The refuge is fascinating, but I’m too tired to write more now and am going to bed. Summit is tomorrow morning.

Day 1 continued

The refuge is a substantial two (possible three) story building made of thick brick walls—gray (dark) with hints of rust. The meal Dimitrios arranged of beer (ΝΥΜΘΗ) from Thessaloniki and pasta with Bolognese and cheese, with paprika spices added on top was a delicious capstone to a long day. Pistachios we bought in Aegina proved a nice dessert. The bottle of Metaxa I lugged up was of no interest to Dimitrios, but kept me warm as I journaled while surrounded by my intrepid fellow climbers—most of whom seem a bit older than me. Why is this? [And, like Dimitrios, who told me he was in his 60s, they were in fantastic shape. They may not have been on their 13th climb of Olympus that year, as Dimitrios was, but they probably could have managed it better than me!]

Eventually I retired to a surprisingly warm bed for what passed for sleep that was further interrupted by a few trips to the bathroom. One of those trips saw me tumble out the steps of the front door, tweaking my left ankle a bit and scratching up my left hand while I tried to break my fall. I did save my head/face—with whatever dignity therein contained.

Day 2 – July 26, 2024

I woke up before Dimitrios to get some coffee, brush my teeth, and apply some deodorant. My climbing shirt and buff seemed mostly dry so I put them back on. It is windy and foggy on the mountain as of 7:22 AM. Got some good pictures before the fog got thicker. No cell reception since yesterday afternoon. Hope everyone is OK and not too worried about me.

We will summit and then head down. I hope [Chase] will have waited for us at the first refuge.

Day 2 continued

The summit was amazing and quite the scariest thing I’ve ever done physically. The hike around Stefani was no issue and then we climbed the rocks to reach the peak of M[ytikas]. I’ve never done anything like this before. It wasn’t [as] hard as the day before, but it was almost certainly more dangerous. The summit was thrilling, but the view was utterly obscured in fog (the price to be paid for the great conditions on the first day, I suppose). We then proceeded down back to the second refuge. Somehow, it wasn’t scarier than the climb up—which was quite surprising. Maybe because I was so focused on the next clip in point? Whatever the reason, I did not find it as obviously terrifying as you might think.

We then hiked back to the refuge to rest, drink coffee, and repack before the descent back to the car. Once we proceeded, the descent quickly asserted itself as a menace as every muscle I didn’t use the day before suddenly engaged—and then some. Thank god for the trekking poles to relieve some of the force from my ankles, knees, and legs—transferring it to my arms and shoulders. By the time we made it to the first refuge, my feet were concrete blocks, my legs were jelly, and my arms were aching. [Chase] was not there, he had hiked down to Prionia—the cell coverage allowed me to check-in with everyone before changing socks, having a Coke, and a πορτοκαλαδα . Then, the final descent to the car before heading back to Litochoro. [Chase] was not waiting for us, so we headed back to Litochoro where I parted ways with Dimitrios and walked back up to the hotel where I found an almost naked [Jason] who had his own bizarre adventures in Prionia and in Litochoro. I showered and quickly discovered [Chase] was still in Prionia. We then got in touch with him to get a cab so we could all be back together.

Before moving on to what we all did when we were reunited, I should probably reflect on this achievement of summiting Mt. Olympus. I conceived this as a project in early 2022 before I knew [my daughter] was coming mostly as a way to visit Greece again, but also as a mechanism to bring friends together and have a serious physical goal attached to what we were doing (especially given how important travelling to Greece is for my own physical fitness story). When I plotted it, I don’t think I appreciated the difficulties involved in actually climbing a mountain, especially physically. It was intense and at times frightening. I am proud and in disbelief about having done it, but I don’t have any intense desire to do anything like it again. I kept thinking during the summit of something happening to me and not being there for my beautiful family—my real loves. That made me mad at myself for being in such a risky spot. I will continue to process this and discuss it with [my wife]. Right now, one day on, my quadriceps are killing me. [And two days on, and three, and four…]

That pain lasted through most of Crete. The glow of the climb is still with me. It is not easily reducible to words, so I won’t try much more here. Suffice it to say, no amount of Metaxa could obscure it.

What of Chase and Jason? Well, Jason got to Prionia for the goat stew (as did Chase, the following day) and then hitched a cab back to the hotel in Litochoro where he was feted for lunch by a couple of local γιαγιάδες. They used a translator app on John’s phone to communicate and had a glorious time. [Chase] continued to rest miserably at the first refuge. He found the pasta Bolognese as delightful as I did—unfortunately, he got to taste it twice. He made it to the car before heading to Prionia to wait at the taverna. He thought that Dimitrios and I would head that way for him, but we assumed he already hitched a cab to Litochoro. I should have known that Prionia, with its cast of characters, delightful goat stew, ice-cold beer, and [Chase’s] own legendary gift for gab would combine to anchor him there. Fortunately, [Chase] merely took the episode as yet another reason to dislike Dimitrios. That is a story for another day.

What did I learn—and what have I reflected on over the last year? I learned that my family—most especially my wife—are the most important things in my world. It isn’t close. Despite my sudden transition into the life of a parent, and my own hasty and imperfect retreat from the habits and outlook of the single, childless man, I don’t want any other kind of life than the one I enjoy every day with them. Showing Greece, this country I love, to my wife and son was a true joy and I hope they still remember it as vividly as I do! At least, until I find a way to get us all back there…

I learned that I have the most amazing friends. The ones that didn’t make it to Greece, and the ones that did. It was a joy to explore places I hadn’t seen before with them by my side, to show them some of my favorite haunts, to help them with the locals, and otherwise bask in their camaraderie and good-will.

I learned that Greece is magic. I don’t mean that in the sense of a Harry Potter incantation, a Penn & Teller performance, or some manner of necromancy or hocus-pocus. I mean it in a far more real and far more profound sense. And I don’t mean that it is universal magic for everyone—I am quite aware that some might find it dirty, smelly, small, loud, annoying, poor, distasteful, incomprehensible, obnoxious, and otherwise baffling. What I mean is that it has the power, in mere seconds, to reverse years of stress, anxiety, and ennui. It can, in a matter of days, provide years’ worth of fuel to pursue one’s dreams with a renewed determination even as reverses and obstacles delay or divert your course.

Simply, it has the power to make you smile. When you see the Parthenon from the top of your Airbnb apartment building; when you watch your friend on the ferry seated next to a man who rolls twenty tiny cigarettes in high wind and smokes them all instantly; when you bite into your first order of grilled octopus; when you have your first café freddo in the morning; when you watch your buddies hilariously order American hamburgers at a highway rest-stop only to listen to them complain for the next fifteen minutes in the car about how bad they are; when you eat endless amounts of sardines that you never knew were possible; when you get to that ruin in Aegina you’ve always wanted to see; when you watch everyone in the refuge under the summit of Olympus celebrating that they made it; when you see your wife in Chania after too many days without her; when you enjoy your best meal with friends at a locals favorite in Heraklion; when you and your son prowl around an empty Phaistos and an absurdly crowded Knossos; when you’re plan to drive up Mt. Ida to tour the cave where a young Zeus grew up is scotched by an overstuffed tiny car, a steep gravel road, and a friend who screams out “we’re all gonna die!”; when you are in a peaceful bit of azure water one day, and the most delightfully violent beach the next; when you discover a new wine that you know you won’t find back home; and when you spend your final day learning about the olive business before enjoying a local vineyard. It is magic. Perhaps it wears off? I don’t know how. I don’t want to know how. It still hasn’t worn off yet.

I learned that while death is inevitable (and scarier than I previously gave it credit for), it is life that is also inevitable. What isn’t inevitable is how good or bad that life will be. What isn’t inevitable is how present and alive we are in that life. Those non-inevitabilities are choices; things we decide on, things we pursue, things we want, things we do. Did I need to climb Mt. Olympus? Certainly, I did not. But life isn’t always about doing things only because you need to do them. Sometimes, you must do things simply because you conceive that they are important to your living a full, engaging, interesting, fun, and enjoyable life. Having such a life is not inevitable—you need to go out and get it. That’s what I was doing on the slopes of Olympus in July 2024, one year ago.

What will I do next? Oh, something a bit less dramatic, I’m sure. But it surely will be something—something engaging, something interesting, something fun, something enjoyable, and surely something fulfilling. Why not? What’s stopping me? What’s stopping you?

Για μας!

Two new reviews are in for Murder with a Glass of Malvasia–and both are quite favorable!

Kirkus, officially telling readers to “get it,” suggests Colvin’s second adventure is worthy of your consideration: “A well-established setting enriches this unhurried but worthwhile whodunit.”

Read the entire review here: MURDER WITH A GLASS OF MALVASIA | Kirkus Reviews

Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer over at Midwest Book Review similarly suggests that Murder with a Glass of Malvasia “excels in a plot that is rich in possibility and the unexpected.”

Read her entire review on August 10 over here at Midwest Book Review: MBR: MBR Bookwatch Index

And, of course, get your copy of Murder with a Glass of Malvasia today!

The School of Homer and Murder with a Glass of Malvasia are published in Cambridge, UK, so readers there are actually at ground zero for Virgil Colvin mysteries!

If you’re in the UK, check out these venues to order your copies today!

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott

Amazon UK

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott | Waterstones

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott | Foyles

Browns UK

Alexander Marriott · Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery (Paperback Book) (2025)

If you’re interested in waiting for the lottery to strike for a free print copy of Murder with a Glass of Malvasia–(and hopefully a nice rating and review for the author!)–you have two final opportunities at Goodreads.com and LibraryThing.

LibraryThing – Book Giveaway for Murder with a Glass of Malvasia by Alexander Marriott

Giveaway ends July 31, 2025.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Good luck!

And if you don’t want to wait or find yourself empty handed in August, you can get Murder with a Glass of Malvasia in all of these places!

https://a.co/d/fzJT3Ud

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery (Paperback) | Murder By The Book

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia a book by Alexander Marriott – Bookshop.org US

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott

I am pleased to announce that I will be doing a book signing event at Houston’s Murder by the Book on Saturday, July 26, at 3:00 PM.

I hope that anyone reading this, in the Houston area, will be able to make it!

Love to see you there!

The reviews are in and….

“Marriott extends this ambivalence to the narrative mood itself, evoking, with subtle precision, the friction between the laid-back charm of Greek island life and its lurking, uneasy anxieties around power, protest, and politics. Leaning into the particularities of island culture—the rituals of hospitality, the fraught local loyalties, and the Greek reverence for memory and myth—Marriott builds a mystery that feels intricately layered rather than merely plotted.” – BookLife Reviews

Read more…

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia by Alexander Marriott | BookLife

“immersive, thoroughly enjoyable and wonderfully entertaining.” – Kathy Stickles, Reader Views, 5 Stars

Read more…

“a thrilling murder mystery that captivates the reader with its intricate plot and historical depth.” – Angelique Papayannopoulos, Readers’ Favorite, 5 Stars

Read more…

Book review of Murder with a Glass of Malvasia – Readers’ Favorite: Book Reviews and Award Contest

Early reviews in Goodreads….

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott | Goodreads

Early reviews in LibraryThing….

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia | Alexander Marriott | Work | LibraryThing | LibraryThing

Virgil Colvin #2 is available for pre-order! Right now, readers can order from Pegasus Publishers directly.

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott

And… Amazon!

https://a.co/d/0BrNVW5

Also available on Kindle!

https://a.co/d/bIjwNlW

And…. Barnes and Noble!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/?ean=9781836710417

And…. Murder by the Book

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery (Paperback) | Murder By The Book

If you’re in the UK, you can order here:

https://amzn.eu/d/627R6kh – Amazon UK

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott | Waterstones

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Alexander Marriott | Foyles

Murder with a Glass of Malvasia: A Virgil Colvin Mystery by Marriott, Alexander (9781836710417) | Browns Books

I am now a member of MWA–Mystery Writers of America! This is a great honor and a big step in my ongoing side-career as a mystery writer. With Murder with a Glass of Malvasia‘a upcoming release, I am pretty excited to continue the journey!

Mystery Writers of America – Crime doesn’t pay… enough.