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Snatch is Rennie Airth's 1969 debut, set among the English expatriate community in Greece during the colonels' junta. A businessman's young daughter is kidnapped from her family's villa, and the investigation pulls in the British embassy, the local police, and the kind of murky political element that Greek thrillers of the era leaned on.
Airth's journalism background is visible. The Athens scenes have the kind of texture that you only get from someone who has spent time at certain cafes during certain political seasons. The kidnap plot is solidly handled. The book occasionally tells where it should show, in the way 60s thrillers often did, and the family material is less developed than it would be in the John Madden books decades later.
Three stars. Recommended primarily for Airth completists or readers interested in the politically charged 60s/70s Greek thriller tradition.
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