Solomou 30 Series

Built in 1962 along with many of the other concrete housing blocks in Exarcheia, Athens, Solomou 30 was almost indistinguishable from its neighbours on either side. It had five floors of identically arranged apartments, tapering up towards the top floors where there was a penthouse apartment and beneath it two larger apartments with enviably sized balconies. There was a dusty shop on the ground-floor pavement side whose window was piled with computer hardware boxes that had faded in the sun.

The upper floors of the building extended over the street, supported on tall square concrete pillars. The space between the pillars provided shelter to passers-by from sun or rain, as well as dark areas for them to urinate in on their way home from the bars on the square, lending the area its distinctive aroma. The pillars were thickly papered with wordy political posters printed in tiny fonts.

Following a long hiatus during which riots were a regular occurrence in the area, the police had reasserted their presence in the neighbourhood, focused on maintaining the physical integrity of their persons, the tourists and the construction machinery brought in to establish the civilising influence of a metro station. Preventing or investigating everyday crime was relegated to some undefined time in the future. Diamond-like, glass from smashed car windows glistened in the road.

Solomou 30 is like every other apartment block in the neighbourhood, but its inhabitants are unique. The discovery of a dead body in the entrance hall sets off a chain of events which will transform them into a transnational crime-solving machine which is not exactly legal in itself...

Disclaimer: The real Solomou 30 is quite different, and probably there are no murders there.