Murder in the Greek Isles by Wendy Church is the third book about Jesse and her friends, this one set in Greece. A last minute invitation to a conference sends them into danger again, this time chasing a Greek dissenter while trying to escape Jesse's archenemy, Svetlana. I have not read the first two and find Jesse so rude and obnoxious that I won't bother. The story line and setting in Greece make the book readable.

I read the first book in this series, Murder on the Spanish Seas, and had liked the spunky main character of Jesse. She'd had an interesting backstory and I'd enjoyed the setting of the book, so I was excited to read Murder in the Greek Isles.

In this third installment in the series, Jesse finds herself in Greece with her friends Gideon, Sam, and Tatiana for a law enforcement conference. She and Gideon are supposed to give a talk on teams working together, but after the conference, they get pulled into crime happening in Greece. At the same time, they're trying to avoid Svetlana, who returned from a previous book.

I was really hoping for more of a character-driven mystery. But while "Murder in the Greek Isles" definitely brings snappy dialogue and a fast-paced, action-packed feel, it leaned a bit more on plot than on deep character moments. There were long chunks of dialogue from characters explaining a political situation, followed by action scenes straight out of a movie like shootings and bombings--and Jesse just sort of moved through these things with snappy comebacks and clever (and convenient) solutions. It all felt really...easy? I wish there'd been room for her character to develop a bit more with some real struggle, but instead she just moves on to the next action scene, the next clever plan or convenient rescue, without much change.

There are also a couple of moments where the logic takes a big leap—for example, when Jesse reads a sales email and, thanks to its use of the word "caldera" in Pig Latin, suddenly announces they have to go to Santorini.

Still, the vivid Greek settings and overall lively tone keep the story engaging. I do think Jesse has the potential to be a really interesting character in the style of Stephanie Plum, and I'd like to see how she evolves over the series.