After the Games

In which I describe the book I want you to write, which will have a far better title that the one above.

This week's Thursday News of the Absurd Will Someone Please Write This Book Inspirational Moment (TNoftheAWSPWTBIM) focuses on where I want your next book to be set.

From Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports:

Beijing Trumps Athens...and Then Some

Apparently, the pundits* are impressed with Beijing's handling of the Olympics, and how the Chinese used the Olympics to create structures that will continue to serve the city. Athens, in contrast, is apparently not doing as well:

"Four years since the Athens Games, a Greek tragedy is taking place. Incredibly, many of the 22 Olympic venues now lie abandoned, as a sad and litter-strewn reminder of sport’s greatest festival.

Gypsy camps have sprung up in the shadow of stadiums where the world’s finest athletes once battled for gold. Graffiti is scrawled over the outer walls of many sites, and it has been reported in Greece that upward of $1 billion has been spent simply to maintain these ugly wrecks."

Sad, I know. But will someone please write me a mystery set in Athens post-Olympics??? I want Blue Balliet's Chasing Vermeer, but scarier. Make it set in modern times, but with shadowy hints that the ancients are involved. Make Greek mythology and history central to solving the mystery.

Mostly, I want a spooky abandoned arena with baffling graffiti and definitely rats. Give me the main character exposed and alone in the middle of the field at twilight as his pursuers gather in the stands. He can't see them because stands are in shadows, though a fading golden sun still lights the field. He can't hear them because the gypsies outside are too loud, speaking in a language he doesn't understand that joins with the whispers of the ghosts of the ancients to form a modern Greek chorus singing his doom...

Will someone please write me this book? And it will be called... Oh, my title muse is nowhere to be found. Ideas in the comments, please!

*You know, all those experts on post-Olympic status of a city as compared to its rivals.