The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou cover art

The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou

By: Eleni Kyriacou
Narrated by: Daphne Alexander
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

They say she's a murderer. She says nothing.

London, 1954. Eva Georgiou has just returned from her shift at the glamorous Café de Paris, when she's summoned to her second job: Greek interpreter for the Metropolitan Police. There, she is tasked with representing Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot woman who has been accused of the brutal murder of her daughter-in-law who has been bludgeoned, strangled and then set alight.

Eva gets to work as Zina's translator, but her concern grows that the case may be more complicated than it seems. Then Zina changes everything when she reveals she's been accused of murder once before, years ago in Cyprus.

While Eva's obsession with the case deepens, so does her bond with Zina. And soon she will discover that when you lend your voice to an accused murderer, it comes at a devastating cost.

A compelling historical crime audiobook set in the Greek diaspora of 1950s London—that's inspired by a true story—The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is perfect for fans of Sara Collins, Eve Chase and Jessie Burton.
'Tense. Moving. Morally complex. Zina Pavlou is wholly unforgettable.' Rachel Rhys

©2023 Eleni Kyriacou (P)2023 Head of Zeus Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense World Literature Fiction England Heartfelt Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 She Came to Stay cover art
For Richer for Poorer cover art
The Foyles Bookshop Girls cover art
Heartbreak in the Valleys cover art
There's Something I Have to Tell You cover art
This Mortal Boy cover art
The Lost Orphan cover art
The Girl in the Pink Raincoat cover art
The Night She Lied cover art
What Once Was True cover art
A Mother's Sacrifice cover art
The Girl from the Workhouse cover art
No One to Hear You cover art
Mr. Churchill's Secretary cover art
The Married Couple cover art
Women at War cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I liked all the characters and how they interacted and the fact it was based on a true story

How sad it was

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narration was wonderful. Very sensitive dramatisation of a true story. The character of Zina Pavlou was brilliantly created and not sentimentalised - you wanted to like her but she kept doing or saying abrasive or strange things and yet you increasingly felt sorry for her as her story unfolded and she experienced misogyny and racism by her Greek family and community and by the British legal system. It also highlights the unscrupulous nature of some journalists. The odds just kept on stacking against her - and the reader understands that if she was young, ‘attractive’ and not ‘foreign’ her treatment would have been different.

I was engrossed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love an author who is unafraid to tackle complex issues and who has the skill to pull it off with sensitivity and insight, while maintaining a solid pace. Kyriacou has crafted a compelling, intelligent story with excellent characterisation. Really clever. Brings to fictional life a real life case from the 1950s. Brilliant.

Riveting, thought-provoking, complex

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
the frustration of each character plays into an intrigue circling each of the two main characters. each of these women carries a personal tradegy around in their minds. for one it leads to the end of life, for the other to a new start

page turning who dunnit, even though ending anticipated from early on

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such A powerful story, well told without unnecessary drama. The writer manages to evoke the reader's sympathy for all the main characters, but not for the system in which the events take place

Riveting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed listening to the narrator’s voice
which made the story easy to listen to and absorb the characters’ feelings and personalities.

The fact that the doctors report was left out!I love

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Where to start? Oh my goodness. This book is brilliant and will leave a lasting impression. Subject matter is obviously a thought provoking topic. The character in the title is in some ways not likeable but in other ways what she does is understandable. Beautiful relationship with Eva thought that wouldn’t be allowed in reality as unprofessional. Here it’s totally believable. The language, and character portrayals are superb and in this audio book this is all greatly enhanced by the wonderful narration. I was totally transported into each situation.
To me this is up there with A Man Called Ove and Lessons in Chemistry. Very memorable. Don’t know what the word is for” page turner” with audiobooks but this was it, for sure.

Wow wow wow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found out about this book on the Sara Cox book club on TV. I have started listening to books and reading books that I would never pick up myself just to broaden my horizons. I would never have picked this book up but because they reviewed it and I was intrigued I decided to download it on audible. this was a brilliant book. So intriguing and interesting and full of things about that era that I had never appreciated. It also made me appreciate how knowledgeable we are capable of being these days. The use of Google allows us to find out so much. no one could just look up about the previous murder that was referred to regarding Xena. Just fabulous couldn't stop listening.

brilliant portrayal of characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I had heard of this murder from a TV programme a few years ago and was interested to read this book, which is based on that.

I thought it was many things - thought-provoking, entertaining [in a weird sort of way], sad, mysterious etc. etc.
It was well-written and I liked the story of the interpreter Eva, as a backdrop to the horrific acts of Zina Pavlou.

What I liked best was the authentic portrait of the perpetrator and her family. Coming from a Greek Cypriot background, I was fascinated to hear the different characters portrayed by Eleni Kyriacou. Very well-researched ...especially on the trial and the facts on Holloway Prison.

The telling of the hardships of the Greek Cypriots in the London of 1950s was "spot-on". I know from my own Cypriot father's battles to be accepted by his English neighbours and workmates, just how difficult life was post-war in UK. The fact that many Cypriots had come to UK to make money to survive and to send back to their families in Cyprus, made it all the more poignant.

A big thank you to the narrator - Daphne Alexander. For once, all the pronunciation was true to life and authentic. Well done - and all the different characters were brilliantly differentiated. Excellent work.

This is the second book I have heard on Audible, I really enjoyed them both.



Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The characters in this book were just superb. They all shone, for so many different reasons, and they were completely believable.
The writing was slow, measured and excellent, a real joy to listen to. I loved the glimpse into the 1950's life that seems unreal to us now.
The narrator was excellent and perfectly suited to this book.
Very much recommended

Such a good, authentic listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews