John Bruce Grinols' latest novel, Cretan Thunder - The Battle of Crete, is a reckoning combining historical facts with some fictional elements to serve as a narrative theme to dramatize the heroic deeds and sacrifices performed by many unknown civilian Cretan partisans during World War II.

It began not with ink, but with silence—thirty years of it. For three decades, Dr. Paris Georgiou carried the weight of Crete's darkest days inside him: the smell of burning villages, the taste of blood on his lips, the shriek of the woman he loved as enemies tore from the world. He buried the memories deep, building a life as a healer in Montreal, marrying Nicole—Daphne's sister—and raising children beneath Canadian skies. Nevertheless, the past, as Crete's mountains know well, never truly sleeps.

On their thirtieth wedding anniversary, surrounded by their children and grandchildren at Montreal's Raki Ba Raki taverna, Paris finally spoke. The story that spilled forth was not just his own, but Crete's: a tapestry of resistance, betrayal, and improbable survival against the mechanized evil of Nazi occupation. It was a confession, a eulogy, and ultimately, a triumph.

"Why now?" his family asks. "Because you deserve to know," he replies, "Why you exist."