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Cefalû First Published: Editions Poetry, 1946 (First UK Edition) republished as The Dark Labyrinth, E.P. Dutton & Company, 1962 (First US Edition) This tale follows Durrell's initial efforts at publication, the early group of three novels comprised of Pied Piper of Lovers, Panic Spring, and The Black Book. Unlike these earlier novels, Cefalû (later retitled The Dark Labyrinth) is a more straightforward narrative, bearing all the hallmarks of Durrell's descriptive style in a somewhat more elementary mode. Set in and around events taking place on the island of Crete in June, 1947, Cefalû is the name of the maze discovered by Sir Juan Axelos, and of his house, 'built in a fault of the rock which gave it access to the sea', as well as that of the local village. The fate of a party of sightseers who venture into the maze, still fabled to contain the terrible Minotaur of Classical myth, but also containing the fabulous 'City in the Rock', discovered by Axelos, and authenticated by his friend and colleague, the poet Lord Graecen. While not a work of Durrell at his most mature, this is a novel which merits attention for the truly Durrellian elements that it presages, as well as periodic re-reading, for like so much of Durrell's writing, there are new things to be discovered with each successive exposure .