Belshazzar's Daughter

Book 1: Novels of Istanbul

by Barbara Nadel

Genres: Mystery; Hard-Boiled; Police Procedurals

Synopsis

A secret worth killing for... Barbara Nadel introduces Inspector Cetin Ikmen for the first time in her debut novel, Belshazzar's Daughter. Perfect for fans of Jason Goodwin and Donna Leon. 'Exciting, accomplished and original' - Literary Review Leonid Meyer is found murdered in his flat in Balat, Istanbul's decrepit Jewish quarter, a swastika daubed on the wall in the old man's blood. But Inspector Cetin Ikmen is quick to eschew the obvious conclusion that this is a racist attack. The evidence leads Ikmen and his young lieutenant, Suleyman, to two people: Robert Cornelius, a teacher observed outside Meyer's flat shortly after the murder, and a retired businessman, Reinhold Smits, known to have had Nazi sympathies. But another link connects these two: a ninety-year-old Russian émigré, Maria Gulcu, a widow who thinks she possesses a secret worth killing for... What readers are saying about Belshazzar's Daughter : 'An engaging, fascinating picture of life in Turkey. Wonderful characters and a deep plot that constantly draws one to read on' 'An excellent murder mystery set in the twilight world of old aristocracies in modern day Istanbul' 'An intense psychological drama with an impressive array of characters and colourful descriptions of the less salubrious areas of Istanbul. Nadel successfully evokes the hot sultry atmosphere of modern Turkey'

Release date: December 9, 2010

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 304

Sample

If it hadn’t been for the blood, he would have thought she was asleep. She was smiling. The contents of her abdomen lay beside her amongst the tea leaves and the cigarette butts on the ground, and she was smiling.

There weren’t many places that Inspector Çetin İkmen could go to drink coffee and smoke in peace these days, but Burhan the gypsy’s coffee house was one of them. In the ancient Roma quarter of Sulukule, Burhan’s was one of the few traditional businesses that remained. Pressed tight up against the Byzantine walls of what had once been Constantinople, the gypsy’s tiny business struggled on in spite of the mass construction o. . .