Belshazzar's Daughter (Inspector Ikmen, 1) (Volume 1) - Softcover

Nadel, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933397497 ISBN 13: 9781933397498

Publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press, 2006

Synopsis

Tourist brochures present Istanbul as a glamorous, modern city, but the brochures don't make much mention of Balat, a decrepit neighborhood of narrow, twisting alleys and crumbling tenements. Until recently it was home to Leonid Meyer, a reclusive elderly Jew who, like many of his neighbors, came here long ago to escape one of Europe's various bloodbaths. But Meyer's refuge ultimately became his coffin, the carnage crowned with a gigantic swastika. Inspector Ikmen begins tracking down the few people who might have known the old man, including a faded prostitute, a shadowy family of Russian emigrs, a despairing rabbi, and a high-strung young Englishman in the throes of erotic obsession.

About this title

About the Author:

Barbara Nadel was born and bred in London. Trained as an actress, she is now a public relations officer for the National schizophrenia Fellowship's Good Companions Service. She loves Turkey and has been a regular visitor there for over 20 years.

Review:

British Praise for Belshazzar's Daughter:

"Intriguing, exotic whodunnit set in the scruffy Turkish township of Balat...Local colour judiciously applied and ethnic differences (White Russian refugees, uxorious Turks, fraught British expats) skilfully explored...A first novel: exciting, accomplished and original."
- Literary Review

"Best crime fiction by a new writer was Barbara Nadel's Belshazzar's Daughter. Set in Istanbul, with a battered, cynical and credible Turkish cop, and a great blooming baroque plot (ditto talent)."
- Books of the Year, Independent Weekend Review

"An unusual and very well written first novel...Although the murder mystery is intriguing, it is the characters who make this book so successful. The police team and their little feuds, the English teacher besotted with his mysterious Turkish girlfriend, and, most memorably, the chain-smoking little Inspector Ikmen, with his eight children and pregnant wife, contribute to this portrayal of an exotically different city."
- Sunday Telegraph

"This is an extraordinarily interesting first novel: the idea which drives its plot is an intriguing one; the Istanbul background is richly and thickly layered; the diverse cast of characters exhibits most of the psychoses known to man; while Çetin Ikmen is a detective one hopes to see more of."
- Evening Standard

"This Istanbul-set-thriller combines a multi-layered description of its locale with an equally complex plot...Nadel presents a fully fledged psychological understanding worthy of the best of the genre and her plotting is satisfyingly labyrinthine. Inspector lkmen too, is a highly unusual protagonist, characterized in a way that owes little to her predecessors. An evocative and idiosyncratic debut novel."
- Good Book Guide

"In Inspector Ikmen, Nadel has created a sympathetic sleuth. Supported by his handsome side-kick, intellectual father a --Felony & Mayhem

About this edition

• Publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1933397497
• ISBN 13: 9781933397498
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448