Barbara Nadel’s gripping Ikmen mysteries are the inspiration behind The Turkish Detective, BBC Two’s sensational eight-part TV crime drama series available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
A secret worth killing for…
Barbara Nadel introduces Inspector Cetin Ikmen for the first time in her debut novel, Belshazzar’s Daughter. The ikmen mysteries have been highly praised:
‘Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight’ Mick Herron
‘İkmen is one of modern crime fiction’s true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits – Istanbul – is just as fascinating’ The Times
‘Barbara Nadel’s distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots‘ Guardian
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’
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Reviews
'Intriguing, exotic whodunnit... Local colour judiciously applied and ethnic differences skilfully explored. A first novel: exciting, accomplished and original' Literary Review
`Best crime fiction of the year by a new writer was Barbara Nadel's Belshazzar's Daughter... great blooming baroque plot (ditto talent)'
`This is an extraordinarily interesting first novel'
'An unusual and very well written first novel...Although the murder mystery is intriguing, it is the characters who make this book so successful' Sunday Telegraph
'Ikmen will go far...will have you looking over your shoulder' Scotsman
`Really refreshing to encounter something as idiosyncratic and evocative among debut novels as Barbara Nadel's Istanbul-set thriller'
`Unusual and very well-written'
Belshazzar's Daughter has been chosen by Jane Jakeman in Saturday's INDEPENDENT weekend review section as
'Best crime fiction by a new writer...a great blooming baroque plot (ditto talent).'
`Will have you looking over your shoulder'
'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 Cetin Ikmen is a detective one hopes to see more of' TJ Binyon, Evening Standard
'It's really refreshing to encounter something as idiosyncratic and evocative among debut novels as Barbara Nadel's Istanbul-set thriller BELSHAZZAR'S DAUGHTER, which matches a multi-layer description of its locale with an equally complex plot' The Times
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Evocative and idiosyncratic