Book description
Yashim is no ordinary detective. It's not that he's particularly
brave. Or that he cooks so well, or reads French novels. Not even that
his best friend is the Ambassador from Poland, whose country has
vanished from the map. Yashim is a eunuch. As the Sultan plans a
series of radical reforms to his empire, a concubine is strangled in
the palace harem. And a young cadet is found butchered in the streets
of Istanbul. Delving deep into the city's crooked alleyways, and
deeper still into its tumultuous past, Yashim discovers that some
people will go to any lengths to preserve the traditions of the
Ottoman Empire. Brilliantly evoking Istanbul in the 1830s, The Ottoman
Detective is a fast-paced literary thriller with a spectacular cast,
from mystic orders and lissom archivists to soup-makers and a
seductive ambassador's wife. Darker than any of these is the
mysterious figure who controls the Sultan's harem.
Jason Goodwin studied Byzantine history at Cambridge University
and is the author of Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman
Empire, among other books of cultural history and travel. He lives in
Sussex, England, is married with four children, speaks French and
German and once walked to Istanbul from Poland. This is the first of a
series of novels featuring Yashim.
