Harem (Inspector Ikmen Mystery 5): A powerful crime thriller set in the ancient city of Istanbul

(Paperback)

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Description

An ancient city, the oldest profession and a very modern crime...The body of a teenage girl is discovered in a cistem deep below the city of Istanbul. For the Turkish police force's most idiosyncratic and talented officer, Cetin Ikmen, this is a difficult case. The girl was his daughter's friend and her attire, that of a nineteenth-century Ottoman, offers no easy explanation. With his promise of justice to the dead girl's mother still fresh on his lips, Ikmen is taken off the case. He's reassigned to the kidnapping of an ageing movie star's wife. The star is hiding something and so, Ikmen fears, are his superiors. A powerful secret exists in the labyrinthine city, one which those on either side of the law will do anything to prevent escaping. But for Ikmen, there's no choice, only the truth.

Reviews

Praise for Barbara Nadel's previous novels: 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 *
Exciting, accomplished and original * Literary Review *
My crime reader is raving about this author * Bookseller *
A thriller that presents a Middle Eastern city populated by human beings, rather than specimens of oriental exotica, and a British writer who can get inside a foreign skin * Independent *
Mixing Ikmen's police work with parapsychology, blood and intuition makes for a read that is as riveting as it is undeniably disturbing * Good Book Guide *
Idiosyncratic and evocative * The Times *
Full of complex characters and louche atmosphere * Independent *

Author Bio

Trained as an actress, Barbara Nadel is now a public relations officer for rethink severe mental illness's Good Companions Project. Her previous job was a mental health advocate in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in both schools and colleges. Born in the East End of London, she now lives in Essex and has been a regular visitor to Turkey for over twenty years.