Arabesk (Inspector Ikmen 3)

Travel Guide

Barbara Nadel’s third visit to Istanbul and this time it’s anther visit to a different time and place. Modern day investigations mix with history, this time of the cultural and religious group of the Yezidi.

Suleyman is an Ottoman Turk, born into a family that had once ruled an empire. This fact in itself is a fascinating one as everyone appears to belong to something and in a city which is such a melting pot of history and religion, this adds to the overall setting and landscape.

This is not a tourist walk around the city – not if you call the history of a demon woman with a face of a serpent, who was seen standing over the body of the dead woman. This story itself comes from a man with a mental age of seven which only builds the intrigue already there.

“Arabesk music and the case of a Turkish celebrity”

Erol Urfa is  Turkey’s heart-throb, a popular singer and adored by millions. He sings Arabesk music  –

“An uneasy blend of traditional Turkish tunes and ornate Egyptian laments, Arabesk is for good reason sometimes dubbed the ‘music of the slums”

This musical star also has a lover, Tansu Hanim, a movie star and fellow Arabesk singer. Some would say old enough to be his mother, but that just adds to the overall  intrigue in to the case.

There is also a cultural and literary mention of the city as the police find a copy of Orhan Pamuk  The black book which is recommended as “a work of philosophy which tackles the problem of who were are, as Turks”

These are not the tourist sites or cultural insights that a tourist would get, but then Nadel is not your usual guide and Suleyman and Ikmen not your usual police officers.

However it is their investigation in to the Yezidee, the Kurdish cult/religion which eunuchs are a major part of, that fascinates the most. Talks of Sexual jealousy, a eunuch which guards the dead and devil worship, this case has more twists and turns that the streets of Istanbul.