Why a Booktrail?
2013: Set against the Gezi Park uprising of 2013, this is the 17th crime thriller featuring Inspectors Cetin Ikmen and Mehmut Suleyman in Istanbul
Land of the Blind (Inspector Ikmen 17)
What you need to know before your trail
Land of the Blind was the name Istanbul was known by in antiquity so it is quite fitting that this story where old and new collide should be set there.
This is the story with the Gezi Park uprising of 2013 at its backdrop, and the people of Istanbul are rising up in protest against their government in Gezi Park.
Ariadne Savva, a Byzantine specialist on a crusade to protect the historic areas of Istanbul has been found murdered. Inspector Çetin Ikmen soon discovers that a certain property developer has been planning to destroy and rebuild the same areas. Could this clash have led to murder?
From the ruins of the Constantinople hippodrome to the streets of the antique city, Istanbul comes alive before your very eyes…
Travel Guide
Barbara Nadel takes us once again to the heart of Istanbul in this, her 17th outing with the Turkish policemen.
Against the background of the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations, she shows us the tensions between secular Turkey and the current government. From the moment a Greek archeologist and Byzantine expert is found in the historically significant Constantinople hippodrome, and then a skeleton of someone killed during the Greek riots of 1955, then a clash of two deaths, one from the modern era, one for the past come together in a clash of investigations.
The Gezi Park protests, however are what links the whole book together – these were a wave of protests in Turkey, of people against the plans to develop Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park. But sadly civil unrest soon followed.
The setting of Istanbul therefore is apt for a theme of preserving the past of saving our heritage and we see a whole mix of Turkish society here – a changing Turkish society that needs protection – there are gay characters, transgender characters all part of a changing Turkey, a changing world. We all need to protect our own, what we believe in. The theme of the displacement of the poor and ethnic groups.
In such a changing city, the centre of the Islam versus Secularism debate is Taksim Square where the political hotspot is.
This is a picture of contemporary Istanbul, the clash of past and present, the need to preserve, the need for everyone – whether a small minority group or not – to find a place they call home.
Seeing this from the side of the police, with accusations of police brutality, incompetence makes for an interesting insight into Turkey’s history. The overall story is akin to a Byzantine maze of discovery.
Booktrailer Review
Susan @thebooktrailer:
I always feel I’m learning something when I read Barbara Nadel and this is no bad thing. Never boring or forced or difficult to understand, she really captures the spirit, the essence of the country and its people and with every book there’s anew and exciting twist not seen before.
The book is actually quite relevant and modern with the themes of urban development, riots between old and new and many of the events which happened in the book seemed as if you could be watching them unfold on breaking news bulletins. To read a British author so fascinated and respectful of Turkey to portray its many facets in this way makes for remarkable reading.
The plots – as twisting and turning as the streets of Istanbul are a joy to discover and the policeman who’s been described elsewhere as the Turkish Morse is always welcoming.
Another colourful gem of the Nadel literary mosaic
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Twitter: @BarbaraNadel
Web: barbara-nadel.com
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