His entry begins:
For a writer who pitches my tales in the 19th century, I am ashamed to have never read any Turgenev novels – until last month, when I was lucky enough to pick up Fathers and Sons in an idle hour. It tells of how two boys from university, Arkady Kirsanov and his friend Bazarov, go home for a few weeks in the summer after being away in St Petersburg. They are determined young nihilists, outraging and delighting their families: Turgenev is brilliant at revealing character through dialogue, the story zips along, and it is by turns extremely funny, poignant and acute. I immediately...[read on]About the book, from the publisher:
Join Investigator Yashim for a final exotic escapade in this rich Edgar Award–winning seriesLearn more about Jason Goodwin and his work at his website.
In four previous novels, Jason Goodwin’s Inspector Yashim, the eunuch detective, has led us through stylish, suspenseful, and colorful mysteries in the Istanbul of the Ottoman Empire. Now, in The Baklava Club, Yashim returns for his final adventure—and his most thrilling yet.
Three naïve Italian liberals, exiled in Istanbul, have bungled their instructions to kill a Polish prince—instead, they’ve kidnapped him and absconded to an unused farmhouse. Little dothey realize that their revolutionary cell has been penetrated by their enemies, who are passing along false orders under the code name La Piuma, the Feather.
It falls to Yashim to unravel all this—he’s convinced that the prince is alive and that the Italians have hidden him somewhere. But there are just a few problems: He has no idea who La Piuma is, and he’s in no mood to put up a fight—he’s fallen in love! As he draws closer to the farmhouse and to the true identity of La Piuma, what Yashim discovers leaves him shocked and in the most dangerous situation of his career.
Goodwin has an eye for detail like no other, and in The Baklava Club he conjures Istanbul in all its glorious exoticism. This is a breathtaking, extraordinary conclusion to one of the most beloved series in mystery fiction, and its ending will leave you truly astonished.
The Page 69 Test: The Snake Stone.
The Page 69 Test: The Bellini Card.
My Book, The Movie: An Evil Eye.
Writers Read: Jason Goodwin.
--Marshal Zeringue
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