The Bellini Card: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jason Goodwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

Investigator Yashim travels to Venice in the latest installment of the Edgar® Award–winning author Jason Goodwin’s captivating series

 

Jason Goodwin’s first Yashim mystery, The Janissary Tree, brought home the Edgar® Award for Best Novel. His follow-up, The Snake Stone, more than lived up to expectations and was hailed by Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times Book Review as “a magic carpet ride to the most exotic place on earth.” Now, in The Bellini Card, Jason Goodwin takes us back into his “intelligent, gorgeous and evocative” (The Independent on Sunday) world, as dazzling as a hall of mirrors and utterly compelling.

 

Istanbul, 1840: the new sultan, Abdülmecid, has heard a rumor that Bellini’s vanished masterpiece, a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror, may have resurfaced in Venice. Yashim, our eunuch detective, is promptly asked to investigate, but—aware that the sultan’s advisers are against any extravagant repurchase of the painting— decides to deploy his disempowered Polish ambassador friend, Palewski, to visit Venice in his stead. Palewski arrives in disguise in down-and-out Venice, where a killer is at large as dealers, faded aristocrats, and other unknown factions seek to uncover the whereabouts of the missing Bellini.

 

But is it the Bellini itself that endangers all, or something associated with its original loss? And why is it that all the killer’s victims are somehow tied to the alluring Contessa d’Aspi d’Istria? Will the Austrians unmask Palewski, or will the killer find him first? Only Yashim can uncover the truth behind the manifold mysteries.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Near the start of Edgar-winner Goodwin's fine third historical to feature the eunuch Yashim, who serves the Ottoman rulers of early 19th-century Turkey (after 2008's The Snake Stone), Yashim's close friend Stanislaw Palewski, the Polish ambassador to the Turkish sultan, accepts an undercover assignment on the sultan's behalf. Posing as an American, the diplomat travels to Venice in an effort to locate a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror (who reclaimed Constantinople from the Christians in 1453), painted by the legendary artist Gentile Bellini. Fortunately for Palewski, Yashim, who has a secret plan for the painting's recovery, intervenes in time to set the mission on the right track after the murder of two art dealers. While Yashim initially plays a backstage role, the eunuch and a shadowy power broker engage in an exciting and complex duel of wits in the book's final quarter. Once again, Goodwin skillfully blends deduction, action sequences and period color. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Intrigue, treachery, and murder infuse early-nineteenth-century European society, and only one savvy eunuch, Inspector Yashim of Istanbul, can navigate the serpentine political connections and hidden agendas, as evidenced in The Janissary Tree (2006) and The Snake Stone (2007). Now, with the death of the old sultan, the pashas are jockeying for power. When the new sultan, young Abdulmecid, orders Yashim to Venice to retrieve the lost portrait of Mahmut the Conqueror, the sly vizier Resid tries to nix the plan. Yashim secretly sends his friend Palewski instead, who royally bungles the assignment. Reluctantly, Yashim comes to the rescue and nimbly skirts certain death in the canal, bests the violent but lovely Contessa d’Aspi d’Istria, sets the local constabulary to rights, and discovers the truth about Mahmut, his portrait, and its secrets. Yashim’s adventure in Venice is a toothsome, wryly humorous, and historically accurate view of La Serenissima, seen through the eyes of a very unusual man: a Turkish eunuch as adept with a sword as a kitchen knife and who bemoans the loss of his beloved old friend, Sultan Mahmut II. Goodwin vividly evokes Istanbul embroiled in change, like Jenny White’s The Sultan’s Seal (2005) and Katie Hickman’s The Aviary Gate (2008), and he delivers a visceral experience of historical Venice similar to David Hewson’s Lucifer’s Shadow (2004). --Jen Baker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374110395
• ISBN-13: 978-0374110390
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #810,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

If you wish, please check it out on www.jasongoodwin.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific nineteenth century mystery, March 8, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bellini Card: A Novel (Hardcover)

In 1840, the new Ottoman Empire Sultan Abdulmecid orders the eunuch Yashim to travel to Venice to obtain a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror painted by Bellini. However, before leaving for Italy, Resid Pasha directs Yashim to keep the expenses including the purchase down. Yashim asks his friend impoverish Polish Ambassador Stanislaw Palewski to masquerade as an American to help locate the portrait of the hero who took Constantinople from the Christians in the fifteenth century.

In Venice while Palewski conducts his search, a killer has murdered two dealers connected to the Bellini masterpiece. Soon the Polish Ambassador becomes a target of this unknown murderer, but Yashim working from the shadows keeps his friend safe while trying to obtain the painting.

The third Yashmin historical thriller (see THE JANISSARY TREE and THE SNAKE STONE) is an enjoyable fascinating look at Venice and at the Ottoman Empire. Interestingly Yashim plays second fiddle for much of the early part of the novel, but once he comes on stage, he and his adversary battle in am electrifying contest. Fans will enjoy this terrific nineteenth century mystery due in part to the investigations into the portrait and the killer, but also because of the deep sense of time and place.

Harriet Klausner

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ottoman-era investigators invade Venice..., March 12, 2009

By 

S. McGee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bellini Card: A Novel (Hardcover)

Both Yahsim the eunuch and Palewski the Polish ambassador to the Sublime Porte (aka the court of the Ottoman Empire) have problems. Yahsim has been commanded by the new young Sultan to track down and retrieve the portrait of his ancestor, Mehmet, who first conquered Constantinople in 1453. It's a problematic and potentially risky assignment for many reasons, and Yahsim is strongly advised not to venture abroad. But Count Palewski, on the other hand, is feeling more disrespected than usual by the diplomatic community -- his invitation to the festivities for the Sultan's ascension haven't arrived. But then, Poland, divided up between Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and other nations, doesn't really exist as a country.

Yahsim commissions Palewski to go to Venice in his place, disguised as an American art collector, and thus begins a remarkable and mysterious adventure for the Polish exile, who thus far in Goodwin's three-book series has played second fiddle to Yahsim in their investigations. Pawlewski duels, literally and rhetorically, with his Venetian neighbor, a beautiful noblewoman, displays his chivalrous streak and risks both his life and freedom in the pursuit of the Bellini. Others involved peripherally in his quest do lose their lives in the murky canals of a Venice long past its prime (and still occupied by the Austrians). But just in the nick of time, Yahsim arrives on the scene to resolve the mystery...

As usual, Goodwin's novel is packed full of all the color of the locales in which he sets the stories. Yahsim, an avid cook, introduces us by proxy to the delights of Ottoman-era cuisine, even as he mourns the destruction of ancient tiles and savors the beauties of Arabic calligraphy. None of that atmospheric detail is allowed to detract from the action, however, and the result is a great historical mystery in a series that shows no signs of flagging.

For those who have enjoyed Goodwin's novels, I'd strongly suggest picking up a copy of his history of the Ottomans that started it all, for him as an author and me as a reader, Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire (It even sent me traveling back to Istanbul...) It's one of those rare histories that is written in as lively a tone as the average novel, and the research for that book shows just why Goodwin is so at home writing about early 19th century Istanbul and the machinations of the Ottoman court. His equally obvious comfort in writing about Venice comes as a pleasant surprise, and while I relish the daring duo's adventures in Istanbul, it makes me hope that Yahsim and Palewski venture abroad again in some future instalment of their adventures.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Baffling plot, January 2, 2011

By 

RDG "Robert" (South Bend, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bellini Card (Investigator Yashim) (Paperback)

I wanted to like this book very much. The historical details and local color were great, both for Istanbul and for Venice. But the plot was just baffling. So many characters (some of whom turn out to be one another, no less!), so many hidden motives and agendas, all of which would be fine if the author ever stopped, somewhere near the end, to explain what exactly had happened. But he never does! Worse, he gives hints along the way that things are not as they seem (of the "afterwards, it was this moment he would remember, when it became clear he was being cheated..." variety) but never quite resolves what the hint was about. Various people are killed (by one killer? more than one?), various deceptions are staged (to what end, exactly? it's not clear) and various revelations are revealed, but I honestly couldn't keep track of who was who or why any of it mattered.

In the interview with the author at the back of the book, Goodwin says he doesn't plot out his books in advance, but just starts to write and hopes he wraps up all his loose ends by the end of the story. It shows.