Customer Reviews

Belshazzar's Daughter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Nadel has written an excellent police procedural, and introduced an engaging cast of regular characters in this first Inspector Ikmen book.

More than that, she writes evocatively of Istanbul - its physical nature and social life, and the diverse people who make it their home - from 500 years of Jewish descent seeking asylum to latter day English language teachers looking for refuge in their own way.

I have lived in Istanbul myself amongst the foreign teacher expat community, and Nadel has captured this aspect perfectly. Some of the people fleeing their personal demons. She writes most sympathetically of those who have sought safe harbour from systemic persecution.

Nadel has successfully managed to weave an engaging modern-day crime novel together with a strong sense of place and with a fascinating historical background. Along the way, we learn to care about the characters who populate the series, most especially Ikmen's family.

I thoroughly recommend this book - all the elements have been 'got right' - plot, characterisation and location for a thoroughly diverting read.

Barbara Nadel's novel, "Belshazzar's Daughter," has an intriguing premise. Cetin Ikmen, a chain-smoking and hard-drinking detective on the Istanbul police force, is investigating the murder and mutilation of an elderly Jewish man named Leonid Meyer. Someone used acid to torture Meyer and then painted a swastika on a wall near the corpse. Is this heinous act the work of a right-wing anti-Semite or is there a less obvious motive?

Nadel, who according to the book jacket has visited Turkey frequently, makes good use of her exotic locale to lend a touch of originality to what is essentially an ordinary whodunit. Ikmen and his partner Suleyman interview everyone who knew Meyer, and they look into the victim's past to see if it might shed light on who hated him enough to kill him so brutally. The colorful cast of characters includes the unlucky Robert Cornelius, a depressed British expatriate with a checkered past, a beautiful temptress named Natalia, and Natalia's grandmother, Maria Gulcu, a strange woman who knows a great deal more about Meyer's death than she's willing to reveal. There is also Reinhold Smits, a known Nazi sympathizer who once employed Meyer and then summarily dismissed him. Which of these suspects holds the key to the mystery?

As the story unfolds, it becomes more and more convoluted and less credible, and the ending of "Belshazzar's Daughter" is way over the top. I liked the characters and the setting, but the plot was not well-developed and convincing enough to make this novel work for me.

Barbara Nadel's Ispector Ikmen mysteries set in Istanbul have been compared favorably to Donna Leon's Venice-set mysteries, but the Nadel series may actually be even superior given her superb use of characterization. Her first work in the series, BELSHAZZAR'S DAUGHTER, shows already her gifts at creating a good mystery and fine characters, but she takes everything a bit too far over the top--not only does the solution to the central crime (the murder of a Russian Jewish expatriate by buldgeoning and pouring acid down his throat, with a swastika painted on the nearby wall in his blood) tie directly to one of the most notorious historical crimes in early twentieth-century Europe, but Nadel also has to throw in Ikmen's cross-dressing precognitive cousin who scries the novel's overdramatic conclusion in a bowl of oil--it's just too much. But the great characters of the series are all already here, including Ikmen's handsome and mother-dominated colleague Suleiman, his perpetually pregnant wife Fatma, his pushy father, and the chainsmoking, brandy-swilling Ikmen himself, a superbly drawn detective figure. There are better Ikmen novels to come, but this is a very solid start to the series.

On my third trip to Istanbul, I found myself in possession of Nadel's first novel about the city and its inhabitants. I found myself looking at the city in a whole new context. The mystery, intrigue and rampant life force I sensed there was spelled out for me from, apparently, an insider viewpoint. Fascinated, I had to visit Balat, the scene of the old Jewish man's murder, and a quarter not normally visited by casual visitors. I was totally creeped out - the place was EXACTLY as described, only now I saw it with the Nadel overlay. The quarter is not creepy - only my reaction to it. Very mysterious place, and I think I actually overheard some Ladino....

As an American, from California, I had nearly no hope, without a huge investment of time, to ever know about family life in such a foreign environment, but after reading Nadel's books I feel like I know every other person on the street in Istanbul. Fortunately, I have witnessed no gruesome murders, or any other crime, for that matter. But most people visiting LA don't meet Richard Ramirez, either. That is a GOOD thing.

The plot is twisty and complex, but I like that in a crime novel. The characters are unforgettable, and I hope Nadel never stops writing about them.

British expatriate Robert Cornelius works in Istanbul's Londra Language School. He just completes his lessons to eight students when he notices his Turkish lover Natalia moving at an incredible pace in the run down Jewish Quarter. Apparently an anti-Semitic crime occurred in Balat as someone murdered but not before abusing elderly Leonid Meyer, a Jew who escaped from Russia during the 1918 Revolution. At the bloody crime scene is a swastika drawn in the victim's blood. Robert wonders how Natalia is tied to this vicious homicide.

Also involved in more official capacities are Turkish police officers: chain-smoking veteran Inspector Cetin Ikmen and the relatively rookie Sergeant Suleyman. They begin investing the heinous crime while they struggle with the demands of their respective families. Soon they find a link to Robert and Natalia as the former's grandmother was the victim's lover at one time and the latter was convicted of assaulting a Jewish lawyer in his hometown of London. Is the murder a case of vengeful passion as the two cops begin to believe or is it a more sinister attack on the Jewish population?

BELSHAZZAR'S DAUGHTER is an insightful laid-back Turkish police procedural. Cozy fans (in spite of the brutality of the killing) and those who delight in foreign who-done-its will be grateful for this fine novel. However, anyone who likes plenty of non-stop action needs to pass as Barbara Nadel furbishes a deep look at family life in Istanbul as much or more than who killed the elderly Jew.

Harriet Klausner

The Inspector Ikmen series (currently eight books) gets off to a entirely over-the-top start with this very uneven first effort. Some of the book is quite interesting and well done, however it is continually undermined by the most outrageous plot twists and implausible characters. The story begins with the gruesome torture and disemboweling of an elderly Jewish man in his squalid apartment in a run-down Jewish neighborhood of Istanbul. The huge swastika painted in blood on the wall would seem to indicate an racist dimension, but is it that simple?

Meanwhile, the reader is also introduced to Robert, a pathetic Englishman who has fled personal disaster back home to teach English to uninterested students in Istanbul. The major event in his life right now is his twice-weekly tryst with exotically beautiful Natalia (half Russian, half Turkish) who bestows her favors on him in exchange for expensive gifts (he, on the other hand, is besotted and in love with her). She is a mysterious woman who lives to exercise her sexual power over men, but her family of hermetically preserved White Russians is much more bizarre in a very gothic way. And when Robert thinks he sees Natalia fleeing from the murder site, he, her family, and an elderly German industrialist become a part of Inspector Ikmen's investigation.

There's a lot to like about the mid-1990s Istanbul setting and the Turkish characters. Nadel has lived in the city and does a nice job of capturing some of the details of daily life. The central character, police Inspector Ikmen is a fine example of the grizzled, grumpy, but brilliant, veteran detective addicted to his job. The father of eight children, with a ninth on the way, he makes his way through a bottle of brandy and 50 cigarettes a day as he pursues justice. Equally compelling are his supporting cast, including the handsome but shyly devout Muslim Sgt. Suleyman (in the midst of avoiding an arranged marriage), Armenian medical examiner Dr. Sarkissian (like so many of his fictional counterparts, he's got a sharp tongue and sense of humor), lascivious Jewish officer Cohen, and Ikemn's acid-tongued ex-professor father, Timur.

However, there's a lot not to like as well. Principally, the groan-inducing convoluted plot twists which drag the story's tendrils back to the end of Tsarist Russia. Similarly, Natalia's Russian emigre family is just far too strange to be taken realistically. They exist on a cartoon/horror movie level totally removed from the rest of the book. And as if an entire family of unhinged delusional isn't enough, by the end of the story, Robert has also completely lost control of himself. Nor does it help that the plot relies a little too heavily on people happening to be in places at just the right time. There's also a lame mystical element involving Inspector Ikmen's transvestite seer cousin which smacks of gratuitous exoticism for its own sake. The finale is so over-the-top that one comes close to chucking the book across the room in exasperation. Ultimately, the book is a disappointment, but the setting and Turkish characters are strong enough (although too calculatedly multi-cultural) that I may try the second book to see if gets any better.

NOTE: The series continues A Chemical Prison (published in the U.S. as The Ottoman Cage), Arabesk, Deep Waters, Harem, Petrified, Deadly Web, and Dance With Death.

"Belshazzar's Daughter" was an enjoyable read, although at times the developments in the story were over-the-top and unbelievable.
I almost got the impression that, toward the end of the novel, the author just wanted to get it over with and thus wrote an unbelievable ending for an otherwise excellent novel.
The character development was, in my opinion, quite good, and the plot started out with a lot of promise. When the last Tsar of Russia was pulled into the tale, I became immediately intrigued. However, by the closing of the book, I began to feel that the final twists were just too much.
I did like the lack of total clarity at the end, because it allowed me to visualize for myself what might have been the truth.
Still, though, this was an enjoyable, well thought-out novel; it is not extremely deep, but it pulls in many societal and personal problems that many people deal with daily and builds solid, interesting characters around such situations.

I'm not generally a big fan of crime/mystery novels, but this was recommended by a friend. I found it to be quite exciting with a driven plotline that kept me awake reading some nights long after I should have been asleep. The main characters are well-developed and realistically human; that is, they sometimes make stupid choices that send them down dark roads.

This book has already been well reviewed by others. All I want to add is that it is a tasty way to find your path into and through Istanbul. The city is of course one of the most magnificent in the world, littered with history layers and layers deep, from Alexander the Great, to Constantine and the Romans, and on to the Ottoman Empire and then Attaturk and the challenge of modernization. This novel is obviously written by someone who has travelled the City's byways and is familiar with many of its neighborhoods. And Ikmen is just as Turkish as can be. A great way to become acquainted with the City and its people before going, or a great way to re-visit it from afar.

Frankly, I felt like tossing the book across the room when I came to the dénouement. Another reviewer has aptly called the resolution of the mystery "groan inducing," but even that doesn't do justice to the sense of disappointment many mystery fans will have when they learn that after some excellent writing in the first three quarters of the book, Ms. Nadel simply can't provide a suitable conclusion. While the author excels in character development (especially of Inspector Ikmen, his family and colleagues), in weaving the atmosphere of Istanbul into the plot, and in building a sense of suspense and mystery, this just makes it all the more maddening when she presents her very messy solution. Although the publisher compares Ms. Nadel to Michael Dibdin (who wrote so many excellent mysteries set in Italy), the comparison is laughable. Dibdin's mysteries hang together from beginning to end, and I doubt that anyone ever felt they'd been had after finishing one of his books. Such is not the case here.