Customer Reviews

The Ottoman Cage: A Novel of Istanbul

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

 

 

In answer to the question below, I don't have a copy of "The Ottoman Cage," but I do have "A Chemical Prison." I checked the first page of my book against Amazon's first page for this new book. They are the same. It looks like they are reissuing the old book with a new title. Those of us who look for Barbara Nadel's books all over the world (my personal favorite location is Robinson Crusoe Bookstore, on Istiklal Caddesi) are going to have to watch out for this. I love this series and hope to see an actual new volume soon.

This is the first of her mysteries I've read, and I came to it with high hopes. The British paperback edition called her "the Donna Leon of Istanbul." alas, no. I made it about half way through and I still have her first novel on order, so I will try again. But she digressed too much for me, did not create enough sense of place, and her use of the word 'rather' as a modifier rather turned me off: I started counting them at some point, always a bad sign. Maybe a touch more editorial direction was needed.

Since the previous reviewer outlined the plot, I would only like to add that it's easy to get hooked on Barbara Nadel's writing -- mysteries with a twist, the well developed characters, and the details of Turkey and Turkish culture.
I read the first one released in the US, Belshazzar's Daughter, and was hooked. But at that time, I couldn't find any more books from this series released in the US. I was finally able to buy the others from Amazon Canada, and was thrilled to find that they were as good as the first. I hope we will see future entries in this series released in the US.

In the upscale neighborhood of Ishak Pasa in Istanbul, Turkey, a neighbor sees an open door to a house that is occupied by an Armenian. She calls the police and the body of a twenty year old male covered with track marks and garroted is found. Inspector Cetin Ikmen is assigned the case and quickly notices that the young man was in a small apartment, separated from the rest of the mansion. The tenant Mr. Zekiyan is nowhere to be found.

There is nothing in the apartment except a collection of crystal figurines. There are no fingerprints, DNA or trace elements to give a clue to who Mr. Zekiyan really is or who the victim was. The drug found in the victim's system is a synthetic form of heroin available only to doctors. Using informants, Inspector Ikmen discovers that a medical doctor is supplying drugs to male prostitute addicts. While the investigation concentrates on the medical profession, the killer sends the inspector crystal figures like those found in the dead man's home, daring him to uncover his identity.

It is obvious that Barbara Nadel has a love affair with Turkey using the culture of the country as the basis for the murder mystery. The inspector is an interesting and complex protagonist who works himself to death so he doesn't have to cope with nine children, an ailing wife and a delusional father. Though a killer scorning police is old hat, the exotic locale adds an extra bit of spice to a thrilling police procedural that makes THE OTTOMAN CAGE a great treat for armchair travelers.

Harriet Klausner

I have been several times to Turkey, and talked to common people. If that's any indication of reality, then I think this product is highly contrived: a Turkish Inspector, an Armenian pathologist, a Jewish constable, an Irish-Turkish psychiatrist ... hmmm, would you find this mix in the real Istanbul police? Also, I found too few snide remarks about ethnic identities among the book's characters (viz. Çetin's remark to Sarkissian "there are more of us than there are of you, that's all" is unbelievably PC: 70 million versus what? 70 thousand?). This makes me suspect that Nadel created an unreal mix to add unexistent exoticism to the story. And for all that, she fails to capture Istanbul's real magic.

Well, not a fatal flaw. But the book suffers from a weak plot and a weaker climax. While Inspector Çetin's relations with his family are well portrayed, the rest of the cast is neither equally plausible nor as well worked out: on the contrary, most of the persons are insufficiently sketched, so you can't relate to them. What makes them tick?
In particular, I found the Turkish millionaire, Ersoy, too flamboyant to be believable. I doubt there could be such a theatrical event like the fund-raisig dinner Nadel describes. In the Sha's Iran time, perhaps, but in Turkey now?

And the criminal's identity is too easy to guess.

Why the rating? Well, if you award one star to any of (for example) Vargas' books, this is worth at least two. And reading it I learnt of the Kafes institution, so one star more.

WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD
So, buy if you must, but be aware that Trevanian's "The Loo Sanction", although an improbable thriller with an ironical twist rather than an improbable whodunit, is far better although less "picturesque".

I received this book with great anticipation as I am a keen reader of Barabara Nadel. Imagine my disappointment then on reading the first page and feeling a sense of deja vu. IT WAS ONE OF HER EARLIER BOOKS, "A CHEMICAL PRISON", BUT WITH A NEW TITLE! VERY frustrating. So beware readers when you order a book - it may just be an old one with a new wrapper!

If you read The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin, you'll want to read The Ottoman Cage by Barbara Nadal.

The three strengths of this novel that make it so enjoyable are as follows: (1) it is exceptionally well written and an easy read; (2) the human element, though not always exploring the better side of humanity, is so very compelling; (3) the mystery is well developed -- without unnecessary tangents. Having read the Janisaary Tree, I can only imagine that refraining from such digressions is diffiult for an author who chooses a setting with such a rich history.

Almost every character in this novel goes through a transformation of one kind or another in a way that is both welcomed and believable. I don't know of many authors who can do that for so many characters within a single story without something feeling unnatural or forced.

My only regret with The Ottoman Cage is that the who-done-it details are realized by the reader before they are realized by the main characters. At the time, I couldn't imagine what awaited me with so many pages left to read - I prepared myself for not actaully finishing the book.

But the author compensated for this by immediately cultivating the human elements for which she had planted the seeds early in the story. Much to my surprise, the story continued to hold my interest right through to the end.

The Istanbul setting and culture set British author Nadel's Inspector Cetin Ikmen procedurals apart.

Ikmen, too, is an intriguing character; a chain-smoking secularist and cynic who ignores his elderly father's descent into dementia, safe in the knowledge that his wife will shoulder the burden uncomplainingly. Ikmen's team includes a modern female sergeant and an unhappily married, but traditional upper-class male sergeant, suffering a mutual attraction, as well as a secular Jewish constable on the dismaying cusp of middle age, and an Armenian pathologist.

Ancient animosities between Armenians and Turks bubble to the surface when a young man's body is found in a house leased by an affluent, mysterious Armenian who has disappeared, leaving the place devoid of furniture and food. The boy, pocked with needle marks, also has a garrote wound around his neck and seems to have been confined to an upstairs room. An autopsy discovers synthetic heroin in his blood, seldom found outside a medical setting, and a long-term atrophy of his limbs, as if the boy's confinement had been lengthy.

The investigation delves into a sordid ring of pedophilia, prostitution, kidnapping and drug use and some readers will solve the case well before Ikmen. But the journey is its own reward and Nadel delivers an atmospheric exploration of a contemporary Turkish city, replete with tensions between modern and traditional values.

Portsmouth Herald, March 13, 2005

I'm glad I found Barbara Nadel after Headline started publishing her, so I could order her books in sequence, although I wish there was a huge # on each cover! Under whichever title you bought this dread-filled story, it is how it unfolds, along with the dramas between Inspector Ikmen's staff & the history of the cultures that's the thing. I am a total fan of this teller of rich & atmospheric tales.

Ms Nadel has taken a recycled plot and tried to plump it up with page after page of irrelevant and uninteresting facts about the characters. And the characters are cartoons so it's all very tedious. I kept asking, "can we get back to the story already?" When we finally did, I realized how little there was to it and why she needed all the bland distractions.