Customer Reviews

The Winter Thief: A Kamil Pasha Novel (Kamil Pasha Novels)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jenny White's novel's just get better and better. I read this in manuscript form, and could not put it down. Beginning with a daring bank robbery, the pace keeps up through the novel, tying all kinds of disparate threads together at the end and letting you inside the lives of multiple interesting characters.

While looking for novels set in Turkey, I discovered Jenny White and her two Kamil Pasha novels. I not only loved her charachers but also the way in which she put the reader into the world of Istanbul at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Now a third book has been published. It may be my favorite. Jenny White is a not to be missed. Enjoy!

The Ottoman Empire has long been a place where Christians, Moslems and Jews can live together in safety and Magistrate Kamil Pasha values that and wants to preserve the empire. But other nations lust over rich Ottoman provinces, and internally, a struggle for power weakens the empire. When the Ottoman bank is robbed and dynamited, Kamil is called upon to solve the crime--but the head of the secret police organization is convinced he already knows the criminals--terrorist Armenians who hope to fund a revolution.

Hamstrung by weak support from his superiors, opposition from the secret police, and concerned both about the woman he loves and his missing brother-in-law, Kamil nevertheless investigates--until he is framed for murder. He uncovers evidence that a socialistic utopian group is attempting to set up a community in Ottoman-Armenian soil and that they may be behind both a gun smuggling plot and the robbery. But he doesn't believe they represent the revolutionary threat the secret police describe.

On the Sultan's orders, Kamil travels to Trabzon, and Armenian territories to investigate rumors of an impending revolt. There he finds that the secret police and Kurdish irregulars are stirring up exactly the kind of revolt the Sultan feared.

Author Jenny White creates a vivid picture of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Kamil finds himself trying to make the best choices in an environment where strict adherence to the law might result in slaughter of thousands. Vahid, head of the secret police, is a devious and angry antagonist driven both by ambition and by his hopes for revenge. The leaders of the socialist community are believably naive, willing to commit vast crimes in the belief that they are bringing in a wonderful new world. White is at her best when she's writing her deeply disturbed female characters. Kamil's sister seeks her missing husband while wondering if he was unfaithful to her, socialist Vera tries to find a publisher for an Armenian translation of The Communist Manifesto, to the deeply disturbed and homicidal Elif whom Kamil loves but who suffers repercussions from the murder of her husband and son.

White may have relied a bit much on coincidence, and I would have liked Vahid to be a bit more rational in his attempt to become the power behind the throne. But White's strong writing, the intriguing characters, and the wonderful setting in the declining days of the Ottoman Empire add up to a book that was hard to put down.

I loved Jenny White's new book. The character development was excellent, especially because I understood each person's point of view and why they were doing what they did, even when it was definitely not in their own interest. Having just seen "The Last Station," I was fascinated to read about another Utopian community at about the same time but in Turkey and fictional! And so thrilled that Kamil Pasha finally got to...............whoops, better not spill the beans. This third novel brings to life a whole gaggle of strong, passionate women who are a match for their -- and other evil -men. A really good read! You can feel the cold, the hunger and the passion.

This the best of the series by far, though I liked the earlier two books as well. The Winter Thief helps one understand both the nature of the Ottoman Empire and its decline. The characters and the time period are very well drawn. This is a most effective way to develop a sense of this time and place.

Jenny White uses her professional expertise to create a fascinating look at the late years of the Ottoman Empire. Through the character of Kamil Pasha we are immersed in the daily life of Ottoman subjects in high places and low. The only flaw in my mind is the romance between the humane, justice-seeking Kamil and the enigmatic, homicidal Elif. Just can't see those two together, in any reality. The author hints at a change for Kamil in future outings, moving him from the world of criminal investigations to that of the Sultan's intelligence service. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from White.

In 1888 Istanbul, Vera Arti carries the Armenian language version of The Communist Manifesto, ignorant that she is being followed. However attention is elsewhere in the tumultuous city when the Imperial Ottoman Bank is robbed and blown up. Secret Police Chief Vahid sees an opportunity for increasing his power so blames Armenian Communists as easy scapegoats, knowing they have a socialist commune nearby. He persuades the Sultan to allow him to destroy these separatists and any village in their vicinity as the locals obviously abetted their movement.

As Vahid leads a brutal deadly ethnic cleansing purge, Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha heads the official investigation into the bank incident. However, instead of support Kamil and his police are treated with contempt, their families threatened, and the Special prosecutor accused by Vahid's agents of murder and seditious activities in support of the separatists. Meanwhile Vahid continues his massacre using ethnic differences as tools to manipulate the Sultan and the citizens.

The third Kamil Pasha late nineteenth century Ottoman Empire police procedural (see THE SULTAN'S SEAL and THE ABYSSINIAN PROOF) is again more a deep historical tale than a whodunit as the investigation enhances the insightful look at the era. The inquiry is strong as Pasha and his police subordinates bring out in depth a troubled era enhanced by the moral dilemma they confront of doing the job right vs. protecting their family. Pasha understands the innocent are pawns of an insidious, ambitious but brilliant fiend; whatever choice he makes someone will suffer unfairly from the wrath of injustice. This is a great historical with a powerful values' message involving personal courage at a time when the safer solution is to salute the Sultan and his sinister Secret Police chief.

Harriet Klausner

Second in series I have read and like this even more. Next must get first in series. Not only does the story wrap one's interest in a cozy quilt of foreign places, well developed charACTERS, layered plots and ideas but the writing is smooth engaging and fluid. A suprising pleasant find.

The book doesn't grab my attention as much as those by Jason Goodwin. With Jason Goodwin, I could not put his books down. However, with the Winter Thief, the beginning was slow, and then I did not resume reading for another week or 2. Too much description which interrupts the pace of the story itself.

I finished reading this on kindle format. The storyline picks up from the earlier books, and Kamil Pasha is still an interesting character. But this is a story about the women even though the men cause all of the trouble. Kamil's sister changes quite a lot when her husband is injured, and Elif - the refugee artist - starts working her way out of the trauma she experienced in Macedonia. A new character, Vera, is a combination of naiveté and steely determination as a debutante socialist. And several peasant women, sketched in brief studies and situations, come across vividly. The men are less easily discerned. A new character is just so evil and sick that he's a bit hard to take. Other men are a bit opaque as to their characters and motives. The action moves from Istanbul to the outer edge of the Ottoman Empire and back. The difficulty of getting anywhere in winter when you must rely on your own feet or horses comes across clearly, and you can understand why people on one side of a mountain never ventured to the other. As with the other books, the detail about daily life under the Ottoman rule is fascinating, particularly how different ethnic and religious groups perceived the Empire as just or unjust. And weaving in the early days of the international socialist movement and how the Ottomans saw this and reacted to it as a threat is also interesting. In today's world of fundamentalists (of all religions) it's useful to recall how more sophisticated and enlightened people of all religions had once tried to co-exist. I can't give the book full marks because there is some unevenness in the plotting, and some of the situations are nearly impossible to believe in an otherwise fairly realistic novel.