New Reviews: Aykol, Johnstone, King, McKinty, Nickson, Shepherd, Vargas

Win Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska (UK only)





Seven new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:


I review Esmahan Aykol's second Kati Hirschel investigation Baksheesh tr. Ruth Whitehouse, set in Istanbul;


Amanda Gillies reviews Doug Johnstone's latest Gone Again which she found even better than Hit & Run;



Lynn Harvey reviews the most recent in the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R King, Garment of Shadows, set in Morocco;




Mark Bailey reviews Adrian McKinty's, I Hear the Sirens in the Street, the second in the 1980s-Northern Ireland Sean Duffy trilogy;


Geoff Jones reviews the fifth in the historical Richard Nottingham series by Chris Nickson: At the Dying of the Year;




Terry Halligan reviews Lloyd Shepherd's sequel to The English Monster, The Poisoned Island


and Sarah Hilary reviews Fred Vargas's The Ghost Riders of Ordebec tr. Sian Reynolds.




Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: Baksheesh by Esmahan Aykol

Baksheesh by Esmahan Aykol translated by Ruth Whitehouse, March 2013, 253 pages, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 1908524049

BAKSHEESH is the second of the Kati Hirschel mysteries, following on from HOTEL BOSPHORUS.

Kati Hirschel is the forty-something owner of a specialist crime bookshop in Istanbul. Her parents are German but she was born in Istanbul and has spent time living in both countries and speaks Turkish with a slight accent. She borrows a phrase from Jakob Arjouni's HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TURK (which features a German born to Turkish parents):

..man opposite interrupted to compliment me on my Turkish.

In revenge, I said, “Oh yes? You, too, speak very good Turkish.”

I have to confess it wasn't original – I pinched it from a novel.

Kati's landlord has put her rent up to such a degree that she decides that it's time to own her own property. With a little bribery, the use of baksheesh, you can get first dibs on repossessed properties. When she goes to look at a potential home, an apartment, she gets into an argument with the man currently using it. So much so that he later appears at her shop, where she hits him with an ashtray in self-defence.

So when the man is found dead she is dragged in by the police. To clear her name she sets out to find out who the real murderer is and her investigation leads her to meet different strata of Turkish society.

Though BAKSHEESH has a typical amateur sleuth set-up the strength of the book is in the atmosphere of Istanbul and its society and culture as experienced by a semi-outsider. The different areas of Istanbul have their own reputations as does the country outside Istanbul. Also mentioned are the reasons for people coming to Istanbul, the story of family feuds, as well as customs for when you have visitors and so on. (We also get a look at how Kati perceives Germans.) The “genuine” reason for Kati to sleuth is soon dispensed with however she continues her investigation due to her curiosity and it's best not to think too much about the why and just enjoy the journey which is recounted in a breezy, humorous and intimate way.

BAKSHEESH is an enjoyable book which manages to immerse you in Istanbul, introduce you to some interesting characters and include a murder-mystery all in around 250 pages. Fans of Mehmet Murat Somer should also enjoy this series.

pps to Translated Delights in 2011

I've just added another title to the International Dagger Eligibles - the list is up to 49 now.

The title added is Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol from Bitter Lemon Press in April 2011. Not only does it feature a crime bookshop owner but is also states on the cover "the first Kati Hirschel murder mystery" (there are three so far).

Kati Hirschel, in her thirties, is the proud owner of Istanbul’s only crime bookshop. When the German director of a film starring an old school friend is found murdered in his hotel room Kati cannot resist the temptation to start her own maverick investigation. After all her friend Petra is the police’s principal suspect and reading all those detective novels must have taught Kati something. This is a crime story but also a wonderful book about Istanbul and Turkish society. It uses humour, social commentary and even erotic fantasy to expose Western European prejudices about Turkey as well as Turkish stereotyping of other Europeans.

More translated delights can be found here and here.