May 12, 2009

The Kiss Murder, book review

The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer of Istanbul, Turkey, is the first in the Turkish Delight mystery series that has been translated into English and published by Penguin Books.

The main character, who works with computers in the day, dresses up as Audrey Hepburn at night, when he runs his unconventional nightclub. The mystery involves the murder of one of his nightclub employees, who had refused to turn over letters from a client that someone wants to use for blackmail.

Though the book is described as "outrageous and hilarious" and very popular in the author's native country, Turkey, I find much of the humor has been truly "lost in translation."

What may be excruciatingly funny in the original Arabic, culturally and linguistically, unfortunately didn't carry over for me into the English version. The "humorous" events fell flat. If you can, try reading the novel in the original!

Note: A "Teaser Tuesday" meme quote from the novel generated the comments for this post.

23 comments:

  1. Certainly sounds outrageous. And fun :)

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  2. Ooh that does sound like a fascinating book!

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  3. Gotta check it out!

    BTW, glad to discover your blog!

    This, from a fellow teacher..:)

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  4. Ahhh! I am left hanging! Great teaser!

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  5. Good teaser.
    Turkish mystery books...I would have never thought. How did you find this series?

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  6. Jenny: I can't remember where I found or heard of the book, but I must have requested it from the local library. They borrowed it from another library, just for me, the patron! When it came in, I was just as surprised as you, as I had totally forgotten about. Now I must read it! Nothing overtly offensive, as far as I can tell, is in the book. The next one in the series comes out in 2010.

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  7. Sounds like a great mystery series!!

    Here's my Teaser! ~ Wendi

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  8. This one's on my to-read list. Thanks for the teaser.

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  9. Hmm, just came here from Missy's blog and I must admit I'm confused! From your comment on her blog I was expecting something a little racier... This does sound like an interesting series though!

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  10. P.S.....Harvey's little face is so sweet.

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  11. Avisannschild: I guess dressing in drag is no big deal these days, even in Istanbul!

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  12. Dressing in drag is indeed no big deal. No more than women wearing pants, which we got used to long, long ago.

    Sounds like a great book! I think I need to put it on my TBR list.

    My own teaser is at Bookishgal

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  13. OK, now I feel a bit foolish! I swear I read your whole post before I commented but somehow didn't catch the fact that it was a guy dressing as Audrey Hepburn! Thanks for clueing me in! (And sorry about that!)

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  14. sounds like some wild times are ahead for you!!!

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  15. Avisannchild: I confess, my post wasn't exactly clear, so I reworded it after you made your comment. Someone from Turkey accessed the post earlier,(Live Traffic Feed) and so I toned the post down so as not to offend anyone! And then I changed it again, but just slightly, to make it more clear. You didn't read incorrectly. I was being a bit indirect!

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  16. Ah, thanks for clarifying and glad to hear I wasn't so out to lunch after all! (I also agree with Phyl that dressing in drag is not such a big deal either!) I'll be curious to read your review of this book!

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  17. Sounds like an unusual setting for a mystery series. Must be working. Good teaser.

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  18. Thanks, J. Kaye. I left her a note! Welcome to Book Bird Dog!

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