Sunday Salon: Autumn Reads

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

I seem to be reading more during this cool weather, in between taking rides to see the changing leaves and to buy pumpkins from local farms. Got some local fruit preserves for gifts and pumpkin bread for myself!

I finished reading Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Ella Macneal, though I flipped through the last third of the mystery novel, impatient for the ending and feeling the book was too padded after a very good first half.

I felt the same about Forgotten by Catherine Mckenzie, an excellent book and plot but padded with  drawn out conversation for pages and pages later on. I also flipped to the end after enjoying the plot lines of the book as laid out in the first half.


Lest you think I'm just an overly impatient reader, I'm reading every word of Joseph Kanon's Istanbul Passage, a thriller and novel of intrigue set in post-WWII Istanbul, featuring international spies and people runners trying to wrap up the frayed edges of the end of the war. I'm in the middle of the book and don't feel impelled or the least bit inclined to flip to the end!

Backyard maple makes a statement

What books have captured your attention this fall?

Book Review: Arabesk by Barbara Nadel, a Turkish mystery

Arabesk by Barbara Nadel

Arabesk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent Turkish mystery set in Istanbul,  it describes a young Kurdish movie star torn between family and religious loyalties and his love for an older singer, Tansu. The novel shows some of the cultural differences between the Turks and the Kurdish minority and differences among the Kurds themselves.

Book description: Confined to his home on sick-leave (and prevented from sneaking his beloved brandy and cigars), Inspector Ikmen of the Istanbul police is forced to hand his latest case over to his protege, the newly promoted Suleyman. That's to bad, because the aristocratic Suleyman knows nothing about Arabesque, the throbbing, deeply sentimental music that is adored by Turkey's working classes, and the case is drenched in those mournful melodies. The latest musical sensation, a secret marriage, a murdered bride, an again mistress and a father driven mad with grief and guilt... it's all so melodramatic that Suleyman can barely keep his lip from curling. Ikmen is unashamed of his own plebeian tastes, but both cops eventually come to one conclusion: At the real heart of this operatic catastrophe are the conflicts inherent to the city itself.

Summary: The young Kurdish wife of popular film star Erol Urfa is found dead, poisoned by cyanide hidden in an almond pastry. The first suspect is the person who found her, a retarded man Cengiz Temiz, a neighbor of the dead woman. Inspector Ikmen and his colleagues at the Turkish police decide that Cengiz is mentally incapable of carrying out such a careful murder plan. They search for other suspects. One is Erol's lover, the famous singer Tansu. Tansu and Erol are from the north, and are Kurdish. This fact is a major part of the plot and feeds into a motive for the murder of Erol's wife, Ruya.

My comments: I found it was a clever plot. Though I guessed the culprit about three-quarters of the way through, I couldn't guess the motive. That's pretty good for a mystery, to not know until the end of the book! I learned more about the Kurds, that they have strong family and religious loyalties, and that some are considered more superstitious than other Arabs.

The only difficulty in reading Arabesk was keeping the many Turkish and Kurdish names straight. There is Cengiz, the suspect, and detectives Cetin, Coktin, Cohen. Inspector Ikmen and his protege Suleyman are easier to recognize, but keeping people separate from names of streets, building, and places got to be a challenge. However, that didn't prevent me from finishing and enjoying this unusual and entertaining novel.

Challenge: Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge, Support your Local Library Challenge