Petrified (Inspector Ikmen Mystery 6)

Book excerpt: Madness, obsession and a curiously preserved corpse in Istanbul... Petrified is the sixth dark and gripping mystery from the Inspector Ikmen series by the hugely talented crime writer, Barbara Nadel. Perfect for fans of Donna Leon and Jason Goodwin. 'Atmospheric, skilfully written and well plotted' - Time Out Summer in Istanbul is hot. The kind of heat that can drive even the sanest people a little crazy... An elderly woman is found dead in a flat with the perfectly preserved body of a young man. In an ancient part of the Jewish quarter, two children are missing. Their father, an artist whose genius borders on insanity, only seems more driven in his work. And a raid on a Russian gangster yields nothing except the dead body of a girl he claims is his daughter. Could the connection to all cases lie in a macabre forgotten art? But Inspector Cetin Ikmen's worries aren't just work-related. His protégé, Suleyman, is going dangerously off the rails, threatening to compromise not just himself, but months of painstaking investigation. Ikmen faces a complex case which threatens to rock the very fabric of Turkish society. What readers are saying about Petrified: 'A well-crafted interplay of stories - absolutely fascinating' 'An intriguing mystery that impresses for its descriptions of life within multicultural Istanbul and its characters' 'The theme and characters stayed with me for days after I had read this book'