Blood Business
""I love this series. A great read as are all Nadel's books.""
Synopsis:
Inspector Cetin Ikmen is now retired and grieving for his much-loved wife. He sits at home talking to her ghost and avoiding contact with his old friends. He is tempted into returning to life when he is prompted by his daughter into investigating the disappearance of a once famous actress who is involved in a charity working with the poor and destitute.
His friend and former colleague. Mehmet Suleyman is investigating a strange case where a body has been removed from its grave and replaced with another more recent corpse minus her heart. Both cases seem to have a connection to illegal organ harvesting and the criminal under belly of Istanbul.
Questions of old murders, family secrets and inheritance disputes intertwine with a distinctly supernatural twist to lead Ikmen and Suleyman to find the answers. All life and death are here and people have complex motives that need to be teased out.
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Review:
I always love Inspector Ikmen as he struggles to maintain his secular view of life against the developing influence of the Islamic rulers of the state. In this book he is even further adrift from the mainstream as he reverts to his mother's belief in spirits and Djinns. And very matter of fact he is about it too - one lives in his kitchen acknowledged, but largely ignored by Cetin. His innate love for people and a burning desire to find out the truth is what helps him to overcome his grief a move on with his life. Istanbul and Turkey are changing and Barbara Nadel charts the progression of this change throughout this series. I am tempted to return to the very first one and compare life then and now. Certainly her close contact with the country gives her a very interesting perspective. I love this series. A great read as are all the books in this series.