Istanbul Guide

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Selçuk Altun (b 1950) uses İstanbul as a setting in many of his nov els. Sometimes mysteries, sometimes historical yarns, they include Songs My Mother Never Taught Me (2007), Many and Many a Year Ago (2008) and The Sultan of Byzantium (2011). Other contemporary Turkish novelists of note include İstanbul-born Nobel Prize–winning novelist Orhan Pamuk (p 203 ), Ahmet Ümit (b 1960) and Perihan Mağden (b 1960). Through Foreign Eyes Foreign novelists have long tried to capture the magic and mystery of İstanbul in their work. One of the earliest to do so was French novel ist Pierre Loti (1850–1923), whose romantic novel Aziyadé, written in 1879, introduced Europe to Loti’s almond-eyed Turkish lover and to the mysterious and all-pervasive attractions of the city itself. After Loti, writers such as Harold Nicolson set popular stories in the city. Nicolson’s 1921 novel Sweet Waters is a moving love story cum political thriller set in İstanbul during the Balkan Wars. Nicolson, who lived here as a diplomat, based the novel’s main character on his wife, Vita Sackville-West. Graham Greene’s 1932 thriller Stamboul Train focuses on a group of passengers travelling between Ostend and İstanbul on the Orient Express . It was filmed in 1934 as Orient Express . Thriller writer Eric Ambler used İstanbul as a setting in three high ly regarded novels: The Mask of Dimitrios (1939), Journey into Fear (1940) and The Light of Day (1962).

İstanbul on Page & Screen İstanbul in Print

THE DARK SIDE OF THE CITY İstanbul features as the setting for some great crime novels:

The Inspector İkmen novels Barbara Nadel investigates the city’s underbelly in a suitably gripping style. Whether they’re set in Balat or Beyoğlu, her books are always evocative and well researched. Start with Belshazzar’s Daughter (1999). The Yashim the Ottoman Investigator novels Jason Goodwin writes historical crime novels with a protagonist who is a eunuch attached to the Ottoman court. Titles in the series include The Janissary Tree (2006) , An Evil Eye (2011) and The Baklava Club (2014). Murder on the Orient Express Hercule Poirot puts ze leetle grey cells to good use on the famous train in this 1934 novel by Agatha Christie. It was made into a film by Sid ney Lumet in 1974 and features a few opening shots of İstanbul. The Kamil Paşa novels These historical crime novels by Jenny White feature a magistrate in one of the new Ottoman secular courts. Titles include The Sultan’s Seal (2006), The Abyssinian Proof (2009) and The Winter Thief (2010). Island Crimes Lawrence Goodman’s series of comic mystery novels set on the Princes’ Islands includes Sweet Confusion on the Princes’ Islands, Sour Grapes on the Princes’ Islands, A Grain of Salt on the Princes’ Islands and Something Bitter on the Princes’ Islands . The Hop-Çıkı-Yaya novels Mehmet Murat Somer’s series of gay crime novels feature a transvestite amateur sleuth. Titles include The Prophet Murders (2008), The Kiss Murders (2009) and The Wig Murders (2014). The Kati Hirschel Murder mysteries Written in Turkish and translated into English, these novels by Esmahan Aykol feature a German amateur sleuth who owns a book shop in Galata. Titles include Hotel Bosphorus (2011) and Baksheesh (2013). A Memento for İstanbul Three local policemen look to the city’s history to solve a string of bizarre killings in this 2010 novel by Ahmet Ümit.