Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

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 Sidney 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 bookshop 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. 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 novelist Pierre Loti (1850–1923), whose romantic novel Aziyadé, written in 1879,