The twenty-ninth mystery featuring Çetin İkmen and Mehmet Süleyman, stars of BBC Two’s gripping crime drama series The Turkish Detective, available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Retired inspector Çetin İkmen has taken a job as a private investigator. His first case involves a dispute between two cousins, fighting over the ownership of a yali in the upmarket Istanbul district of Yeniköy. As soon as İkmen hears it is the Asker Yali, painful memories from his past come flooding back. As a young constable, he’d been in attendance on the day that Türkiye’s most famous film star, GülizarAsker, or ‘The Rose of İstanbul’ as she was known, was found dead at the bottom of her staircase. The rose-scented fragrance that she always wore had filled the air on that fateful day and, while her death was deemed a tragic accident, it haunts İkmen still . . .
Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Süleyman and his team are investigating a series of brutal murders that have been taking place throughout the city. At first, the deaths appear to be unconnected but the intense fragrance that lingers at each crime scene suggests that a special scent has been concocted to symbolise each victim’s death. Could a serial killer be at work in the streets of Istanbul and, if so, can Süleyman’s team reveal their identity before another victim is found?
Retired inspector Çetin İkmen has taken a job as a private investigator. His first case involves a dispute between two cousins, fighting over the ownership of a yali in the upmarket Istanbul district of Yeniköy. As soon as İkmen hears it is the Asker Yali, painful memories from his past come flooding back. As a young constable, he’d been in attendance on the day that Türkiye’s most famous film star, GülizarAsker, or ‘The Rose of İstanbul’ as she was known, was found dead at the bottom of her staircase. The rose-scented fragrance that she always wore had filled the air on that fateful day and, while her death was deemed a tragic accident, it haunts İkmen still . . .
Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Süleyman and his team are investigating a series of brutal murders that have been taking place throughout the city. At first, the deaths appear to be unconnected but the intense fragrance that lingers at each crime scene suggests that a special scent has been concocted to symbolise each victim’s death. Could a serial killer be at work in the streets of Istanbul and, if so, can Süleyman’s team reveal their identity before another victim is found?
Reviews
Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector Ikmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots - the resourceful Ikmen is always struggling with intractable cases
Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight
Ikmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating
Inspector Çetin Ikmen is one of detective fiction's most likeable investigators, despite his grumpy and unsociable character . . . think of him as the Morse of Istanbul
