When Emine Aksu, the flamboyant wife of an Istanbul style guru, suddenly goes missing, Inspector Cetin Ikmen's investigation leads him deep into her strange and colourful past. Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?About the AuthorTrained as an actress, Barbara Nadel is now a public relations officer for Rethink Severe Mental Illness's Good Companions Project. Her previous job was a mental health advocate in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in both schools and colleges. Born in the East End of London, she now lives in Lancashire and has been a regular visitor to Turkey for over twenty years.

When Inspector Cetin Ikmen is invited to a murder mystery evening at Istanbul's famous Pera Palas Hotel he finds himself embroiled in a deadly game of life imitating art. Halfway through the evening, one of the actors is found actually dead in the room where Agatha Christie used to stay when she was in Istanbul. Walking in the steps of the great, Ikmen experiences fear and hatred which have echoes deep in his own and his country's past.Review"Intriguing . . . all will appreciate the skill with which Nadel depicts the tensions underlying contemporary Turkish society as well as her ability to make each of her characters fully human."  —Publishers Weekly on Arabesk"Add Inspector Ikmen and his motley crew to the growing list of outstanding fictional cops plying their trades across all parts of Europe and Asia, which have become hotbeds of police procedural excellence."  —Booklist on Belshazzar's DaughterAbout the AuthorBarbara Nadel received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for Deadly Web. Other titles in the Inspector Ikmen mysteries series include Belshazzar's Daughter, Death by Design, and The Ottoman Cage. She is also the author of the Francis Hancock series.

Inspector Çetin Ikmen and forensic pathologist Arto Sarkissian have been friends since childhood, and their work together in Istanbul's criminal justice system has only served to cement their friendship. When they're both called to a flat to investigate the death of a twenty-year-old, there is no reason to think their relationship will alter. The case, however, is a strange one. Ikmen learns from the neighbours that they have never seen the man enter or leave the flat. The only visitor they're aware of is a solitary, well-dressed Armenian. Stranger still is that the limbs of the body are withered, and the victim seems to have been kept prisoner inside a gilded cage. What is it that's making Ikmen's old friend Arto, himself an Armenian, especially uncomfortable about the case?Review'My crime reader is raving about this author, and says this second title is better than her first, BELSHAZZAR'S DAUGHTER. They have an atmospheric Turkish setting, with an excellently drawn investigating officer. Good one and worth watching' Bookseller Even better than Nadel's extraordinary first book...tightly organised...the dark, Byzantine plot springs organically from the tensions of race and class in Turkish society, which is treated with a depth and detail unusual in a crime novel Evening Standard 'A thriller that presents a Middle Eastern city populated by human beings, rather than specimens of oriental exotica, and a British writer who can get inside a foreign skin' Independent 'Even better than Nadel's extraordinary first book...tightly organised...the dark, Byzantine plot springs organically from the tensions of race and class in Turkish society, which is treated with a depth and detail unusual in a crime novel' Evening Standard A sure-fire winner Good Book Guide 'A thriller that presents a Middle Eastern city populated by human beings, rather than specimens of oriental exotica, and a British writer who can get inside a foreign skin' Independent About the AuthorBarbara Nadel is a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship.

Ex-soldier Lee Arnold and his Muslim assistant Mumtaz Hakim run a detective agency in London's ethnically diverse, crime-ridden East End. Mumtaz is approached by an Egyptian woman, Salwa, whose husband is in Belmarsh on terrorism charges. Salwa convinces Mumtaz of her husband's innocence and persuades her to go undercover to prove it. But Salwa is not what she seems. Trapped in an old tunnel that leads to the London docks, will Mumtaz escape with her life?

A man's body, virtually decapitated, is found by the Bosphorus. His identity card names him as Rifat Berisha, an Albanian. The family is impenetrable but when Inspector Cetin Ikmen, whose mother was Albanian, consults his cousin, Samsun, he's left in little doubt that Berisha's death is likely to be the result of a fis, an implacable blood feud between rival Albanian families. Which means the blood already shed will have to be avenged. And if the Berishas or their enemies discover Ikmen is from a noted Albanian clan, some of the spilt blood might be his...ReviewWe've seen it happen so often: the auspicious debut novel, followed by a not so glittering career in which all the promise of the first book is frittered away. But the syndrome can be broken, as Barbara Nadel triumphantly demonstrates. Arabesk, A Chemical Prison and Belshazzar's Daughter were all splendidly atmospheric, cunningly plotted thrillers with a brilliantly evoked Middle East. That highly topical background is evoked once again in this powerful fourth novel. A corpse, virtually decapitated, is found by the Bosphorus. His identity card names him as Berisha, an Albanian. Inspector Ikmen is left in little doubt that his death is the result of a fis, an implacable blood feud between rival Albanian families. Ikmen is a brilliantly characterised protagonist, and this is splendid stuff. About the AuthorTrained as an actress, Barbara Nadel is now a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship's Good Companions Service. Her previous job was a mental health advocate in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in both schools and colleges. Born in the East End of London, she now lives in Essex and has been a regular visitor to Turkey for over twenty years.

Any bloody death will lead Inspectors Çetin Ikmen and Mehmet Süleyman out onto the dark streets of Istanbul. On 21 January, a half-decapitated corpse in the poor multicultural district of Tarlabasi poses a particularly frustrating and gruesome mystery. But as the months pass and the violence increases, it turns into a hunt for that rare phenomenon in the golden city on the Bosphorus: a serial killer. Desperate to uncover the killer's twisted logic as the body count rises, Ikmen and Süleyman find only more questions. How are the victims connected? What is the significance of the number 21? And how many Istanbullus must die before they find the answers?

In the shadow of St Paul's, Arnold and Hakim are drawn into an investigation involving an old man and a newborn baby.London, December 2019. Two young boys, Habib and Loz, are trying their luck at selling knock-off 'essential oils'. But they are troubled by an encounter with an elderly customer and a young man with a blood-smeared face.When Habib's big sister Iqra hears the boys discussing what happened, she puts them in touch with Lee Arnold and his partner Mumtaz Hakim. While they set about uncovering the truth behind the odd situation, they find themselves at the heart of a gruesome investigation involving the discovery of a newborn's bones.

As the German Luftwaffe bomb the capital, undertaker Francis Hancock suddenly finds himself caught up in the middle of a terrifying abduction plot. It's 29 December, 1940, the night that Hitler has chosen to destroy London under a barrage of flaming incendiary bombs. Their main target - St Paul's cathedral - is where Hancock is sheltering from the onslaught. But the First World War veteran doesn't just have bombs to contend with; a young girl, who was also sheltering in the cathedral, has vanished. Then some of those charged with protecting the building are brutally murdered. Hancock must face his own demons and fears in his struggle to catch those responsible and bring them to justice...About the AuthorBarbara Nadel received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for Deadly Web. Other titles in the Inspector Ikman mysteries series include Arabesk, Belshazzar's Daughter, and The Ottoman Cage.

When a brutal murder shocks Istanbul's rundown Jewish quarter, the Turkish police force unleashes their best weapon - the chain-smoking, brandy-swilling Inspector Cetin Ikmen, husband to a strict Muslim woman (who disapproves of his drinking) and loving father of eight (with another on the way). With a colorful, multi-layered setting and a delicious labyrinthine plot, Barbara Nadel's Belshazzar's Daughter is a stunning and evocative crime debut, and Inspector Ikmen will surely join the ranks of beloved foreign cops Aureilo Zen and Guido Brunetti.

The new, chilling psycho-mystery from the highly-acclaimed and award-winning author Barbara Nadel.Convicted murderer and drug baron Yusuf Kaya has escaped from Istanbul prison. He appears to have had inside help. Ikmen is called to investigate Kaya’s contacts in the city, while Inspector Suleyman heads to Kaya’s home town of Mardin, a dangerous city in the south east of Turkey. As Ikmen delves deeper into Kaya’s past, the body count continues to rise. It’s not long before the two Inspectors are caught up in a terrifying web of arms and drug running, terrorism, blackmail and murder . . .

It is 2012: London is hosting the Olympics and the East End Borough of Newham is at the centre of the world. But surrounding the glamorous stadia are some of the most ethnically diverse and crime-ridden streets in the capital. This is the world of Arnold and Hakim. PI Lee Arnold and his assistant, Mumtaz Hakim, work surrounded by these fierce tensions. When Arnold is hired to protect a female stand-up comedian, he knows that her outrageous routine--one that leaves no racist, ageist or sexist stone unturned--makes her a target for local hatred. But the case is not as simple as it looks. Convinced that she's being stalked, it's up to Arnold and Hakim to watch whoever is watching her, and find out whether her genuine terror is justified...