light historical murder mystery fiction. great beach read, really good atmosphere of post-Crimean-Istanbul. looking forward to reading more in the series, or by the author ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2014-11.html#kamil-pasha ( )

I'll be reading the rest of the series. Surprisingly similar to the last book I read from the same library, Alif the Unseen. ( )

I'll be reading the rest of the series. Surprisingly similar to the last book I read from the same library, Alif the Unseen. ( )

An immersive tale taking place at the end of an old empire, an old city and an old sect. Around the final years of the 19th century in a thriving Istanbul, we meet police investigator Kamil Pasha who is asked to recover the lost 'Proof of God' by an old friend. Through tunnels and turrets, alleyways and ancient market places, we are drawn into a plot that takes place amongst a cast of vividly drawn characters. It is the description of the people and places that makes this book rather good. I must confess that the reveal of the nature of the Proof of God was not a let-down and one of the more well thought out religious historical plot devices. It sounded rather credible. The narrative flows well and as a reader you're easily swept away from your reading chair into the atmosphere of a crumbling empire. As far as atmosphere goes it can easily take on any of Jack Finney's work.

Some of the narrative felt a bit chaotic though. Frequent use of perspective and context switches made this book rather difficult to get through. A fair amount of the main characters, even though they were vividly drawn, felt similar in many ways. The fact that the protagonist's name is an anagram of one of the leading characters did not help and I frequently could not figure out who was speaking.

In that sense the narrative lost itself in the massive amount of immersion and the main thread of the story was frequently lost. Was this a novel about a lost relic? About cultural changes in the east at the end of the 19th century? Was it about women's rights in an era known for suppression? ( )