Barbara Nadel – författare

The twenty-eighth 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.When two women are found dead in Istanbul - one bitten by a snake in the slum quarter of Kuştepe, the other killed by a suspected terror attack in Teşvikiye - Inspector Mehmet Süleyman and his team cannot see an obvious connection between the two cases.Ex-inspector Çetin İkmen isn't so sure. In Kuştepe, helping a friend place a collection of dazzling sculptures at one of the city's art galleries, İkmen discovers that one of the sculptures bears a startling resemblance to the Kuştepe victim. Did the deceased artist know her and, if so, in what capacity? And what, if anything, does the death of a devout Muslim woman in Teşvikiye have to do with an alleged terror plot aimed at undermining the security of the city?Süleyman and İkmen soon discover there is more to this situation than meets the eye and they must uncover the truth in order to prevent more bloodshed . . .Praise for Barbara Nadel's İkmen mysteries:'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' Guardian

London, December 2019. Two young boys, Habib and Loz, are trying their luck at selling knock-off pain remedies to pensioners. But they are troubled by an encounter with a potential elderly customer and a young man with a blood-smeared face.Mumtaz Hakim wants to help if she and her partner Lee Arnold can, even though there's no way their detective agency could reasonably charge the boys. While they set about uncovering the truth behind the odd situation in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral, they find themselves drawn into a gruesome investigation involving an old man and a newborn baby.

The streets of East London are alive with different languages, cultures and religions. Private investigators Lee Arnold and Mumtaz Hakim are well-versed in the community's tensions, the sad day-to-day reality that includes the desecration of graves at Plashet Jewish cemetery in East Ham.The vandalism of these final resting places leads to a disturbing discovery: one of the damaged coffins does not contain human remains but instead a sculpture of a man made of clay. This so-called 'golem', a term from Jewish myth given to a figure brought to life by supernatural means, proves intriguing to Arnold and Hakim, even more so when it is stolen from a police storage facility in an armed raid.The case leads the pair deep into London's past and its connections to wartime Prague, and onto the trail of a priceless jewel worth killing for.

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?

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?

Private investigator and ex-soldier Lee Arnold and superintendent Paul Venus are by no means friends, but when Venus' son Harry is kidnapped and ransom demands arrive from an address in Arnold's patch in east London, the superintendent doesn't know who else to turn to.Arnold and his partner Mumtaz Hakim soon find themselves chasing leads into several of the East End's uneasily coexisting communities. Mumtaz uncovers a link to one of the area's powerful Bangladeshi families, whose property empire has always seemed suspicious, while Arnold suspects the involvement of more old-fashioned East End gangsters, and wonders if some of the nastier rumours about Venus himself might be true. And neither Mumtaz nor Lee like the look of the children of the super-rich, arriving in droves in the trendy parts of Hoxton and Shoreditch and living in luxury just a stone's throw from grinding urban poverty.The truth, however, is stranger and more dangerous than either Arnold or Hakim imagine. Enough Rope is a powerful and thrilling novel of London's ever-evolving dark side.

Barbara Nadel's gripping Ikmen mysteries are the inspiration behind The Turkish Detective, BBC Two's sensational eight-part TV crime drama series available to watch on BBC iPlayer.A secret worth killing for... Barbara Nadel introduces Inspector Cetin Ikmen for the first time in her debut novel, Belshazzar's Daughter. The ikmen mysteries have been highly praised:'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' GuardianLeonid Meyer is found murdered in his flat in Balat, Istanbul's decrepit Jewish quarter, a swastika daubed on the wall in the old man's blood. But Inspector Cetin Ikmen is quick to eschew the obvious conclusion that this is a racist attack. The evidence leads Ikmen and his young lieutenant, Suleyman, to two people: Robert Cornelius, a teacher observed outside Meyer's flat shortly after the murder, and a retired businessman, Reinhold Smits, known to have had Nazi sympathies. But another link connects these two: a ninety-year-old Russian émigré, Maria Gulcu, a widow who thinks she possesses a secret worth killing for...What readers are saying about Belshazzar's Daughter:'An engaging, fascinating picture of life in Turkey. Wonderful characters and a deep plot that constantly draws one to read on''An excellent murder mystery set in the twilight world of old aristocracies in modern day Istanbul''An intense psychological drama with an impressive array of characters and colourful descriptions of the less salubrious areas of Istanbul. Nadel successfully evokes the hot sultry atmosphere of modern Turkey'

When the wife of one of Istanbul's best known popular singers is found dead and his baby daughter missing, the newly promoted Inspector Suleyman, scion of one of Turkey's most aristocratic families, finds himself plunged into the magnificently vulgar, overblown world of Arabesk music, dominated by an ageing star, the monstrous chanteuse, Tansu.

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...

The body of a teenage girl is discovered in a cistern deep below the city of Istanbul. For the Turkish police force's most talented officer, Inspector Çetin Ikmen, this is a difficult case. The girl was his daughter's friend and her attire, that of a nineteenth-century Ottoman, offers no easy explanation.With his promise of justice to the dead girl's mother still fresh on his lips, Ikmen is suddenly taken off the case and reassigned to the kidnapping of an ageing movie star's wife. The star is hiding something and so, Ikmen fears, are his superiors. A powerful secret exists in the labyrinthine city; one which those on either side of the law will do anything to prevent surfacing...

Summer in Istanbul is hot. The kind of heat that can drive even the sanest people a little crazy...An elderly woman is found dead in a flat with the perfectly preserved body of a young man. In an ancient part of the Jewish quarter, two children are missing. Their father, an artist whose genius borders on insanity, only seems more driven in his work. And a raid on a Russian gangster yields nothing except the dead body of a girl he claims is his daughter. Could the connection to all cases lie in a macabre forgotten art? But Inspector Cetin Ikmen's worries aren't just work-related. His protégé, Suleyman, is going dangerously off the rails, threatening to compromise not just himself but months of painstaking investigation. Ikmen faces a complex case which threatens to rock the very fabric of Turkish society.

The streets of East London are alive with different languages, cultures and religions. Private investigators Lee Arnold and Mumtaz Hakim are well-versed in the community's tensions, the sad day-to-day reality that includes the desecration of graves at Plashet Jewish cemetery in East Ham.The vandalism of these final resting places leads to a disturbing discovery: one of the damaged coffins does not contain human remains but instead a sculpture of a man made of clay. This so-called 'golem', a term from Jewish myth given to a figure brought to life by supernatural means, proves intriguing to Arnold and Hakim, even more so when it is stolen from a police storage facility in an armed raid.The case leads the pair deep into London's past and its connections to wartime Prague, and onto the trail of a priceless jewel worth killing for.

A naked teenage girl is found dead near the beautiful Byzantine Yoros Castle in Turkey. She has stabbed herself through the heart but there is evidence of bizarre sexual practice. In another part of Istanbul, a young boy sems to have committed suicide in similar circumstances. What dark rituals could have compelled them to fatal self-abuse? Inspectors Cetin Ikmen and Mehmet Suleyman follow an internet trail that leads them to an underworld of Goth nightclubs and Satanic worship. But even those murkey shadows hide more than they reveal and the answers to an ever increasing number of suspicious deaths is more shocking and terrible than they could ever have imagined.

A serial killer is stalking the streets of Istanbul, seemingly targeting gay men. A man is found dead in a hotel room, a single stab wound in his heart. Could he be a victim of the 'Peeper'? Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is assigned to the case, and is shocked to discover that the victim's body has been delivered to forensics entirely 'clean'. Has someone tampered with vital evidence? Meanwhile a young carpet dealer, on the brink of a huge sale, is discovered in the mangled remains of his Jeep, a bullet between his shoulder blades. The deal would have made him - the carpet he wanted to sell used to belong to Lawrence of Arabia. Did the young salesman know too much? Inspectors Cetin Ikmen and Suleyman uncover an incredible story and quickly realise that behind even the most respectable facade lurk passion, savagery and madness...

October 1940. The London borough of West Ham is in the grip of yet another night of bombing, and undertaker Francis Hancock is in the grip of yet another night of temporary insanity.A veteran of World War One, Francis is forced by the nightly air raids to relive the trauma of the trenches, and all he can do is try to outrun the horrific flashbacks. So when he sees a man lurching through the rubble, screaming about being stabbed but with no visible wound, Francis dismisses it at the ravings of another lost soul... until the man's body turns up at his funeral parlour, two days later. Suspecting foul play, Francis feels compelled to discover what really happened that night - but he finds himself pitted against violent thugs, an impenetrable network of lies and his own fragile sanity.

In the dark days of the Blitz, crime goes undercover...Undertaker Francis Hancock has seen the worst that humanity can do to itself. Why then does the murder of a young gypsy girl in Epping Forest move him so much? Travellers, gypsies, the homeless, deserters and German spies inhabit this stretch of open ground that was once her home. Francis knows it's not wise to delve into this human melting pot, but he is drawn to the exotic customs of the gypsies, their music and magic. But as he investigates the girl's murder further, the death toll rises and Francis uncovers a much bigger conspiracy, at the heart of which lies something even Adolf Hitler is prepared to kill for...

A body is discovered in a cave in the remote region of Cappadocia, Turkey. The woman died of gunshot wounds, and her corpse has lain undisturbed for twenty years. Inspector Cetin Ikmen is summoned from Istanbul to investigate and discovers a complex web of intrigue. Was she killed by her boyfriend, driven mad by love, or her husband, believing she would never bear the son he wanted so badly? When it is revealed the girl was pregnant when she died, the whispers and accusations increase. Ikmen, stifled among a rural community thriving on folklore and intrigue, begins to think he will never see clearly through the lies surrounding this case. One thing, however, is clear: the past is as potent as the present.

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?

Barbara Nadel's Turkish crime novel sees Inspector Ikmen tackling a complex case of organised crime in London.When the Istanbul police raid a counterfeit goods factory in the run-down district of Tarlabasi, a young man with explosives strapped to his chest blows himself up in front of them. In the process, Istanbul's Inpsector Çetin Ikmen is injured. Documents found in the factory lead the authorities in both Istanbul and London to believe that a terrorist attack, in part orchestrated from the Tarlabasi factory, is about to be enacted in the British capital. Ikmen goes undercover amongst the Turkish community of North London, although what he uncovers there is certainly not what his British colleagues were expecting...

Turkey: the police are called to the scene of what seems to be the honour killing of a young girl. Burnt alive, she is not the first girl to suffer such an horrific death in Istanbul. Further investigations by Inspectors Cetin Ikmen and Mehmet Suleyman reveal that the girl had a secret boyfriend who has now disappeared. He and the girl's family are prime suspects, even though forensic evidence is scant. Why does the family, in common with other families of girls immolated in the city, now appear to be broke? There are also links to an infamous local gangster. Religion, organised crime and the lengths some people will go to in order to conform, come together in a tragic story of violence in a divided and changing society. And Mehmet Suleyman is on the verge of making a mistake that could ruin his career...

Inner city murder crosses two continents.Inspectors Cetin Ikmen and Mehmet Suleyman from Istanbul are sent to a policing conference in Detroit, but little can prepare them for the corruption that lies at its heart. When Ezekial Goins, an elderly man of Turkish descent approaches them to crack the long-unsolved murder of his son, a quiet trip takes a far more sinister turn. As they delve deeper into the case, the pair find themselves immersed in a terrifying world of inter-gang drug war and racial prejudice that puts them in mortal danger, and forces Ikmen to confront some demons of his own...

When 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. Walking in the steps of the great Agatha Christie, Ikmen experiences fear and hatred which have echoes deep in his own past.

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?

It is London 2012 and Stratford in the East End is at the centre of the world. But next to the Olympic Park are some of the poorest and most crime-ridden streets in the city. PI Lee Arnold and his assistant, Mumtaz Hakim, run a detective agency in a community fraught with conflict and tension. Approached by a frightened woman, they start to investigate her stalker. But soon their enquiries turn in a far more sinister direction.

Lee Arnold and Mumtaz Hakim run a detective agency in London's East End. But their latest case could have devastating consequences. A new client, Nasreen, has sought Hakim's help. Recently moved to a new house, and with a baby on the way, this should be an exciting time - but Nasreen has made friends in the community that she cannot tell her husband, Abdullah, about. And when a murder takes place close to their home, Nasreen suspects that Abdullah also has something to hide. This case is a challenge for the agency, but provides a timely warning to Mumtaz - debts spiralling, her life is in danger of spinning out of control. Both women are on a path towards destruction, as the consequences of ignoring their instincts become ever more dangerous...

The twenty-seventh 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.Inspector Mehmet Süleyman is on holiday in Romania when his distant cousin calls. Nurettin Süleyman has bought the Wooden Library, an ancient building in Istanbul once owned by their ancestor. He needs help cataloguing its priceless contents and who better for the job than Mehmet's old friend Çetin İkmen? As İkmen sets to work, he detects a terrible smell pervading the library that leads to the discovery of a rotting corpse. The dead body is that of Senol Ulusoy, the man who sold Nurettin the library . . .A long-running feud between the two families comes to light, as does the bitter rivalry between the three Ulusoy brothers, fuelled by their father's cruel manipulation. Then pathologist Arto Sarkissian makes a shocking discovery that turns this case on its head, and Süleyman's detective team must dig deep to reveal a truth that is rooted in the past as well as the present . . .Praise for Barbara Nadel's İkmen mysteries:'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' Guardian

The twenty-seventh mystery featuring Inspector İkmen, star of BBC Two's gripping crime drama series The Turkish Detective.Inspector Mehmet Süleyman is on holiday in Romania when his distant cousin calls. Nurettin Süleyman has bought the Wooden Library, an ancient building in Istanbul once owned by their ancestor. He needs help cataloguing its priceless contents and who better for the job than Mehmet's old friend Çetin İkmen? As İkmen sets to work, he detects a terrible smell pervading the library that leads to the discovery of a rotting corpse. The dead body is that of Senol Ulusoy, the man who sold Nurettin the library . . .A long-running feud between the two families comes to light, as does the bitter rivalry between the three Ulusoy brothers, fuelled by their father's cruel manipulation. Then pathologist Arto Sarkissian makes a shocking discovery that turns this case on its head, and Süleyman's detective team must dig deep to reveal a truth that is rooted in the past as well as the present . . .Praise for Barbara Nadel's İkmen mysteries:'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' Guardian

The twenty-eighth 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.When two women are found dead in Istanbul - one bitten by a snake in the slum quarter of Kuştepe, the other killed by a suspected terror attack in Teşvikiye - Inspector Mehmet Süleyman and his team cannot see an obvious connection between the two cases.Ex-inspector Çetin İkmen isn't so sure. In Kuştepe, helping a friend place a collection of dazzling sculptures at one of the city's art galleries, İkmen discovers that one of the sculptures bears a startling resemblance to the Kuştepe victim. Did the deceased artist know her and, if so, in what capacity? And what, if anything, does the death of a devout Muslim woman in Teşvikiye have to do with an alleged terror plot aimed at undermining the security of the city?Süleyman and İkmen soon discover there is more to this situation than meets the eye and they must uncover the truth in order to prevent more bloodshed . . .Praise for Barbara Nadel's İkmen mysteries:'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' Guardian

Barbara Nadel's gripping Ikmen mysteries are the inspiration behind The Turkish Detective, BBC Two's sensational eight-part TV crime drama series available to watch on BBC iPlayer.Barbara Nadel introduces Inspector Cetin Ikmen for the first time in her debut novel, Belshazzar's Daughter. The Ikmen mysteries have been highly praised:'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' GuardianA secret worth killing for...Leonid Meyer is found murdered in his flat in Balat, Istanbul's decrepit Jewish quarter, a swastika daubed on the wall in the old man's blood. But Inspector Cetin Ikmen is quick to eschew the obvious conclusion that this is a racist attack. The evidence leads Ikmen and his young lieutenant, Suleyman, to two people: Robert Cornelius, a teacher observed outside Meyer's flat shortly after the murder, and a retired businessman, Reinhold Smits, known to have had Nazi sympathies. But another link connects these two: a ninety-year-old Russian émigré, Maria Gulcu, a widow who thinks she possesses a secret worth killing for...What readers are saying about Belshazzar's Daughter:'An engaging, fascinating picture of life in Turkey. Wonderful characters and a deep plot that constantly draws one to read on''An excellent murder mystery set in the twilight world of old aristocracies in modern day Istanbul''An intense psychological drama with an impressive array of characters and colourful descriptions of the less salubrious areas of Istanbul. Nadel successfully evokes the hot sultry atmosphere of modern Turkey'