โ Scribed by Jason Goodwin
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Near the start of Edgar-winner Goodwin's fine third historical to feature the eunuch Yashim, who serves the Ottoman rulers of early 19th-century Turkey (after 2008's The Snake Stone), Yashim's close friend Stanislaw Palewski, the Polish ambassador to the Turkish sultan, accepts an undercover assignment on the sultan's behalf. Posing as an American, the diplomat travels to Venice in an effort to locate a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror (who reclaimed Constantinople from the Christians in 1453), painted by the legendary artist Gentile Bellini. Fortunately for Palewski, Yashim, who has a secret plan for the painting's recovery, intervenes in time to set the mission on the right track after the murder of two art dealers. While Yashim initially plays a backstage role, the eunuch and a shadowy power broker engage in an exciting and complex duel of wits in the book's final quarter. Once again, Goodwin skillfully blends deduction, action sequences and period color. (Mar.)
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Starred Review Intrigue, treachery, and murder infuse early-nineteenth-century European society, and only one savvy eunuch, Inspector Yashim of Istanbul, can navigate the serpentine political connections and hidden agendas, as evidenced in The Janissary Tree (2006) and The Snake Stone (2007). Now, with the death of the old sultan, the pashas are jockeying for power. When the new sultan, young Abdulmecid, orders Yashim to Venice to retrieve the lost portrait of Mahmut the Conqueror, the sly vizier Resid tries to nix the plan. Yashim secretly sends his friend Palewski instead, who royally bungles the assignment. Reluctantly, Yashim comes to the rescue and nimbly skirts certain death in the canal, bests the violent but lovely Contessa dโAspi dโIstria, sets the local constabulary to rights, and discovers the truth about Mahmut, his portrait, and its secrets. Yashimโs adventure in Venice is a toothsome, wryly humorous, and historically accurate view of La Serenissima, seen through the eyes of a very unusual man: a Turkish eunuch as adept with a sword as a kitchen knife and who bemoans the loss of his beloved old friend, Sultan Mahmut II. Goodwin vividly evokes Istanbul embroiled in change, like Jenny Whiteโs The Sultanโs Seal (2005) and Katie Hickmanโs The Aviary Gate (2008), and he delivers a visceral experience of historical Venice similar to David Hewsonโs Luciferโs Shadow (2004). --Jen Baker
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