Book Review: Dance with Death

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

Dance with Death     Amazon US TPB Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada TPB
Barbara Nadel
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Inspector Cetin Ikmen : Istanbul
Headline, $24.95 trade paperback, 305 pages

It is Ramazan, Holy Month in Turkey, when Inspector Cetin Ikmen of the Istanbul police gets a call from his cousin Mensure in the little Cappadocian village of Muratpasa. The body of a young woman has been discovered in one of the many caves in the area. It has clearly been there for decades, and Mensure has decided that Ikmen must know. For Ikmen was once in love with a British backpacker named Alison who disappeared in Cappadocia in the 1970s, and this corpse could be hers.

Ikmen hurries out to Muratpasa, only to discover that the body has been identified as Aysu Alkaya, who was married off to a local businessman and then disappeared 20 years ago. She was shot in the back, clearly murdered. Mensure talks Ikmen into staying and trying to solve the murder.

Meanwhile, back in Istanbul, Ikmen’s former partner Mehmet Suleyman is engaged in investigating the string of assaults upon young, possibly gay, men in the city. As their investigations continue, both Suleyman and Ikmen discover that even during Ramazan, some people prefer to embrace their sins rather than their virtues.

I really enjoy Nadel’s Turkish setting and her rather quirky Inspector Ikmen. It’s not often one finds books set in this peculiar area, sort of straddling European and Middle-Eastern traditions. Further, Dance with Death is set in Cappodocia, an area renowned for its fanciful “Fairy Chimneys,” tall, naturally occurring towers of tufa, a porous rock formed of calcium carbonate.

Ikmen is a strange character, who uses a combination of deduction and outright instinct to solve his cases. Yet he is uniquely endearing, all the same. I always look forward to seeing his investigations.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM