Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
Also involved in more official capacities are Turkish police officers: chain-smoking veteran Inspector Cetin Ikmen and the relatively rookie Sergeant Suleyman. They begin investing the heinous crime while they struggle with the demands of their respective families. Soon they find a link to Robert and Natalia as the former's grandmother was the victim's lover at one time and the latter was convicted of assaulting a Jewish lawyer in his hometown of London. Is the murder a case of vengeful passion as the two cops begin to believe or is it a more sinister attack on the Jewish population?
BELSHAZZAR'S DAUGHTER is an insightful laid-back Turkish police procedural. Cozy fans (in spite of the brutality of the killing) and those who delight in foreign who-done-its will be grateful for this fine novel. However, anyone who likes plenty of non-stop action needs to pass as Barbara Nadel furbishes a deep look at family life in Istanbul as much or more than who killed the elderly Jew.