The Janissary Tree
IT is 1836. Europe is modernizing and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just as the sultan is poised to announce sweeping political change, a wave of grisly murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court. Who is behind the killings? Only one man can be trusted to find out: Investigator Yashim. A man both brilliant and near-invisible in this world, an investigator who can walk within the great halls of the empire, in its streets, and even within its seraglios —because, of course, Yashim is a eunuch. The trail of clues points to the Janissaries, who for four hundred years were the empires guards —now a group of ruthless mercenaries at the margin of Oroman society. Crushed by the sultan, could they now be staging a comeback? And can they be stopped without throwing Iscanbul into political chans?
Translated into thirty-one languages, The Janiowry Tree is a richly entertaining cale. full of "chases, dramatic escapes, episodes of cruelty, delicious food, glamorous sex, and an elegantly achieved solution to all the mysteries. Intelligent, elliptical, and beguilingly written, The Janisary Tree is a rare pleasure" (The Times, London).
 
The Snake Stone
Instanbul 1848 In his palace on the Bosphorus, Sultan Mahmud Il is dying and
the city swirls with rumors and alarms. The unexpected arrival of a French archac-ologist determined to track down lost Byzantine treasures throws the Greek com-muniy into confusion. Yashim Togalu is once again enlisted to investigate. But when the archaeologist's mutilated body is discovered outside the French embassy, it turns out there is only one suspect: Yashim himself. As the body count starts to rise, Yashim must uncover the startling truth behind a shadowy socicty dedicared to the revival of the Byzantine Empire, encountering along the way such vibrant characters as Lord Byron's doctor and the Sultan's West Indies-born mother, the Valide.
With striking wit and irresistible flair, Jason Goodwin takes us into a world where the stakes are high, betrayal is death —and the pleasure to the reader is immense.