num_pages: 448
description: Tourist brochures present Istanbul as a glamorous, modern city, but the brochures don't make much mention of Balat, a decrepit neighborhood of narrow, twisting alleys and crumbling tenements. Until recently it was home to Leonid Meyer, a reclusive elderly Jew who, like many of his neighbors, came here long ago to escape one of Europe's various bloodbaths. But Meyer's refuge ultimately became his coffin, the carnage crowned with a gigantic swastika. A racist murder? Inspector Ikmen has his doubts, and begins tracking down the few people who might have known the old man, including a faded prostitute, a shadowy family of Russian emigres, a dispairing rabbi, and a high-strung young Englishman in the throes of erotic obsession. The first in a stunningly atmospheric new series from a writer who has deservedly been compared with Michael Dibdin and Donna Leon.
language: English
title: Belshazzar's Daughter
titlecomplete: Belshazzar's Daughter (Inspector Ikmen, #1)
characters: Mehmet Süleyman, Çetin İkmen
genres: 20th Century, Thriller, Detective, Whodunit, Novels, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Murder Mystery
ratings_count: 1981
places: Istanbul
series: Inspector Ikmen
publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press