"East and West Intertwine With Intrigue in Istanbul
By JANET MASLIN
Published: October 29, 2007
This spring the Mystery Writers of America gave the Edgar Award for best mystery novel to an unusual suspect: “The Janissary Tree,” by Jason Goodwin. That book was the inaugural installment in a series in which the gumshoe wears Turkish slippers. The character is Investigator Yashim, and he is a eunuch, though hardly the only eunuch in mystery fiction. There is already Mary Reed and Eric Mayer’s “John the Eunuch” series that is set in the plague-ridden sixth century and features “This man isn’t here to help you burst pustules” (from “Five for Silver”) as a representative line."
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