The Secrets of Arabesk (Arabesk - Barbara Nadel)

Member Name: Ayesha-`

Product:	Arabesk - Barbara Nadel
Date:	11/05/09 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, something to learn

Disadvantages: Not much suspense/mystery

OK, I'm going to have to confess. I did not pick this book out because I knew all about the author or had read previous books, saw a review and was intrigued or any other interesting reason. I read it because it was yet another from a random box set I had bought. The only thing I may say is that I picked it before others in the set because it had prettier cover. Bad start? I guess.



Story


I had a peek at someone else's review of this book before I started writing my own and only then did I realise it is part of a detective series (shows how much I know!). Otherwise I would have been none the wiser, so I guess this is evidence that the book can be read independently, although I'm sure it would be nicer to have read the books in sequence in order to understand more about the ongoing or back stories of the series.



Basically, Inspector Ikmen is the true top dog, but he is supposed to be off-sick, leaving in charge his junior, Suleyman. Suleyman still has much to learn about managing major investigations, but here he is, in the deep end, when a homicide takes place. And not just any homicide. An Arabesk singer, highly famous in Turkey, involved in an affair with "Turkey's true darling" finds his young wife dead at home. Their baby daughter, Merih, has gone missing. The only witness to be found is severely affected by Downs Syndrome and Suleyman struggles to obtain a dialogue with him. As events unfold and the situation becomes increasingly complicated, hopes of working out which suspects and witnesses are telling the truth begin to dwindle. With social divisions between the parties and the police, it is hard to get information from anyone. Will they work out who the killer was? Will they find baby Merih before she is harmed?



The story was slow-paced, but filled with lots of other twists and curious things that seem to have no relevance or make no sense to begin with, but sometimes start to develop into more significant clues. The level of mystery in the story started to die down a bit too quickly for me. I think I figured out - from far too many hints - exactly what had happened and would happen about a hundred pages before I was meant to. There was more to it, because evidence was lacking for the main theories, and also because the other minor stories and the ongoing stories had questions that still needed answering. While it was worth reading on, I have to admit I did start to feel quite impatient towards the end. Maybe this is not such a bad thing, but as I'm so slow it annoyed me!

I did, however, like the setting in Turkey and the way Nadel fits in descriptive passages from time to time to help you imagine what it is like there. There is a lot to understand about cultural differences, not just for Turkey as a whole but communities within Turkey, and this, although I cannot comment on how accurate it might be, was certainly interesting to read about.


The characters



It is easy to see that Nadel has made a fair effort with the depths and complexities of each of her characters. Every single one is unique, and they all seem to have their own little battle to overcome or mission to complete, however wrong or minor they may sound. Given that I think there was a fairly large number of people that appear as main characters, whether only for a few chapters or throughout the novel, she has done a great job at making them visual and memorable. But here are just a few key people/relationships that caught my eye, so to speak:



Ikmen and his wife, Fatma - this relationship is intense and volatile, yet quite deep and concrete at the same time. The pair seem to have some kind of permanence about them, yet at times I was on the edge of my seat about where they would go next. As this appears to be a main part of the ongoing story, it did attract my interest to read the other books surrounding this one.



Kleopatra - now a dying woman, she was a woman with a hard voice but a big heart. She remains, in a number of ways, a big mystery in this book and you can't expect all your questions to be answered (as this is part of the ongoing story, I think), however it certainly makes for an interesting read.



Mickey and Mina - the pimp and his entrapped whore. Sadly we hear little about Mickey, and I would have like him to have some sort of conclusion in relation to Mina, but I think we miss out a bit here. However, I had a picture in my head of what he was like, and it was a curious, albeit cringe-worthy image.



Coktin - a complicated and somewhat secretive character, who struggles deeply with the boundaries between his working and personal life, this character will lead a lot of people to feel a bit frustrated or irritated by his behaviour. I think this was intended.



Tansu Hanim and her family - what a bunch of nutcases? Do such people exist as a celebrity who keeps and behaves as if she owns her whole family? I imagine so. Can that control really be so strong as to render her nothing more than a tantrum throwing bitch who appears as an angel outside but treats real people like dirt and won't take no for an answer, ever? I hope not!



There are plenty more to mention but if I go on I'll only spoil it!



Structure, language & writing style



The story is very well written and the descriptions are all quite vivid, without making you feel like they are written for the sake of filling pages (something that often annoys me). As some of you may already know, I am terribly slow with novels, slower still nowadays as I just don't seem to have the time for reading. The language does seem quite formal at times and less so at others, but overall it is a fairly easy read. It took me a few months to get through the book (that's typical for me) but when I did have a good hour or so to sit and read without distractions I could get through 20 to 30 pages at a time. There are about 400 pages in this book, so that's not bad.



The book is just over 400 pages long, broken down into 18 chapters, all of about the same length. The chapters are also sectioned out well so that you can read a bit, put the book down halfway through and pick up again within that chapter. I did, from time to time have to re-read a section to remember, but as they are quite short I didn't mind.



As I mentioned about characters, the descriptions are very visual and clear. Nadel delves into their minds and expresses their thoughts but only partially, always leaving an element of mystery, if just doubt, as to what each character's intentions really are. The other thing I really like about this book is the way she describes Turkey. I'd imagine this was a typical thing in her novels. I don't know how well she knows Turkey, but it was possible to get some sort of idea of what life must be like there, and the detail was fairly visual.



Conclusion

I was sceptical when I started reading this book, but once I got into it properly, I really enjoyed it. It kept my interest throughout, but it would have been more exciting had the element of mystery been kept in a bit longer. Still, I think it is worth a read, especially if you are interested in other countries (i.e. Turkey). Generaly, I think this book would be received well.

Summary: Death of a star's wife opens a can of worms