The Snake Stone: A Novel: 2 (Investigator Yashim 2)

Detective polyglot chef eunuch--Investigator Yashim returns in this evocative Edgar® Award–winning series set in Istanbul at the end of the Ottoman EmpireIstanbul 1838. In his palace on the Bosphorus Sultan Mahmud II is dying and the city swirls with rumors and alarms. The unexpected arrival of a French archaeologist determined to track down lost Byzantine treasures throws the Greek community into confusion. Yashim Togalu is once again enlisted to investigate. But when the archaeologists 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 society dedicated to the revival of the Byzantine Empire encountering along the way such vibrant characters as Lord Byrons doctor and the Sultans 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.