Belshazzar's Daughter

A secret worth killing for...

Barbara Nadel introduces Inspector Cetin Ikmen for the first time in her debut novel, Belshazzar's Daughter. Perfect for fans of Jason Goodwin and Donna Leon.

Leonid Meyer is found murdered in his flat in Balat, Istanbul's decrepit Jewish quarter, a swastika daubed on the wall in the old man's blood. But Inspector Cetin Ikmen is quick to eschew the obvious conclusion that this is a racist attack. The evidence leads Ikmen and his young lieutenant, Suleyman, to two people: Robert Cornelius, a teacher observed outside Meyer's flat shortly after the murder, and a retired businessman, Reinhold Smits, known to have had Nazi sympathies. But another link connects these two: a ninety-year-old Russian émigré, Maria Gulcu, a widow who thinks she possesses a secret worth killing for...