An Evil Eye
By Jason Goodwin
Penguin India
pp.292, Rs 499
There have been Chinese detectives, women detectives, friar detectives and Indian detectives. When I read the first of the Yashim series, The Janissary Tree, I discovered that Jason Goodwin added another kind to the list — a eunuch detective and made a bold statement in the detective genre by breaking a new ground. Detective novels have been set in Istanbul before too but I don’t think any of their heroes have been quite like Yashim Togalu, a eunuch, both brilliant and near-invisible in the fast-changing world of the Ottoman Empire in 1836. A person who can shift from the inner quarters of the harem to the outer world because he has been given immunity status by the Sultan.
The novel begins with a mysterious fire, the death of the Sultan and the emptying out of the harem quarters, as the new Sultan’s women move in and shove the others out, barring the Sultan’s sister. And in the middle of all this chaos comes the news that a body has been discovered in the well of an orthodox monastery. Yashim is sent to investigate. However, the murder is complicated by the fact that there is someone who has the evil eye in the harem and is leaving ill-wishing tokens around like rat’s tails in a pot of skin ointment. And there is the disappearance of Fevzi Pasha, the ‘kapudan’ or admiral of the Turkish navy and Yashim and Fevzi Pasha have an edgy past history and Fezvi Pasha is Yashim’s evil genius.
Yashim is sensitive, his eunuch status gives him an edge there and he is a good cook, dishing up exotic combinations of stuffed mackerel and other mezze to share with his other Russian expatriate friend. The Polish Ambassador, Palewski seems to be Yashim’s version of Watson but isn’t as dominant in this book, which is just as well because Goodwin has Palewski tied down to Balzac and cognac and occasionally to provide the political snippet, but I don’t think Palewski is as active as Watson.
Goodwin’s knowledge of Turkey and Istanbul is flawless — he wrote Lords of the Horizons which was a well-received history of the Ottomans. And the book is full of historic detail, apart from those vivid descriptions that make me want to grab a plane for Istanbul immediately. There are characters like the valide, the mother and grandmother of the sultans, a Creole, kidnapped on her way to Paris, the real life Aimée de Bucq de Rivery whose beauty captured the heart of a Turkish potentate and who made history by ruling his empire. She lends Yashim French novels. And there is Giuseppe Donizetti, brother of the more famous Gaetano, who did teach the harem orchestra.
In addition to the colourful cityscapes, Goodwin provides a cast of characters to match. From the Ambassador of Poland, whose country no longer exists, to the transvestite dancer, Preem who is Yashim’s refuge from prying eyes, to the greengrocer who specialises in giving his customers exactly the things that they didn’t know they wanted, each one of them lives and breathes.
This is a book where those atmospheric places in Istanbul meets the romance of the harem meets murder most foul. I must say it’s a deadly combination!
Anjana Basu is the author of Rhythms of Darkness
via Death in Istanbul | Deccan Chronicle.
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