![\"(](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/books-donoghue-evil-eye.jpg\" "\\"(")
In \u201cAn Evil Eye,\u201d Goodwin\u2019s fourth novel, Yashim\u2019s world is the decaying Ottoman Empire of the early 19th century. The year is 1839, and a new sultan, Abdulmecid, has replaced the old one in Istanbul. In the novel\u2019s most atmospheric, least realized subplot, this change in monarchs occasions a corresponding change in the monarch\u2019s harem. In an echo of Goodwin\u2019s first book, \u201cThe Janissary Tree\u201d (2006), the sultan\u2019s harem also contains a mystery that will eventually involve our detective. But in \u201cAn Evil Eye,\u201d the more immediate puzzle is posed by a dead body found on the island of Chalki in the well of the monastery. The dead man in the well is marked with a totenkopf \u2014 or skull symbol \u2014 and when Yashim is dispatched to investigate, it doesn\u2019t take him long to surmise that the dead man might have been Russian.<\/p>\n
Goodwin is an author of many strengths \u2014 the books in this series can be read independently of each other, and they just keep getting better \u2014 and the discovery of a Russian corpse in a Christian well in the heart of a Muslim land allows him to play to the best of those strengths: his remarkable ability to clarify the muddle of that decaying empire. \u201cThe Ottomans were not a nation [but] a caste, almost a family,\u201d we learn. \u201cJust as the sultan, as head of the family, maintained his pashas and his odalisques, so the Ottomans maintained their retinues in turn.\u201d Yashim\u2019s effort to restore some semblance of harmony to that family is made all the more complicated by the implication of Fevzi Ahmet Pasha, his old mentor in the service of the former sultan.<\/p>\n
The complicated plot that unfolds is deftly controlled throughout, with dangers, chases, intrigues and frequent trips back to the harem. Goodwin\u2019s prose is sharp and surprising (about that dead Russian we\u2019re told, \u201cHis skin had wrinkled in the long immersion under water, soft and ridged like the white brains of sheep laid out for sale in the butcher\u2019s market\u201d), and the best part of the entertainment is none other than Yashim, a redoubtable, philosophical hero who finds himself in a dirty, battered world yet still holds out hope: \u201cI think there is always a little gap somewhere, however hard you try to fit everything together. A small space, for something like grace, or mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is precious little mercy in the cutthroat world Goodwin portrays here. Yashim is caught between the merciless cunning of his old teacher and the innocence of that teacher\u2019s little daughter, between the politics of the sultanate and the equally twisted politics of the harem. The standout joy of these books is readers\u2019 confidence that we\u2019ve got the right hero, that the calm Yashim will prevail. \u201cIn the end,\u201d he tells an exasperated colleague, \u201cit isn\u2019t about people, or sultans, or corruption. It\u2019s about the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there were only more such men, Chandler tells us, \u201cthe world would be a very safe place to live in.\u201d And maybe the poor old Ottoman Empire would have lasted a bit longer if it had had more Yashims to call upon. As it is, we must hope the original has many, many more adventures.<\/p>\n
bookworld@washpost.com<\/p>\n
Donoghue is managing editor of the online magazine Open Letters Monthly.<\/p>\n
via Book review: \u2018Evil Eye\u2019 a thrilling vision of an Ottoman hero – The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
BUY THIS BOOK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Steve Donoghue, Sunday, April 10, 7:24 PM Raymond Chandler, who knew a thing or two about the fictional detective, famously wrote that he must be \u201cthe best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.\u201d Consciously or not, Jason Goodwin has thoroughly absorbed that precept; his own fictional detective, Yashim, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":32111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[5255],"class_list":["post-32108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-evil-eye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}