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Nothing Is The Number When You Die
First Edition. Mention of books and booksellers early and then an important visit to Blackwells Book Store where "There is no better place to hide" or to murder someone if necessary. 192 pages. cloth.. 8vo..
- GenresMystery
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
17 people want to read
About the author
Joan Fleming
65 books4 followersJoan Margaret Fleming was a British writer of crime and thriller novels. She was educated at Lausanne University.
She married Norman Bell Beattie Fleming in 1932. The Turkish detective Nuri Bey Izkirlak features in two of her books, 'When I Grow Rich and 'Nothing is the Number When You Die'.
Her novel 'The Deeds of Dr Deadcert' was made into a film 'RX Murder'. She won the Gold Dagger award twice, for 'When I Grow Rich' in 1962 and for 'Young Man I Think You're Dying' in 1970.
She wrote 33 novels beginning with 'Two Lovers Too Many' in 1949 and ending with 'The Day of the Donkey Derby' in 1978.
She married Norman Bell Beattie Fleming in 1932. The Turkish detective Nuri Bey Izkirlak features in two of her books, 'When I Grow Rich and 'Nothing is the Number When You Die'.
Her novel 'The Deeds of Dr Deadcert' was made into a film 'RX Murder'. She won the Gold Dagger award twice, for 'When I Grow Rich' in 1962 and for 'Young Man I Think You're Dying' in 1970.
She wrote 33 novels beginning with 'Two Lovers Too Many' in 1949 and ending with 'The Day of the Donkey Derby' in 1978.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 7, 2025
Enjoyable thriller partly set in Istanbul, in the early 1960s, featuring Nuri bey a Turkish scholar acting as informal unpaid detective.
March 14, 2025
Nuri bey, accidental detective (who helped find a murderer and a drug ring in his last book), is asked by his friend Torgut to leave Turkey and and go to London to look for his missing son, Jason. Jason is in his third year at Oxford and should be studying for his final examinations. He also should have come home during the last holiday--and didn't. Torgut is sure that something dreadful has happened to the young man. Nuri has never been to England and isn't sure that he's the right man for the job and insists he must think it over. After taking a very long and circuitous route home, he arrives to the news that Torgut has been brutally murdered...just moments after he and another friend, Landrake had left he house.
Now, it is not Torgut begging his assistance, but Torgut's lovely half-Russian, half-English widow Tamara--a woman that Nuri has long adored from afar. Like the knights of old, it's possible that if Nuri is successful that he will win the lady's love and it isn't long before she has convinced him to go. He hopes that the young man has just wanted to sow a few wild oats before finishing school and heading out into the "real world." But as soon as Nuri sets foot in England, he finds himself followed by a man he noticed on the plane. Amazingly, a brief scuffle with his shadow gives Nuri the upper hand and his investigations show ties between the shadow, Jason, and another trail of drugs....a trail that leads right back to Turkey and puts his lady in danger.
This is one of those titles that got put on my "To Be Found" list so long ago, that I can't remember how I came across it or what made me so interested in the first place. I suspect it was the mention of Oxford and the missing student (giving me an academic mystery vibe), but as I started reading it I really wasn't feeling the love for it as a mystery. Nuri bey is an interesting character (he loves books and I feel his pain when we're told that his house full of books burned down--at the end of the last mystery?), but he's most definitely not a gifted amateur detective. As mentioned above, he's an accidental detective. He wanders into situations or gets finagled into them by beautiful ladies. He seems to be awfully lucky in keeping out of the clutches of the bad guys. He somehow figures out the whole drug plot and even having read the book I can't tell you how he did it. I can tell you what the plot was--but I have no clue how Nuri was able to lay it all out based on what "we" found while looking for Jason. He also gets the answer to the murder of his friend Torgut--but not because he solves it, the culprit confesses to him. With no provocation whatsoever. And, honestly, Nuri didn't even need to know...he wasn't trying to solve the murder. He only wanted to find Jason (which he did) and return to Tamara to live happily every after (which it looks like he will...). ★★ and 1/2 [rounded up here]--all for Nuri's character and interactions with all the people in the book. But none for the book as a mystery.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Now, it is not Torgut begging his assistance, but Torgut's lovely half-Russian, half-English widow Tamara--a woman that Nuri has long adored from afar. Like the knights of old, it's possible that if Nuri is successful that he will win the lady's love and it isn't long before she has convinced him to go. He hopes that the young man has just wanted to sow a few wild oats before finishing school and heading out into the "real world." But as soon as Nuri sets foot in England, he finds himself followed by a man he noticed on the plane. Amazingly, a brief scuffle with his shadow gives Nuri the upper hand and his investigations show ties between the shadow, Jason, and another trail of drugs....a trail that leads right back to Turkey and puts his lady in danger.
This is one of those titles that got put on my "To Be Found" list so long ago, that I can't remember how I came across it or what made me so interested in the first place. I suspect it was the mention of Oxford and the missing student (giving me an academic mystery vibe), but as I started reading it I really wasn't feeling the love for it as a mystery. Nuri bey is an interesting character (he loves books and I feel his pain when we're told that his house full of books burned down--at the end of the last mystery?), but he's most definitely not a gifted amateur detective. As mentioned above, he's an accidental detective. He wanders into situations or gets finagled into them by beautiful ladies. He seems to be awfully lucky in keeping out of the clutches of the bad guys. He somehow figures out the whole drug plot and even having read the book I can't tell you how he did it. I can tell you what the plot was--but I have no clue how Nuri was able to lay it all out based on what "we" found while looking for Jason. He also gets the answer to the murder of his friend Torgut--but not because he solves it, the culprit confesses to him. With no provocation whatsoever. And, honestly, Nuri didn't even need to know...he wasn't trying to solve the murder. He only wanted to find Jason (which he did) and return to Tamara to live happily every after (which it looks like he will...). ★★ and 1/2 [rounded up here]--all for Nuri's character and interactions with all the people in the book. But none for the book as a mystery.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
November 7, 2025
Enjoyable thriller partly set in Istanbul, in the early 1960s, featuring Nuri bey a Turkish scholar acting as informal unpaid detective.
April 5, 2022
A nice book for people who are just starting to read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews