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Kayankaya #3
Ein Mann, ein Mord
Book by Arjouni, Jakob
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
4 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
About the author
Jakob Arjouni
32 books35 followersJakob Arjouni (alias of Jakob Bothe) published his first novel Happy Birthday, Türke! (1985) at the age of 20.Later he wrote his first play Die Garagen. He became famous after publishing his criminal novel Kayankaya, which was then translated into 10 different languages.
In 1987, he received the Baden-Württembergischen Autorenpreis für das deutschsprachige Jugendtheater for his play Nazim schiebt ab. In 1992, he received the German Crime Fiction Prize for One Man, One Murder. He died, aged 48, in Berlin, after a long fight against pancreatic cancer.
In 1987, he received the Baden-Württembergischen Autorenpreis für das deutschsprachige Jugendtheater for his play Nazim schiebt ab. In 1992, he received the German Crime Fiction Prize for One Man, One Murder. He died, aged 48, in Berlin, after a long fight against pancreatic cancer.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
November 15, 2015
Kayankaya has grown up a little, he is more mature and compassionate in this book than in the first two in the series. Although he still navigates the underbelly and casual racism of German society with his unique brand of sarcasm and rebellion. A delight of well-written dialogue, real Frankfurt atmosphere, and unsavoury characters galore.
July 17, 2011
Hard-boiled prose, lean, clean dialogue, hard bitten as Sam Spade, cynically cool as Philip Marlowe. Kemal Kayankaya is a worthy successor to the great noir characters and hard boiled detectives of the past. This isn't a parody or a cheap imitation, Jakob Arjouni has created the real thing. Beautiful!
Jakob Arjouni tells a tale that could have come off of the mean streets of Chandler's Los Angles or Hammet's San Francisco, or Chicago or New York or Boston but it takes place in Frankfurt, Germany - the dullest town in Germany, except it isn't. One Man, One Murder was originally written in 1991 as Ein Mann, ein Mord. Melville International Crime provided me with this Galley of the translation and after reading it, it's jumped to the top of the list of `Best Surprise Book' of the year. In an original voice, Arjouni tells such a true story and he tells it so well, maintaining tension throughout, dialogue that is clever, witty, and sad and an atmosphere that James M. Cain would have been proud of.
Kemal Kayankaya is the orphaned son of a Turkish garbage collector, a German Citizen, born and bred. But, because he is of Turkish extraction he encounters suspicion and racism wherever he goes. He meets them with a smart assed attitude and a cynical, jaded tongue.
This book would have worked so well as just a comic take on the American Hardboiled detective transplanted to Europe in the late 80's; as a cynical updating of Chandler's Philip Marlowe, but Arjouni had loftier goals. And he achieved them in spades. Sam Spades. It is Arjouni's willingness to confront serious social issues and display them in the light of a hardboiled/noir novel, with an avoidance of clichés, intelligent observation, and dialog that is both realistic and dripping with acid-tinged sarcasm. And to do it all without preaching. He kind of reminds me of the great Walter Mosley in that regard.
The protagonist encounters deadly crime bosses, indifferent and crooked cops, violent muscle men, a landlord who wants his money, an illegal immigrant ring that sells the hopefuls fake visas and then disposes of them - the hopefuls, not the visas, a miasma of bureaucratic and social injustice and racial prejudice that mirrors Americas own. The air of contemporary Europe's racial politics and inane nationalism are the maze that Kayankaya navigates in his quest but he is well equipped with a sharp mind, a sharper tongue and meets these challenges with a cynical, smart-assed attitude and an anti-authority front. There are enough seeming dead ends, as almost any detective novel requires, but instead of having them ...dead end, Arjouni has them turn into very interesting `small mysteries' or stories inside the story. Arjouni is a consummate professional. His prose are efficient with a minimalists approach that Hemingway would love, but not so minimalist that he doesn't manage to fully develop the characters without using stock, stereotypes, and he makes them way too real. He also paints scenes both colorful and dark about the underbelly of a city and maintains a pace that lingers just enough in all the right places.
The only criticism I have for this otherwise master work is that it took to damn long to get it translated and released in English. Well, Melville International Crime has fixed that, and thank you very much.
The Dirty Lowdown
http://the-dirty-lowdown.blogspot.com/
Jakob Arjouni tells a tale that could have come off of the mean streets of Chandler's Los Angles or Hammet's San Francisco, or Chicago or New York or Boston but it takes place in Frankfurt, Germany - the dullest town in Germany, except it isn't. One Man, One Murder was originally written in 1991 as Ein Mann, ein Mord. Melville International Crime provided me with this Galley of the translation and after reading it, it's jumped to the top of the list of `Best Surprise Book' of the year. In an original voice, Arjouni tells such a true story and he tells it so well, maintaining tension throughout, dialogue that is clever, witty, and sad and an atmosphere that James M. Cain would have been proud of.
Kemal Kayankaya is the orphaned son of a Turkish garbage collector, a German Citizen, born and bred. But, because he is of Turkish extraction he encounters suspicion and racism wherever he goes. He meets them with a smart assed attitude and a cynical, jaded tongue.
This book would have worked so well as just a comic take on the American Hardboiled detective transplanted to Europe in the late 80's; as a cynical updating of Chandler's Philip Marlowe, but Arjouni had loftier goals. And he achieved them in spades. Sam Spades. It is Arjouni's willingness to confront serious social issues and display them in the light of a hardboiled/noir novel, with an avoidance of clichés, intelligent observation, and dialog that is both realistic and dripping with acid-tinged sarcasm. And to do it all without preaching. He kind of reminds me of the great Walter Mosley in that regard.
The protagonist encounters deadly crime bosses, indifferent and crooked cops, violent muscle men, a landlord who wants his money, an illegal immigrant ring that sells the hopefuls fake visas and then disposes of them - the hopefuls, not the visas, a miasma of bureaucratic and social injustice and racial prejudice that mirrors Americas own. The air of contemporary Europe's racial politics and inane nationalism are the maze that Kayankaya navigates in his quest but he is well equipped with a sharp mind, a sharper tongue and meets these challenges with a cynical, smart-assed attitude and an anti-authority front. There are enough seeming dead ends, as almost any detective novel requires, but instead of having them ...dead end, Arjouni has them turn into very interesting `small mysteries' or stories inside the story. Arjouni is a consummate professional. His prose are efficient with a minimalists approach that Hemingway would love, but not so minimalist that he doesn't manage to fully develop the characters without using stock, stereotypes, and he makes them way too real. He also paints scenes both colorful and dark about the underbelly of a city and maintains a pace that lingers just enough in all the right places.
The only criticism I have for this otherwise master work is that it took to damn long to get it translated and released in English. Well, Melville International Crime has fixed that, and thank you very much.
The Dirty Lowdown
http://the-dirty-lowdown.blogspot.com/
December 12, 2018
It was a decent & timely (even though it's from the 1990s) mystery/investigation because it deals with immigrants & issues related to that.
I'd recommend it if you're in the mood for a gritty, hard-boiled detective story with an international flavor.
I'd recommend it if you're in the mood for a gritty, hard-boiled detective story with an international flavor.
August 23, 2021
PROTAGONIST: PI Kemal Kayankaya
SETTING: Frankfurt, Germany
SERIES: #3
RATING: 3.5
WHY: Turkish PI Kemal Kayankaya lives in Frankfurt, Germany and faces quite a bit of racism in his daily life. He is hired by by a man named Weidenbusch who was involved with Sri Dao, a Thai woman who has gone missing. He finds a scheme where illegal aliens are issued fake papers. The personal and local racism angle adds interest to an otherwise standard plot. Kayankaya is a bit of a wise ass, which is a good thing in a PI.
SETTING: Frankfurt, Germany
SERIES: #3
RATING: 3.5
WHY: Turkish PI Kemal Kayankaya lives in Frankfurt, Germany and faces quite a bit of racism in his daily life. He is hired by by a man named Weidenbusch who was involved with Sri Dao, a Thai woman who has gone missing. He finds a scheme where illegal aliens are issued fake papers. The personal and local racism angle adds interest to an otherwise standard plot. Kayankaya is a bit of a wise ass, which is a good thing in a PI.
July 15, 2016
Ana karakter Türk bir dedektifti ve ben bunu kitabı okumaya başlamadan bilmiyordum. Kemal Kayankaya karakteri öyle sevdirdi ki kendini bana! Normalde böylesine ısınabilmem için karaktere uzun soluklu bir kitap olması ya da seriye ait olması gerekir romanın. Ama yazarın kalemi çok hoşuma gitti, mizah süperdi kitapta. Diğer yandan olayı takip edemedim, kopukluklar yaşadım, ayrıca öyle çok şaşırtan bir vaka da değildi hani.
January 26, 2023
The book started off pretty promising then it just got weird. A lot of randomness and the ending was kind of predictable.
April 22, 2025
Vuole assomigliarsi ad Agatha Christie ma non lo farà mai, sembra che era in fretta a chiudere la storia in meno di 5 pagine e non è ben riuscito a farlo ma allo stesso tempo ci metteva troppo a raccontare delle narrative che non centravano con lo scopo principale della storia (che in realtà non è chiara nemmeno queste).
May 14, 2017
Not my cup of tea. Read for book group.
January 21, 2018
no as good as the previous installments
October 10, 2019
divertente, a tratti caotico (come del resto è il detective), però piacevole
May 12, 2024
Was spannend begonnen hat, ist schnell in einen unzusammenhängenden Fiebertraum ausgeartet, was nichts Schlechtes sein muss, in diesem Fall aber leider nicht ganz überzeugen konnte.
July 21, 2024
Third in this German noir series..
A good read but not as tightly focused as the previous
Still a rollercoaster of violence and a gangland underworld in 1980s Frankfurt
A good read but not as tightly focused as the previous
Still a rollercoaster of violence and a gangland underworld in 1980s Frankfurt
June 13, 2016
Review of Melville House's new crime imprint and the Kayankaya series in particular (including Happy Birthday, Turk!, One Man, One Murder, More Beer, and Kismet) published in The L Magazine. See review (here: http://goo.gl/qJ5RD) or full text below.
***
“Crime=Culture.” So says Dumbo publisher Melville House about their new imprint, Melville International Crime. MIC represents the publisher’s latest venture to expand their existing catalog of fiction in translation, but although Melville House has introduced innovative series before, cultivating a line of international crime novels is not a particularly new idea. Gowanus-based Akashic Books launched its city-specific Noir series in 2004, and Soho Crime was dedicated to armchair travel and murder long before the Stieg Larsson boom. However, it is interesting to see a boutique press like Melville turn its attention to genre fiction.
Among the first books published by MIC are the “Kanyankaya Thrillers” by German author Jakob Arjouni. His private eye Kemal Kanyankaya is a character straight out of Hammet and a quintessential outsider-investigator: an ethnic Turk raised by adoptive German parents, he has always lived between two worlds in his hometown of Frankfurt, never entirely comfortable in either.
Happy Birthday, Turk! (easily the best in the series) finds the down-and-out Kanyankaya hired by a Turkish woman to track down the killer of her husband, a laborer whose death isn’t a high priority for local police. More Beer takes the suspicious conviction of four “eco-terrorists”in a bombing and murder as its premise; in One Man, One Murder, a German man hires the PI to find his girlfriend, a Thai prostitute who was kidnapped while trying to collect forged visa papers. Kismet, the most recent installment, finds Kanyankaya facing off with a violent Croatian gang. All unfold in a matter of days and are laced with Kanyankaya’s engagingly laconic sarcasm. There’s also a frank brutality which affirms the high stakes of each case and the lengths that Kanyankaya will go to get his man: he’s drugged, attacked by rats, suffers joint dislocations, is locked in a room full of tear gas, and is roundly beaten on numerous occasions.
Individually, however, the series is spotty. In both More Beer and One Man, One Murder, the intrigues become so entangled that it’s hard to care when Kanyankaya reveals whodunit—after making several key discoveries to which the reader is not privy. The detective’s understandable bitterness at being treated as an interloper or a fetish object feels increasingly belabored as he subjects every potential client to the same litmus test: “You must have checked the Yellow Pages. But why Kanyankaya, why not Müller?”And while he continues to investigate several cases after being fired and gives an impassioned speech about disenfranchised immigrants in Germany, he’s by no means an idealist. Treating housewives, prostitutes, buddies, and corrupt officials with equal disdain, it’s hard to believe that he ever cares much about the people involved in his investigations—he just wants the satisfaction of winning.
With this new imprint, Melville is capitalizing on their strengths in ways which stand to benefit both their current and potential audiences. Crime fiction fans are generally completists who want to read all of a favorite detective’s cases—even the rocky ones. And Melville has a knack for series—they’ve resurrected the novella as a viable (and marketable) form with their brilliant “Art of the Novella” line, establishing their press as a quality arbiter of taste while also engendering something like brand loyalty.
By expanding into international crime fiction, Melville stands to create a similar loyalty among new readers. Any even marginally good crime novel serves as a shorthand introduction to the social concerns, epochal tensions, and defining fears of its culture, the way the Kanyankaya thrillers address Germany’s struggle with immigration, cultural inclusion, and nationalism. Crime is culture, made accessible.
***
“Crime=Culture.” So says Dumbo publisher Melville House about their new imprint, Melville International Crime. MIC represents the publisher’s latest venture to expand their existing catalog of fiction in translation, but although Melville House has introduced innovative series before, cultivating a line of international crime novels is not a particularly new idea. Gowanus-based Akashic Books launched its city-specific Noir series in 2004, and Soho Crime was dedicated to armchair travel and murder long before the Stieg Larsson boom. However, it is interesting to see a boutique press like Melville turn its attention to genre fiction.
Among the first books published by MIC are the “Kanyankaya Thrillers” by German author Jakob Arjouni. His private eye Kemal Kanyankaya is a character straight out of Hammet and a quintessential outsider-investigator: an ethnic Turk raised by adoptive German parents, he has always lived between two worlds in his hometown of Frankfurt, never entirely comfortable in either.
Happy Birthday, Turk! (easily the best in the series) finds the down-and-out Kanyankaya hired by a Turkish woman to track down the killer of her husband, a laborer whose death isn’t a high priority for local police. More Beer takes the suspicious conviction of four “eco-terrorists”in a bombing and murder as its premise; in One Man, One Murder, a German man hires the PI to find his girlfriend, a Thai prostitute who was kidnapped while trying to collect forged visa papers. Kismet, the most recent installment, finds Kanyankaya facing off with a violent Croatian gang. All unfold in a matter of days and are laced with Kanyankaya’s engagingly laconic sarcasm. There’s also a frank brutality which affirms the high stakes of each case and the lengths that Kanyankaya will go to get his man: he’s drugged, attacked by rats, suffers joint dislocations, is locked in a room full of tear gas, and is roundly beaten on numerous occasions.
Individually, however, the series is spotty. In both More Beer and One Man, One Murder, the intrigues become so entangled that it’s hard to care when Kanyankaya reveals whodunit—after making several key discoveries to which the reader is not privy. The detective’s understandable bitterness at being treated as an interloper or a fetish object feels increasingly belabored as he subjects every potential client to the same litmus test: “You must have checked the Yellow Pages. But why Kanyankaya, why not Müller?”And while he continues to investigate several cases after being fired and gives an impassioned speech about disenfranchised immigrants in Germany, he’s by no means an idealist. Treating housewives, prostitutes, buddies, and corrupt officials with equal disdain, it’s hard to believe that he ever cares much about the people involved in his investigations—he just wants the satisfaction of winning.
With this new imprint, Melville is capitalizing on their strengths in ways which stand to benefit both their current and potential audiences. Crime fiction fans are generally completists who want to read all of a favorite detective’s cases—even the rocky ones. And Melville has a knack for series—they’ve resurrected the novella as a viable (and marketable) form with their brilliant “Art of the Novella” line, establishing their press as a quality arbiter of taste while also engendering something like brand loyalty.
By expanding into international crime fiction, Melville stands to create a similar loyalty among new readers. Any even marginally good crime novel serves as a shorthand introduction to the social concerns, epochal tensions, and defining fears of its culture, the way the Kanyankaya thrillers address Germany’s struggle with immigration, cultural inclusion, and nationalism. Crime is culture, made accessible.
July 24, 2011
One Man, One Murder was another ebook I was asked to review by the kind folks at Melville House Publishing (the same publishing house that published the excellent Death and the Penguin). This book is translated from the German and is the third in a series starring Kemal Kayankaya. (It works perfectly as a standalone book though.) Kemal is a private investigator in Frankfurt, Germany and his latest case is to find out who kidnapped Sri Dao, a Thai girl whose visa has run out.
Kemal, who is of Turkish origin, runs into all sorts of trouble when he investigates this case. Racism from immigration officials, his own friends being involved and the twists and turns of the case exposes an even bigger problem than he first thought.
The author (and the translator) have done an excellent job in getting the voice of Kemal just right. The story is told in the first person and Kemal sounds just like what you’d expect a private investigator to sound like – hard bitten, world weary and cynical. He has a dry sense of humour and a knack for working out the idiosyncrasies at each step of the case. His office even sounds like a private investigator’s – one room, dreary and with ‘the scent of spilled Scotch’.
The only problem I had with this book was being able to keep up with the German names to work out who was who. Perhaps this was because I’ve never studied German or visited Germany; I couldn’t make them stick in my head. I eventually wrote myself a little note as a reminder, which worked very well. I also had some trouble with the format of this galley on my Sony Reader – as it’s a PDF, the size of the font I could see and the size of the PDF page didn’t match well. This meant that each page was actually a page and a bit, which meant I had to flick pages some more. I’m sure this is fixed with the final ebook though.
In summary, this is a tight thriller/detective story that’s gritty and exciting. Another great crime translation.
Kemal, who is of Turkish origin, runs into all sorts of trouble when he investigates this case. Racism from immigration officials, his own friends being involved and the twists and turns of the case exposes an even bigger problem than he first thought.
The author (and the translator) have done an excellent job in getting the voice of Kemal just right. The story is told in the first person and Kemal sounds just like what you’d expect a private investigator to sound like – hard bitten, world weary and cynical. He has a dry sense of humour and a knack for working out the idiosyncrasies at each step of the case. His office even sounds like a private investigator’s – one room, dreary and with ‘the scent of spilled Scotch’.
The only problem I had with this book was being able to keep up with the German names to work out who was who. Perhaps this was because I’ve never studied German or visited Germany; I couldn’t make them stick in my head. I eventually wrote myself a little note as a reminder, which worked very well. I also had some trouble with the format of this galley on my Sony Reader – as it’s a PDF, the size of the font I could see and the size of the PDF page didn’t match well. This meant that each page was actually a page and a bit, which meant I had to flick pages some more. I’m sure this is fixed with the final ebook though.
In summary, this is a tight thriller/detective story that’s gritty and exciting. Another great crime translation.
January 5, 2009
Racial problems are not just endemic to the United States. Germany, it would appear, has its own problems. Jakob Arjouni is a new German mystery writer who has been variously described as the successor to Raymond Chandler and Ross Mac- Donald. While I would not go that far, perhaps, his detective, of Turkish extraction but German citizenship, does show many of the elements characteristic of the “hard-boiled” detective. In this story, Kemal Kayankaya is hired to find Sri Dao, an immigrant from Thailand whose visa has expired. She had been brought over to participate in Frankfurt’s thriving sex trade (prostitution is evidently legal in Germany). She had then been promised a set of newly forged documents (for a substantial price) that would permit her to stay legally in Germany. Kayankaya’s investigation takes him deep into the underworld of brothels, corrupt cops and dishonest immigration officials. He also suffers from the negative stereotyping attached to foreign workers by bigoted native Germans — even though he is a native himself — because of his name and swarthy, i.e., foreign, appearance. Good addition to the ranks of the “hardboiled
February 9, 2017
I must be over hard boiled PIs. Admittedly, this was a chance from the norm - set in Frankfurt with a Turkish/German detective Kemal Kayankaya solving crimes. His character is street-wise dealing with the everyday racism of the country but even that wasn't enough for me to get interested.
April 15, 2024
Un noir solido, con un investigatore privato scafato ma abile, una ragazza thailandese sparita, il sottobosco di club privati, uffici dell’immigrazione, case di gioco d’azzardo e tanta tanta malavita.
Il tutto condito con una prosa diretta, ricca di ironia, buoni dialoghi, un finale convincente.
“Come si chiama il bassotto?”
“Howard, da Howard Carpendale. È il cantante preferito della moglie di Heinz. Heinz lo odia, è per questo che ha chiamato così il cane”
“E anche sua moglie lo chiama Howard?”
“No, lei lo chiama Heinz”
“E il cane a che nome risponde?”
“A nessuno, è sordo”.
A me ha fatto ridere.
Il tutto condito con una prosa diretta, ricca di ironia, buoni dialoghi, un finale convincente.
“Come si chiama il bassotto?”
“Howard, da Howard Carpendale. È il cantante preferito della moglie di Heinz. Heinz lo odia, è per questo che ha chiamato così il cane”
“E anche sua moglie lo chiama Howard?”
“No, lei lo chiama Heinz”
“E il cane a che nome risponde?”
“A nessuno, è sordo”.
A me ha fatto ridere.
November 7, 2021
Nicht ganz so spannend wie der erste Teil der Kayankaya-Reihe (den zweiten kenne ich noch nicht). Für mich war die Handlung teilweise wirr - oft konnte ich nicht zuordnen, in welcher Verbindung die Charaktere zueinander standen. Das kann aber auch daran liegen, dass ich das Buch öfters beiseite legte und nicht in einem Stück las... Nichtsdestotrotz ein gelungenes Ende! Bin auf weitere Teile gespannt!
January 18, 2012
One of four books from my brother in law for Christmas. This started off slow, but I found myself at the end not being able to put it down. Good twist, that kept me to the end. Easy read and can be done in a day.
April 27, 2012
I'm enjoying this series - it features a wise-cracking Turkish PI living in Frankfurt, Germany, although he could be a character from a Raymond Chandler novel. This was a pretty straight forward who dun it. A couple surprises, interesting characters and a great rainy Sunday read.
October 14, 2013
Tough, hard drinking, smoking private eye, hard nosed criminals, corrupt cop and seedy surroundings. Frankfurt underbelly in all of its raunchiness. By the way, the translation that I have is entitled, One Death To Die.
January 3, 2012
I love the Turkish detective and his sarcasm. He's mistaken for an immigrant in Frankfurt, but he's actually a German investigating a case about immigrants.
March 30, 2013
No. 3 in a brilliant series. Again, can't vouch for any translation, read it in German and liked it a lot.
August 27, 2013
Not great. I almost gave up on it half way through.
October 16, 2017
Good writing. Complex interesting story involves immigration crimes.
Great sarcastic detective
Great sarcastic detective
August 21, 2015
not great writing and not really compelling as noir, but fun and sometimes funny and a really interesting insight into racism and racial tension in germany in the 90s.
January 20, 2015
May read another in this series - didn't much like this one.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews