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Inspector Ikmen #10
Pretty Dead Things
When Emine Aksu, the flamboyant wife of an Istanbul style guru, suddenly goes missing, Inspector Cetin Ikmen's investigation leads him deep into her strange and colorful past
Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?
Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
53 people are currently reading
197 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Nadel
60 books212 followersBarbara Nadel is an English crime-writer. Many of her books are set in Turkey. Born in the East End of London, Barbara Nadel trained as an actress before becoming a writer. Now writing full-time, she has previously worked as a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship's Good Companion Service and as a mental health advocate for the mentally disordered in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in schools and colleges, and is currently the patron of a charity that cares for those in emotional and mental distress. She has been a regular visitor to Turkey for more than twenty-five years.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
April 28, 2020
The tenth story in the best selling Çetin İkmen franchise is set in the weeks leading up to, and including the Champions League final in Istanbul. An ex-hippy, now entrepreneur in an open marriage goes off on a 'romantic' interlude, and doesn't contact anybody, and has apparently disappeared. A few weeks later a 20+ year old corpse is found displayed in the city centre. As İkmen and his team investigate and question the members of the original hippy group, they get closer and closer to the startling truth. With an amazing climax that takes up a full quarter of the book! Nadel produces yet another case set in the clash of old and new in Istanbul, but this time the 'old' includes the hedonistic days of the 'hippy trail' in the 70s. 7 out of 12
June 3, 2025
I like this Inspector Suleyman series, set in modern Istanbul in Türkiye. It has a range of interested well imagined characters. The location involves old and new quarters of a Turkish city, with references to its culture. This case is a strange one, involving a missing woman and newly discovered skeleton, unrelated. The background includes historical times, the 1960s popularity of Turkey for westerners, notably hippies.
Cultural differences underlie the novel. The author presents interesting male attitudes to sexual activity, while hierarchies within families are extremely powerful. Jewishness is constantly referred to as a descriptor, including people with centuries of living in Türkiye.
Cultural differences underlie the novel. The author presents interesting male attitudes to sexual activity, while hierarchies within families are extremely powerful. Jewishness is constantly referred to as a descriptor, including people with centuries of living in Türkiye.
July 23, 2011
Series keeps getting better and better as the characters develop. I still find that the crime is fairly easy to solve with not too much twisting etc however it seems to me that this is not the main attraction of these books. The characters and vignettes are the best things. All the old "friends" are back.
September 12, 2020
As with all the Nadel/Ikmen books it was knowledgeable of Istanbul and well written. She has a good imagination for a plot and researches her subjects. They always leave me with the impression that if I smoked as many cigarettes as Ikmen I would now be dead.
December 9, 2020
I thought I was a firm believer in ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but it was the cover caught my eye. “I know this place. I’ve been there, more than once.” If I had paid more attention to the cover, if I had seen the line ‘Winner of the Silver Dagger award’, I would have passed it by despite nostalgia – no time for crime fiction, as a general rule. But I didn’t see it, I only saw the courtyard, and the memories that flooded in with it. My thought was: perhaps there will be more places within the pages from the 15 years when that part of İstanbul was my second home.
There were, so many! Also there were the bits and pieces of culture, the cigarette rituals, the food and how it was handled, the banter, so much that I had observed and tried to absorb.
I can tell you almost nothing of the plot. It just didn’t interest me much. I just wanted more and more of the culture Nadel surrounds her story with so well.
And for those of you who read it and say, “Oh, come on, that’s over the top.” I say, “Nope, it’s really like that. I’ve seen it. I practically lived it. Nadel done good.”
Quotes that caught my eye
“A lot of drug casualties,” İkmen said as a statement of fact.’
The hippy looked up at him with undisguised fury in his eyes. “People have to die from something,” he said. “why not the trip of a lifetime? I can think of worse ways to die!” (67)
After all, in a city of about ten million people, space was at a premium and people put their families, their possessions and their cars wherever they could. (188)
“Every dog shall have his day.” It made İkmen smile. That applied to movements too, he thought. They hippies, the frightened Jews with their caches of sugar or opium or whatever they thought they needed, the poor migrants from Anatolia in the 1950s with their few possessions and many, many dreams. It had all given way to mobile phones, multilingual tourist touts, topless beaches on the south coast and, my contrast simply because Turkey is Turkey and totally, utterly and infuriatingly unique, veiled women on the streets of the modern republican capital, Ankara. (360)
Wreckage, like dripping taps and expensive children and invisible wives, was not necessarily a bad thing. They were not things that one had to go “on the road” or on a mental “trip” to find – not of necessity. It would have been nice if he could have done things like that, once, but not now. (360)
İkmen smiled. Sex and sport just went on whatever happened. The former made him hopeful while the latter remained a mystery. But then he had always smoked far too hard for football, swimming or any other sport to ever be a real possibility. A lot of young people did eschew cigarettes now, however, in order to do the sport thing – even some of his own younger children. Turkey was changing – again. He flopped back in his chair, put his current cigarette out, and then lit up another. (361)
Confusion….
Unless I’m totally confused, ‘elision’ is a typo. I wonder what word it should have been…. “Even the speaking of Ladino, the Hebrew-Spanish elision still spoken by so many of the İstanbul Jews, was, when he thought about it, somewhat strange. (281)
There were, so many! Also there were the bits and pieces of culture, the cigarette rituals, the food and how it was handled, the banter, so much that I had observed and tried to absorb.
I can tell you almost nothing of the plot. It just didn’t interest me much. I just wanted more and more of the culture Nadel surrounds her story with so well.
And for those of you who read it and say, “Oh, come on, that’s over the top.” I say, “Nope, it’s really like that. I’ve seen it. I practically lived it. Nadel done good.”
Quotes that caught my eye
“A lot of drug casualties,” İkmen said as a statement of fact.’
The hippy looked up at him with undisguised fury in his eyes. “People have to die from something,” he said. “why not the trip of a lifetime? I can think of worse ways to die!” (67)
After all, in a city of about ten million people, space was at a premium and people put their families, their possessions and their cars wherever they could. (188)
“Every dog shall have his day.” It made İkmen smile. That applied to movements too, he thought. They hippies, the frightened Jews with their caches of sugar or opium or whatever they thought they needed, the poor migrants from Anatolia in the 1950s with their few possessions and many, many dreams. It had all given way to mobile phones, multilingual tourist touts, topless beaches on the south coast and, my contrast simply because Turkey is Turkey and totally, utterly and infuriatingly unique, veiled women on the streets of the modern republican capital, Ankara. (360)
Wreckage, like dripping taps and expensive children and invisible wives, was not necessarily a bad thing. They were not things that one had to go “on the road” or on a mental “trip” to find – not of necessity. It would have been nice if he could have done things like that, once, but not now. (360)
İkmen smiled. Sex and sport just went on whatever happened. The former made him hopeful while the latter remained a mystery. But then he had always smoked far too hard for football, swimming or any other sport to ever be a real possibility. A lot of young people did eschew cigarettes now, however, in order to do the sport thing – even some of his own younger children. Turkey was changing – again. He flopped back in his chair, put his current cigarette out, and then lit up another. (361)
Confusion….
Unless I’m totally confused, ‘elision’ is a typo. I wonder what word it should have been…. “Even the speaking of Ladino, the Hebrew-Spanish elision still spoken by so many of the İstanbul Jews, was, when he thought about it, somewhat strange. (281)
August 25, 2019
The very first book I read in this series, I was not too keen on, however, I had brought three, and the other two I really enjoyed, so then I brought another three, this being the first of the second lot of three. Reading them totally out of order, but that is o.k. reader can pick up and not be lost.
Inspector Ikemen with Mehmet and Ayse are back on the trail, trying to sort out a murder mystery. Or is it murder, where is the body? In the middle of the investigation, a body turns up, but it is not the one they are looking for.
The trail leads them back to the 1960's, of love, and flower power and sexual freedom. The missing lady is a very rich prior hippy. Her husband has reported her missing, and believes his wife has met someone from the past from her summers of love! The team delve into the past, trying to find who dun it, and who is the body, where is the body, and why has someone fessed up to a murder, that was not! Interesting read.
Inspector Ikemen with Mehmet and Ayse are back on the trail, trying to sort out a murder mystery. Or is it murder, where is the body? In the middle of the investigation, a body turns up, but it is not the one they are looking for.
The trail leads them back to the 1960's, of love, and flower power and sexual freedom. The missing lady is a very rich prior hippy. Her husband has reported her missing, and believes his wife has met someone from the past from her summers of love! The team delve into the past, trying to find who dun it, and who is the body, where is the body, and why has someone fessed up to a murder, that was not! Interesting read.
June 8, 2024
Inspector Ikmen #10. OMG, there are about twenty in the series. Unfortunately I found this boring. It's way too long, and some stuff is repetitive, like the cops smoking, or thinking about sex. It barely qualifies as a police procedural. I do have a particular interest in Turkey and Istanbul, so it's good to see some detail about that.
If the book had been heavily edited to half its length, it might have been a good read. I know I've read one of this series before, but can't remember which. The library doesn't have a lot of them, and I doubt if I'll bother looking for any more.
One point of interest is the guide to pronunciation of Turkish words and names in the back of the book.
Rating 2.3.
If the book had been heavily edited to half its length, it might have been a good read. I know I've read one of this series before, but can't remember which. The library doesn't have a lot of them, and I doubt if I'll bother looking for any more.
One point of interest is the guide to pronunciation of Turkish words and names in the back of the book.
Rating 2.3.
February 5, 2023
This the tenth book in the author's long running police procedural series (24 books so far) set in Istanbul. The story is set in 2005 as football fans from England and Italy arrive in Istanbul for the Champions League final. Inspector Ikmen is dealing with a missing person case while Inspector Suleyman is dealing with a skeleton which has been displayed in a public place. It's a good if gruesome read with quirky characters.
April 10, 2023
I was not a fan of this book. It was really hard to follow, all the different names. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters. It seemed super slow and dragged on. I thought perhaps it might get more interesting as it went on but it didn't until about page 216 and then it felt a little more interesting to me. But not really. I am not a fan of police murder mysteries. I like to be the character and feel absorbed in the book. This book felt like a very long drug out police case.
September 12, 2024
Pretty Dead Things (Inspector İkmen Mystery 10) - by Barbara Nadel
Ah, a fitting end to my journey through the first ten İkmen mysteries, with a touch of nostalgia honoured in the hippies, creepy fetishism, and a role for each of the main players.
I won’t avoid further books in the series, some twenty-six in total, I believe, but I’m not actively courting them. Maybe if I was able to resume my wondering ways, I would seek them out as being perfect for long-haul flights.
Ah, a fitting end to my journey through the first ten İkmen mysteries, with a touch of nostalgia honoured in the hippies, creepy fetishism, and a role for each of the main players.
I won’t avoid further books in the series, some twenty-six in total, I believe, but I’m not actively courting them. Maybe if I was able to resume my wondering ways, I would seek them out as being perfect for long-haul flights.
October 26, 2021
This is the 10th in the series and involved the collective of the key characters- a dark story but again merging history with the darker side of human life in Istanbul. Read the series in order for best outcome
August 10, 2021
Another intriguing tale. I love this series, always something unique about the stories and this is no exception
September 8, 2024
Freaky-deaky deadly
December 28, 2024
Gut geschrieben und ein Fall, der ein bisschen ungewöhnlich ist. Auch wenn ich mich wohl nie daran gewöhne, wie viel in Nadels Büchern geraucht wird.
Read
October 27, 2025DNF 😔 nothing wrong with the book! Just wasn’t for me.
December 29, 2014
The blurb: “When Emine Aksu, the flamboyant wife of an Istanbul style guru, suddenly goes missing, Inspector Cetin Ikmen’s investigation leads him deep into her strange and colorful past. Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?”
I picked this book judging by it beautiful cover and also the lure of atmospheric crime scene in Istanbul. A city I long to go but yet to plan to travel there. Pretty Dead Things is a decent read and offers enough juicy past of Emine’s and a twist of the crime resulting in some hair raising moments because it takes you into underground dungeons and tunnels. A good crime and mystery escape into an exotic location, read Barbara Nadel’s Inspector Ikmen series.
For full review see: https://bibliojunkie.wordpress.com/20...
I picked this book judging by it beautiful cover and also the lure of atmospheric crime scene in Istanbul. A city I long to go but yet to plan to travel there. Pretty Dead Things is a decent read and offers enough juicy past of Emine’s and a twist of the crime resulting in some hair raising moments because it takes you into underground dungeons and tunnels. A good crime and mystery escape into an exotic location, read Barbara Nadel’s Inspector Ikmen series.
For full review see: https://bibliojunkie.wordpress.com/20...
October 13, 2013
The plot, and the characters who enact it, increasingly stretch the bounds of credulity as things continue. Although the Istanbul setting is interesting, too much of what's here is unrelated to the story in any significant way. The characters spend a great deal of time obsessing about a football match, but the event does little to advance either character or plot and seems to be included only to give a bit of local colour, as if her editor told her to add something topical and that's all she could think of. My biggest problem with the book, though, is the quality of the writing. I actually checked twice to see if this had been written in a language other than English, because it reads like a clumsy translation.
March 31, 2010
Another terrific book by Nadel! It would be easy to give away too much about the plot, but Inspector Ikmen must look for a missing woman, while his fellow inspector and one-time protege Suleyman puzzles over a woman's skeleton left prominently displayed. They, and other Istanbul police officers, are on the alert because an international football match has brought English and Italian tourists visiting in throngs, and Turkey's behavior is under EEC scrutiny. Nadel's books usually investigate subcultures in Turkey; this one brings us back to an old, once Jewish, quarter, and introduces us to the Turks who, as young people, were exposed to the foreigners on the Hippie Trail.
May 7, 2009
Barbara Nadel didn`t betray my expectations.In this novel the story is based on hippie movement which touched Turkey /although briefly/in the 60s. Ahmed Aksu and his wife moved in the past with a bunch of young people. Emine Aksu was known for her frivolous behaviour but this time she seems to have got a little too far.When her husband reports her as missing,Inspector Ikmen has little hope that she could be alive.Hippies,sexual freedom,even necrofilia- Barbara Nadel once again makes her exotic mix,intriguing and unpredictable.
July 2, 2009
I have read many mystery novels and I am always excited to find a new author who has something to add to this abundant genre. The descriptions of the Istanbul neighbourhoods are detailed and the polical and social climate of Turkey provide an engaging backdrop to the action. The characters are generally well drawn and the typical detective novel clichés are used sparingly.
I did not solve the central mystery too early on in the novel and there were several well-placed red-herrings, but the resolution made sense and the killer's motivation was sound.
I did not solve the central mystery too early on in the novel and there were several well-placed red-herrings, but the resolution made sense and the killer's motivation was sound.
January 3, 2012
Another bizarre case for Ikmen involving a skeleton on display and a missing woman that end up being related thanks to a sicko with a fetish. We get some insights into Jews in Turkey during World War II and we explore more of underground Istanbul as well going down memory lane with the hippies in Turkey in the 1960's. This one had me turning the pages as Ikmen knows something is not right but just can't seem to put it together.
January 3, 2014
Once again Inspector Ikmen is trying to solve a very strange case of a missing woman and a murder. Amongst Istanbul hosting an International football game - the city is over run with foreigners and not one of the cops are too keen to work!
But then I can honestly say I was hooked from the first page, and ended up reading into the early hours of the morning to finish the book.
Now I am going to download the next book in the series.
But then I can honestly say I was hooked from the first page, and ended up reading into the early hours of the morning to finish the book.
Now I am going to download the next book in the series.
April 17, 2010
I picked up this novel while on vacation in Saint Lucia...a difficult read only because the humidity of the island weakened the glue on the binding of the book and pages would frequently lift off and fly down the beach towards the Caribbean Sea.
All in all, a series that one did not have to read the previous 10 to understand but not a bad series to take up one day!
All in all, a series that one did not have to read the previous 10 to understand but not a bad series to take up one day!
September 16, 2009
A new author for me. I found it at the McGill University bookstore. The story takes place in modern Turkey. A very good protagonist, Ikmen is a great character. I will read other books by this author.
March 4, 2016
First read Jan. 2009.
2nd time: July 2010
2nd time: July 2010
October 2, 2009
I liked this one a bit better than the previous few as there's more emphasis on the plot, and less domestic drama among the cops.
July 17, 2013
I enjoyed this very much, although the typos and misplaced/missing punctuation kinda ruined the experience ...
March 18, 2014
Couldn't finish. Characters seem fine and fairly interesting but the awkward style and slow pace is driving me up the wall.
January 8, 2016
It was an interesting story and ending, but there were far too many characters to keep track of
April 6, 2016
These stories are always more enjoyable since I've been to Istanbul and have images of aspects of the city in mind.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews