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Inspector Ikmen #24
Bride Price
Every relationship comes at a cost in this tense and gripping Turkish mystery from award-winning crime writer Barbara Nadel and featuring Ikmen - 'one of modern crime fiction's true heroes' The Times
When jeweller Fahrettin Muftugolu is found dead in his apartment in the Istanbul district of Vefa, it looks like suicide. Searching the jeweller's home, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman and his team come across a hoard of extraordinary artefacts including solid gold religious relics and a mummified human head. But are they real and, if so, who owns these priceless possessions?
As his colleagues begin their investigation, Suleyman is distracted by troubles of his own. His wedding to Gonca Serekoglu is days away, but when Gonca receives her bridal bedcover from a Roma haberdasher and discovers that it is covered in blood, she sees this as a curse on their marriage. Suleyman asks his old friend Cetin Ikmen to help him uncover the truth, but the task is not that simple...
Meanwhile, as the stories swirling around Muftugolu become increasingly sinister, the dead man's wife appears, laying claim to his valuables, and Suleyman is drawn into a dark and dangerous world of smuggling and savagery . . .
When jeweller Fahrettin Muftugolu is found dead in his apartment in the Istanbul district of Vefa, it looks like suicide. Searching the jeweller's home, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman and his team come across a hoard of extraordinary artefacts including solid gold religious relics and a mummified human head. But are they real and, if so, who owns these priceless possessions?
As his colleagues begin their investigation, Suleyman is distracted by troubles of his own. His wedding to Gonca Serekoglu is days away, but when Gonca receives her bridal bedcover from a Roma haberdasher and discovers that it is covered in blood, she sees this as a curse on their marriage. Suleyman asks his old friend Cetin Ikmen to help him uncover the truth, but the task is not that simple...
Meanwhile, as the stories swirling around Muftugolu become increasingly sinister, the dead man's wife appears, laying claim to his valuables, and Suleyman is drawn into a dark and dangerous world of smuggling and savagery . . .
396 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 12, 2022
About the author
Barbara Nadel
66 books218 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 18, 2023
I keep reading this series though i often find myself confused even at the end!
September 12, 2023
Inspector Ikmen is retired, but still on call to help his replaceent and friend, Mehmet Suleiyman on a particularly difficult and unusual case.
An eccentric and talented jeweler has committed suicide - or was he murdered? A hoarder, his large apartment is full of piles of foul-smelling clothing, garbage, books, papers, jewelry-making supplies, including toxic chemicals, and fabulously expensive works of art.
Digging into a mass of chaotic information, they can only conclude it points to art fraud.
‘This is art fraud,’ Haluk Keleş interjected. ‘Since the beginning of the Syrian war, this country has been a conduit for the stuff, real or fake, on an industrial scale.’
‘And yet so far, all the items we have discovered have been originals, or copies of artefacts from this country or Europe. Not Syria.’ ‘Maybe he was working to order,’ Keleş said.
‘Maybe.’ Eylul turned her head so that she was looking at Keleş. ‘Why would someone want something they can go and see in a museum?’ ‘Good question,’ he said. ‘Opportunity and insane levels of wealth, I’d say. The war in Iraq opened the floodgates. Half of the Baghdad museum went missing. Tie that in with a world where billionaires can own whole countries if they feel like it, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. There have always been people who, because they’re rich, want to collect original pieces of art; that is a market that is always open. What joy these fuckers get out of sitting on their own in a vault with an original Titian or a “genuine” thigh bone of St George, I don’t know. They can’t show what they’ve got to anyone in case they tip us off, and the only reason they’ve got whatever they have is because of money. Twisted bastards.’
Nadel, Barbara. Bride Price (Inspector Ikmen Mystery 24) (p. 198). Headline. Kindle Edition.
We spend considerable time updating ourselves on a wildly diverse sexual scene, even in newly non-secular Istanbul, on Roma customs in Turkey, and on a variety of small language and cultural populations throughout Turkey. The book culminates in a wildly ornate wedding, and a mystery which must be continued.
An eccentric and talented jeweler has committed suicide - or was he murdered? A hoarder, his large apartment is full of piles of foul-smelling clothing, garbage, books, papers, jewelry-making supplies, including toxic chemicals, and fabulously expensive works of art.
Digging into a mass of chaotic information, they can only conclude it points to art fraud.
‘This is art fraud,’ Haluk Keleş interjected. ‘Since the beginning of the Syrian war, this country has been a conduit for the stuff, real or fake, on an industrial scale.’
‘And yet so far, all the items we have discovered have been originals, or copies of artefacts from this country or Europe. Not Syria.’ ‘Maybe he was working to order,’ Keleş said.
‘Maybe.’ Eylul turned her head so that she was looking at Keleş. ‘Why would someone want something they can go and see in a museum?’ ‘Good question,’ he said. ‘Opportunity and insane levels of wealth, I’d say. The war in Iraq opened the floodgates. Half of the Baghdad museum went missing. Tie that in with a world where billionaires can own whole countries if they feel like it, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. There have always been people who, because they’re rich, want to collect original pieces of art; that is a market that is always open. What joy these fuckers get out of sitting on their own in a vault with an original Titian or a “genuine” thigh bone of St George, I don’t know. They can’t show what they’ve got to anyone in case they tip us off, and the only reason they’ve got whatever they have is because of money. Twisted bastards.’
Nadel, Barbara. Bride Price (Inspector Ikmen Mystery 24) (p. 198). Headline. Kindle Edition.
We spend considerable time updating ourselves on a wildly diverse sexual scene, even in newly non-secular Istanbul, on Roma customs in Turkey, and on a variety of small language and cultural populations throughout Turkey. The book culminates in a wildly ornate wedding, and a mystery which must be continued.
July 7, 2023
This is the 24th book in the Ikmen series of crime fiction. Another fascinating adventure involving Cetin Ikmen set in the colourful, diverse and ancient city of Istanbul.
Although Ikmen is now retired he takes a large role in crime detecting mainly through his friendships and involvements with old colleagues in the Police.
In this latest book we are taken again into a world that tourists and maybe even some residents of Istanbul would not be aware. The solving of the crime which Ikmen involves himself with begins with an apparent suicide and takes the reader into various venues such as a gypsy wedding, the jewellery business, and the world of home working seamstresses. Behind all these intrigues there is a tale of major international Art theft.
I was left at the end of the book with impatience for the next book which hopefully will continue the story. Barbara Nadel keeps up the high standard of writing that she has set herself and in this novel, she seems to have become even better!
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Reviewer: Toni Russell
For Lizzie Sirett (Mystery People Group)
Although Ikmen is now retired he takes a large role in crime detecting mainly through his friendships and involvements with old colleagues in the Police.
In this latest book we are taken again into a world that tourists and maybe even some residents of Istanbul would not be aware. The solving of the crime which Ikmen involves himself with begins with an apparent suicide and takes the reader into various venues such as a gypsy wedding, the jewellery business, and the world of home working seamstresses. Behind all these intrigues there is a tale of major international Art theft.
I was left at the end of the book with impatience for the next book which hopefully will continue the story. Barbara Nadel keeps up the high standard of writing that she has set herself and in this novel, she seems to have become even better!
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Reviewer: Toni Russell
For Lizzie Sirett (Mystery People Group)
April 8, 2025
'Bride Price' is Barbara Nadel's 24th book in her Istanbul detective series starring Inspector Cetin Ikmen. I've read quite a lot of these books but definitely not all and I haven't read them in order. In this one Cetin is retired but still manages to get involved in his former protege's case. There are a few stories running concurrently here. The minor stories are resolved but the big story, involving international art fraud, is left on a cliffhanger. If you haven't read any of these books before, I really think you should. I've never been to Istanbul but feel I know it quite well from the wonderful scene-setting. I know when I eventually get to visit I'll be wanting to do a Cetin Ikmen tour of all the places in the books.
October 24, 2022
I actually read the hardback edition. This is the sixth book which I have read in this long running series featuring police detectives in Istanbul. The plot is far-fetched and deals with art fraud and ricin poisoning amongst other things. Ikmen, although retired, still plays a leading role. There is also a big sub-plot concerning one of the other main character's wedding. I only discovered this series with book sixteen but I have grown to like the characters and hope to read at least some of the earlier books.
January 9, 2023
Inspector Suleiman is about to marry the gypsy artist, Gonca, but he’s dealing with a major case involving the suicide or murder of an eccentric jeweler that morphs into an art theft and terrorist investigation. More suicides. Murders of policemen. Ikmen, now retired, does lots of background support dealing with gypsy curses and Roma gangsters. It takes too long to wrap up and then doesn’t. I’m guessing a future book will pick up the case. And I couldn’t make the title’s connection to the plot. Gonca’s wedding or the thwarted wedding of a 12 year old to a pedophile?
September 12, 2023
A quick peek into the life of the Turks, the romas , and every one living in Istanbul.
Making artifacts to replace priceless ones, that can then be sold, can be a dangerous thing. The police found some of the perpetrators but not the instigators. Nadel is a superb story teller. The names are somewhat confusing, especially if reading on a E-reader. Hard to find the cast of players. But I think the author might want to continue this story, but perhaps not and another magnificent story will come with all the bias, or non bias of the people of Istanbul.
Making artifacts to replace priceless ones, that can then be sold, can be a dangerous thing. The police found some of the perpetrators but not the instigators. Nadel is a superb story teller. The names are somewhat confusing, especially if reading on a E-reader. Hard to find the cast of players. But I think the author might want to continue this story, but perhaps not and another magnificent story will come with all the bias, or non bias of the people of Istanbul.
June 2, 2025
What more can he said about this fascinating series - book number 24 - this story is set within the period of Suleyman and Gonca’s wedding and involves art forgeries, murder , mummification and fascinating cultural facts expertly woven in an intriguing plot
Cetin Ikmen is as involved as ever and as is the lynchpin to making these Barbara Nadel books so captivating
As I’ve said in previous reviews- for best impact read the series in order
Another winner
Cetin Ikmen is as involved as ever and as is the lynchpin to making these Barbara Nadel books so captivating
As I’ve said in previous reviews- for best impact read the series in order
Another winner
May 27, 2022
Loved this very interesting story
I’ve read all this series wonderful characters and it’s great to learn about Turkey
I’ve read all this series wonderful characters and it’s great to learn about Turkey
August 22, 2022
Always a pleasure to be back in Istanbul with Ikmen and Mehmet - although I had missed the last two books in the series, so seeing Mehmet getting married was a bit of a shock to me!
July 13, 2024
As good as ever. Next please!
And now on tv in the uk though Ikmen is not thin enough and Mehmet is not handsome enough, can’t wait for Gonça to make an appearance!
And now on tv in the uk though Ikmen is not thin enough and Mehmet is not handsome enough, can’t wait for Gonça to make an appearance!
August 16, 2025
The Turkish Detective. Intriguing setting and most unusual crime. I enjoyed it
October 9, 2023
One of the best in this series.
March 20, 2022
Barbara Nadel is the Queen of Istanbul Noir. "Bride Price" delivers a visceral series of shocks and puzzles. Roma diva Gonca Serekoglu is a magnificent creation and counterbalance to Inspector Suleyman and the retired but charismatic Cetin Ikmen. The character of Gonca, the Roma Diva, is terrific, too. I can't wait for the next book!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews