Jenny White, The Sultan's Seal

The Sultan's Seal

Jenny White

Norton, Feb 2007, $13.95

ISBN: 0393329208

In 1886 in Istanbul, social unrest is heating up, especially with the numerous British expatriates living the good life in the city while many Turks struggle as the once mighty Ottoman Empire nears collapse. Many of the locals are especially outraged by the total disregard of native custom by these aristocratic British immigrants who flaunt their immodesty.

However, both groups are stunned when royal governess Mary Dixon is brutally murdered. The English demand swift justice while many Turks believe she deserved it as all English females are brazen. In reality, few knew the reticent Mary. At the same time Magistrate Kamil Pasha investigates the homicide while also struggling to keep the peace between the angry groups, a local girl Jaanan is forced by her family to marry a man she fears almost as much as she loathes even as he is linked to the English victim.

Jenny White paints a powerful and colorful panorama of late-nineteenth-century Istanbul at a time when national fervor is heated in every corner of the capital city. Though Kamil is a fascinating protagonist struggling with a difficult case made geometrically harder by English and Turkish demands, the whodunit takes a back seat to touring 1886 Istanbul. Fans will enjoy visiting the palace, especially the harem, the various ethnic quarters and finally the affluent European section of mostly English expatriates that anger the native purists with their gaudy brashness.

Harriet Klausner