House of Four by Barbara Nadel

The House of Four is the 19th title in Barbara Nadel's Inspector Ikmen mystery series. The novels are set in Istanbul, and often explore the history and culture of the city. I originally started reading them many years ago, when I was planning a holiday to Turkey. The vacation didn't pan out, but I continue to enjoy the books.

The series star is Inspector Cetin Ikman, a middle-aged Muslim police officer with secular tendencies. He is a man who understands the moral uncertain of the modern world, who is as devoted to his several pack-a-day smoking habit and his raki, as he is to his devout wife and large family. He works closely with Inspector Mehmet Suleyman, who was his young protege in the first book, but is now equal in rank and approaching middle-age himself. Unlike Ikman, whose background is humble, Suleyman comes from an old Ottoman family; he is related to Princes and retains many of the social mannerisms and attitudes of Turkey's former Imperial rulers.

As The House of Four opens, a young man who works in a carpet shop is stabbed in the Grand Bazaar, and Suleyman must close off the entire Bazaar.  Meanwhile Ikman has been called to the Asian side of the city to investigate the murder of an elderly woman in her nineties. She and her three older brothers live in a decrepit old Ottoman mansion, called locally the Devil's House.  It has been divided into four apartments, and the siblings have not seen or spoken to each other for decades. When the police try to notify her brothers of her death, they discover that all four siblings have been murdered in exactly the same way--stabbed through the heart.

Nadel is masterful at leading the reader through the complexities of these two plots, while still layering in fascinating insights into Turkey's rich past and complex contemporary situation. Throughout we learn about Germany's role fighting with the Ottomans during World War One, the precarious situation of Greeks living in Turkey, an almost forgotten Ottoman written script, and the secrets of magicians and alchemists.

Indeed, one of the most intriguing elements of Nadel's fiction is its ability to stay abreast with current affairs in Istanbul.  Previous books have included the Gezi Park protests, young men trying to join ISIS, and the rise of the AK Party.

If you like a good murder mystery or are dreaming of a vacation to the Golden City on the Bosporus or both, I would highly recommend this series.

Four smileys out of five: 😀😀😀😀

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

This is another book club title, but also the perfect antidote to six weeks of reading legislation and policy reviews. It is light, witty, and heartwarming.

Set in Sweden, it is, unsurprisingly, the story of a man called Ove.  What type of man is Ove? He is "the kind of man who points at people he doesn't like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman's torch." He "is the sort of man who checks the status of all things by giving them a good kick." He is a man who "does things the way they're supposed to be done." He is a man who thinks that these days "...no one takes responsibility. Now it's just computers and consultants and council bigwigs going to strip clubs and selling apartment leases under the table. Tax havens and share portfolios. No one wants to work." In other words, Ove is a curmudgeon.

As the novel opens, Ove has just been laid off after working for the same company for over thirty years. He is fifty-nine years old and he realizes that the rules for success have changed and his life has not turned out the way he expected. He has a plan on how he can put things right, but first he must figure out how to get his neighbours to stop bothering him.  Whether it is the couple who just moved in across the way, who can't seem to reverse a car with a trailer without destroying Ove's letter box; or another neighbour who doesn't know how to bleed her own radiators; or the "Blond Weed" and her mutt that is always "pissing on the paving stones outside Ove's house," they are relentlessly distracting.  Poor Ove just wants to be left alone.

Of course, one assumes that when a protagonist starts out so grumpy, socially inept, and just plain crusty, the novel won't end until the readers get a glimpse of his hidden depths and secret heart of gold. Written with wit, the author has a masterful way of sketching characters, building absurd metaphors, and finding the humour in everyday social interactions. If you like to see the good in everyone, and are unafraid of a little sentimentality, this a cheerful book that will leave you smiling and feeling just a little bit more friendly towards the world.

Three and a half smileys out of five. 😀😀😀😶