GREED, LUST AND BETRAYAL LEAD TO MURDER in Barbara Nadel's twenty-third Ikmen mystery, as Ikmen and Sleyman work to uncover a tragic tale of dark secrets and double lives...
In the early hours of the morning, Turkish TV star Erol Gencer is found dead at his home on the outskirts of Istanbul. But he is not alone. Beside him lies a Syrian refugee whose stomach has been split open with a cheese knife. Did Gencer kill his guest before committing suicide, or are they victims of a sinister double murder?
The dead Syrian is soon identified as Wael Al Hussain, whose wife, Samira, is in prison for attempting to kill Gencer a year ago. At the time, no one believed Samira's story that Gencer's wife had planned the attack, but now Samira's sister begs etin Ikmen to re-examine her claim. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Sleyman is on leave with his teenage son, Patrick, who is visiting from Ireland, but when Detective Kerim Grsel's transsexual ex-lover, Pembe, is also murdered, shortly after confessing that Wael Al Hussain had used her for sexual favours, Sleyman knows he must help Kerim solve this complex case.
Entering a world of the Syrian diaspora, where tales of mythical storytellers abound, Ikmen and Sleyman uncover a tragic tale of dark secrets and double lives where nothing is at it seems...