The Janissary Tree, by Jason Goodwin

Among the best crime novels that I have discovered in the past couple of years have been Jason Goodwin‘s Investigator Yashim stories, set in Istanbul, Turkey, in the 1830s. Goodwin’s series works for me on many levels. His depiction of daily life in the Ottoman Empire is fascinating. The markets, the wharves, the mosques, and the homes, from palaces to hovels, all come to life in Goodwin’s narrative. He is particularly strong in the culinary field, and the descriptions of purchasing, cooking, and eating food are a centerpiece of the stories.

Yashim is also a most appealing character. A eunuch, he served in the harem of the sultan and still has connections at court, particularly with the sultan’s mother, a formidable woman. Other characters have prominent roles in the novels, including Yashim’s sometime partner, the Polish Ambassador to the court of the sultan. Poland, of course, no longer exists, having been divided up by the Russians and the Prussians, but the sultan funds the Polish Embassy, and its sole representative, to annoy the Russians. Yashim is an able investigator; his abilities to fade into the background and to elicit stories from people serve him well in the investigations that he takes on. There is a great deal of political intrigue in the novels, and the workings of the Ottoman court might even be termed byzantine. In the first novel in the series, Yashim is caught up in the investigation of a plot to overthrow the sultan. The military order of the Janissaries was violently dissolved a decade earlier, but the disappearance of four soldiers in the New Army seems to be tied to the suppression of the Janissaries.

As in today’s Middle East, issues of modernization versus tradition, the importance of religious observance, and the rise of fundamentalism are a source of conflict in these tales, and that conflict affects all levels of society. Just as today, there do not seem to be any easy solutions to these issues. Istanbul (previously Constantinople) had been a center of political and religious power as well as great wealth since the fall of Rome. First, the city was the the seat of the Byzantine Empire. It was sacked by crusaders in 1205 and finally taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. By the early 1800s, elements of all of these cultures formed the foundation for what was by many standards quite a cosmopolitan society.

Rich detail, a most interesting detective, a bit of humor, and lyrical writing make this a series not to be missed.

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