kimu's review
3.0
I really liked the previous Yashim books and I love Venice, so I had high expectations for this book. While I enjoyed it, I felt it was rather jumpy and fragmented. I had a hard time at points following the action. The ending felt a bit abrupt to me.
dmahanty's review
4.0
A great mystery set in Istanbul and Venice 1840. Another in the Detective Yashim series. The Sultan believes the famous Italian painter left behind a painting of Mehmet the Conqueror. Yahim and his friend the Polish ambassador go to Venice to search it out.
kentcryptid's review
4.0
A lovely confection of a book that throws the reader deep into Ottoman and Venetian history.
It's 1840 and the new Sultan in Istanbul wants to own a blasphemous painting: the portrait of his ancestor Mehmet the Conqueror. Dispatched to Venice to recover it are Yashim - a eunuch and something of a private detective - and his best friend Palewski; the Ambassador for a country that no longer exists.
The story is full of lush, rococo descriptions of Venice but is also well-paced and features a lot of vivid characters. Jason Goodwin is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and it shows in his writing; the portions of the book set in Istanbul are also skillful and avoid falling into stereotypes of the mysterious East.
The mystery itself isn't quite as expertly created however: the guilty party is overly obvious and there's too much heavy exposition at the end while Yashim explains the plot to people.
On the whole a really excellent read and I'll be searching out more of Yashim's adventures.
It's 1840 and the new Sultan in Istanbul wants to own a blasphemous painting: the portrait of his ancestor Mehmet the Conqueror. Dispatched to Venice to recover it are Yashim - a eunuch and something of a private detective - and his best friend Palewski; the Ambassador for a country that no longer exists.
The story is full of lush, rococo descriptions of Venice but is also well-paced and features a lot of vivid characters. Jason Goodwin is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and it shows in his writing; the portions of the book set in Istanbul are also skillful and avoid falling into stereotypes of the mysterious East.
The mystery itself isn't quite as expertly created however: the guilty party is overly obvious and there's too much heavy exposition at the end while Yashim explains the plot to people.
On the whole a really excellent read and I'll be searching out more of Yashim's adventures.
nghia's review
2.0
I saw this mentioned somewhere -- maybe fivebooks.com -- as a great historical mystery. I think the interviewee said something like "he really makes Venice in 1840s come alive; I'm a historian of Venice and I felt like he knew more about it than I did!" So I added this to my To Be Read list as a "try something different" when the time arrived for a palate cleanser. After the disaster that was [b:Real Men Knit|51351884|Real Men Knit|Kwana Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571674719l/51351884._SX50_.jpg|72780260] I felt that time had arrived.
First a disclaimer: this is the third book in a series of detective mysteries that are mostly set in 1840s Istanbul featuring Yashim the Eunuch, a kind of problem-solver extraordinaire for the sultan. I have no read any of the previous books in the series but I find that's not usually an insurmountable hurdle for mystery series, which tend to be fairly self-contained.
The book starts off a bit strange: Yashim isn't really the main character of the first half the book. The book takes place in Venice and he sends his Polish friend Palewski in his place. Much of the first half of the book is just Palewski kind of...putzing around Venice somewhat ineffectually looking for a painting.
There are a series of murders occurring in Venice but it has not much to with Palewski. He doesn't know the victims, he's not investigating them. There's a weird lack of tension and drama. It almost reminded me of [b:The Catch|48550232|The Catch (Slough House, #6.5)|Mick Herron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574334687l/48550232._SX50_.jpg|73871959], except Palewski isn't quite that incompetent. He's more just out of his depth rather than incompetent per se.
Then, after you've been following Palewski for half the book...suddenly Yashim shows up and Palewski is shelved. We follow Yashim for the rest of the book. It is just kind of jarring. I imagine for a fan of the series it might be even more jarring. (After all, the series is "Yashim the Eunuch" and he's not even really in the first half of the book.)
Despite all that...the first half of the book was somewhat entertaining. The author is tremendous at depicting Venice in the mid-19th century and he is especially good at detailing anything involving food.
Once Yashim shows up the book descended to the ridiculous. There's a jarring sequence where. There's some mystical mumbo-jumbo about how the Sand-Reckoner's Diagram is not just the basis for fencing and wrestling (and Yashim and the Contessa both just happen to be trained in this same style!) but also, uh, everything?
But probably the biggest "are you kidding me?" is the whole sequence with
Oh, and the same exact location of the infamous gambling night many decades ago that set everything in motion, also happens to be where Maria gets stashed, and is also where the decides to hide out?
This book is just contrivance piled on top of contrivance on top of contrivance.
I'm only giving this 2-stars instead of 1-star because I feel slightly bad about jumping to the third book in a series and then giving it 1-star.
(Also, why does the decide to cut off someone's head and put it on dramatic display?)
First a disclaimer: this is the third book in a series of detective mysteries that are mostly set in 1840s Istanbul featuring Yashim the Eunuch, a kind of problem-solver extraordinaire for the sultan. I have no read any of the previous books in the series but I find that's not usually an insurmountable hurdle for mystery series, which tend to be fairly self-contained.
The book starts off a bit strange: Yashim isn't really the main character of the first half the book. The book takes place in Venice and he sends his Polish friend Palewski in his place. Much of the first half of the book is just Palewski kind of...putzing around Venice somewhat ineffectually looking for a painting.
There are a series of murders occurring in Venice but it has not much to with Palewski. He doesn't know the victims, he's not investigating them. There's a weird lack of tension and drama. It almost reminded me of [b:The Catch|48550232|The Catch (Slough House, #6.5)|Mick Herron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574334687l/48550232._SX50_.jpg|73871959], except Palewski isn't quite that incompetent. He's more just out of his depth rather than incompetent per se.
Then, after you've been following Palewski for half the book...suddenly Yashim shows up and Palewski is shelved. We follow Yashim for the rest of the book. It is just kind of jarring. I imagine for a fan of the series it might be even more jarring. (After all, the series is "Yashim the Eunuch" and he's not even really in the first half of the book.)
Despite all that...the first half of the book was somewhat entertaining. The author is tremendous at depicting Venice in the mid-19th century and he is especially good at detailing anything involving food.
Once Yashim shows up the book descended to the ridiculous. There's a jarring sequence where
Spoiler
Yashim and the Contessa go from fighting to the death to jumping into bed“Patterns aren’t measurements,” Yashim said finally. “I’ve seen the Sand-Reckoner’s diagram on a sheet of paper and on the floor of the wrestling school, in Istanbul. It’ll work on any scale.”
“Of course.”
But probably the biggest "are you kidding me?" is the whole sequence with
Spoiler
the Contessa, Maria's priest, and the Croat. The Croat turns out to be the Contessa's long-lost son and that only comes to light because Maria's neighborhood priest happens to have been the caregiver of the son several years ago on the Dalmatian coast.Oh, and the same exact location of the infamous gambling night many decades ago that set everything in motion, also happens to be where Maria gets stashed, and is also where the
Spoiler
TartarThis book is just contrivance piled on top of contrivance on top of contrivance.
I'm only giving this 2-stars instead of 1-star because I feel slightly bad about jumping to the third book in a series and then giving it 1-star.
(Also, why does the
Spoiler
Tartarmatthew_p's review
3.0
A fast-paced mystery with solid historical research as a foundation. I struggled to get a sense of time and place, which could be down to me or the author. I'm going to read the first in this series next to find out for sure.
danilanglie's review against another edition
4.0
Once again, I just love the style of these books - the quick action scenes, short chapters, the way the POV shifts seamlessly from one character to the next. And this particular installment was really fun, because I love Palewski as a character and he's the main one for this, with a lot of the story from his point of view. I like that he's competent enough, and doing an okay job for himself, but then Yashim comes in and saves the day. It's actually a very Holmes and Watson dynamic, which is very fun!
Changing the setting to Venice also added some excitement, especially in how the Istanbul and Venice stuff blended together, and you learn about the relationship between the two places at this point in history.
Changing the setting to Venice also added some excitement, especially in how the Istanbul and Venice stuff blended together, and you learn about the relationship between the two places at this point in history.
depizan's review
2.0
I think the author may have missed his calling in food writing - the descriptions of food and cooking were mouthwatering, but the rest of the book wasn't so impressive. Scenery and setting descriptions were all right, and the main characters were likable enough, but the plot was weirdly convoluted and spent too much time happening alongside the main characters. Something that might have worked if Palewiski had seemed threatened by the mysterious murders (which, I think he actually was, but it wasn't clear enough from the story, or all his dithering around). Without that suspense, it almost felt like there were two separate plots going on for much of the book: the search for the Bellini and the extremely weird murders.
Speaking of which...either I missed something or there was never an explanation of the weird and highly theatrical murders. I mean, there was an explanation of why the people were killed, but not the how. Unless we're just supposed to go with "because Venice is theatrical"?
Speaking of which...either I missed something or there was never an explanation of the weird and highly theatrical murders. I mean, there was an explanation of why the people were killed, but not the how. Unless we're just supposed to go with "because Venice is theatrical"?
dashausfrau's review
3.0
I really enjoyed reading about the connections between Venice & Istanbul. However, I missed most of the connections between the characters, that is, how the plot got from one point to another. I think maybe I was just feeling really lazy when I read this book & it requires more attention.
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