Blood Business 22

Barbara Nadel's gripping Ikmen mysteries are the inspiration behind The Turkish Detective, BBC Two's sensational eight-part TV crime drama series, out now.

Brothers Ugur and Lokman Bulut are locked in a bitter inheritance battle and need a sample of their mother's DNA to contest her Will. But when her body is exhumed, her corpse is found to be missing and a fresh body, with its heart removed, has been put in her grave. Assigned to the case, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman quickly realises that the heart has been illegally harvested, and his team has a murder inquiry on its hands.

Meanwhile, retired inspector Cetin Ikmen is tracking down a missing person: Sevval Kalkan, a once-famous actress, who has joined an underground movement called the Moral Maze, whose mission is to help the destitute living on Istanbul's streets. The unidentified body in the grave cannot be Sevval's, but her shocking reappearance leads Ikmen to fear that she, too, is a victim of organ harvesting...

Joining forces, Suleyman and Ikmen confront Istanbul's darkest underbelly to expose the horrifying truth of a city in crisis.

Review: Praise for Barbara Nadel's novels: 'Intelligent and captivating * Sunday Times *
Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight * Mick Herron *
Inspector Cetin Ikmen is one of detective fiction's most likeable investigators, despite his grumpy and unsociable character...think of him as the Morse of Istanbul * Daily Telegraph *
Impeccable mystery plotting, exotic and atmospheric * Guardian *
The delight of Nadel's books is the sense of being taken beneath the surface of an ancient city... We look into the alleyways and curious dark quarters of Istanbul, full of complex characters and louche atmosphere * Independent *
Gripping and unusual detective story, vivid and poignant * Literary Review *