The Janissary Tree

Months after reading this book, I found myself wondering what Yashim the eunuch was up to and how his odd assortment of friends were doing, so I was relieved to find that it was the first of a series. Yashim is unique, remarkable, and lovable, as well as being an excellent cook whose technique I sometimes try to copy.

Set in the 1830s, his special circumstances allow him entry to parts of Istanbul and the palace that are off limits to others, naturally of great interest to snooping readers like me. Goodwin is a historian, so he knows his stuff.… show more.

Just as reading the Cadfael novels of Ellis Peters primes so many people to want to see Shrewsbury so too do the murders and intrigues investigated by Jason Goodwin’s Ottoman administrator, the eunuch Yashim, provide the same incentive to walk around Istanbul. The old city encompassed by the Byzantine walls still has so many of the buildings which feature as the 1836 setting for the first of this series of unusual historical detective novels and Yashim’s creator is so obviously both a knowledgeable historian and a great storyteller. And you are going to fall in love with Yashim and his… show more.