The twenty-seventh mystery featuring Inspector Ikmen, star of BBC Two's gripping crime drama series The Turkish Detective.

Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is on holiday in Romania when his distant cousin calls. Nurettin Suleyman has bought the Wooden Library, an ancient building in Istanbul once owned by their ancestor. He needs help cataloguing its priceless contents and who better for the job than Mehmet's old friend etin Ikmen? As Ikmen sets to work, he detects a terrible smell pervading the library that leads to the discovery of a rotting corpse. The dead body is that of Senol Ulusoy, the man who sold Nurettin the library . . .

A long-running feud between the two families comes to light, as does the bitter rivalry between the three Ulusoy brothers, fuelled by their father's cruel manipulation. Then pathologist Arto Sarkissian makes a shocking discovery that turns this case on its head, and Suleyman's detective team must dig deep to reveal a truth that is rooted in the past as well as the present . . .

Praise for Barbara Nadel's Ikmen mysteries:

'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron

'Ikmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times

'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector Ikmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' Guardian