Hunting a killer in old Istanbul

TRAVEL and history writer Jason Goodwin examined the Ottoman Empire in 1999’s “Lords of the Horizons” and experienced modern-day Byzantium in 2003’s “On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul.” His latest, “The Janissary Tree,” explores the empire’s declining years, but this time he blends mystery with historical fiction.

For this first in a planned series, Goodwin has created one of the most unusual detectives in years: Yashim Togalu, a brilliant, multilingual eunuch who must solve a series of brutal crimes in 19th century Istanbul.

Yashim is “a tall, well-built man in his late thirties, with a thick mop of black curls, a few white hairs, but no beard, but a curly black mustache,” Goodwin writes. “He had the high cheekbones of the Turks, and the slanting gray eyes of a people who had lived on the great Eurasian steppe for thousands of years.... Both men and women had found themselves strangely hypnotized by his voice, before they had even noticed who was speaking.”

He is no ordinary eunuch: He is a lala, an honorary title bestowed upon certain castrated servants trusted to attend rich and powerful families, “chaperoning their women, watching over their children, supervising the household.” And as a royal detective, he fills an additionally prized role.

Inspector Yashim is summoned by the sultan after a series of jewelry thefts and grisly murders occur, threatening the stability of the royal court. The most obvious suspects are the Janissaries of the novel’s title: Once an elite army fiercely loyal to the sultan, they have become a radical and brutal militia.

After centuries of tumult, during which the Janissaries really did murder those who tried to crush their burgeoning power, the final break came on June 16, 1826. The sultan had formed a new army and demanded that the Janissaries adopt a Western military style, deliberately provoking them into revolt and violence. Thousands died in what became known as the “Auspicious Event,” when, Yashim reflects, “modern gunnery ... reduced their mutinous barracks to a smoldering ruin.” Ten years on, he believes, the event was a trauma “from which the empire still waited to recover.”

Interestingly, Goodwin’s descriptions of the Janissaries have an undeniable contemporary resonance (think of the war in Iraq and that country’s battling militias): “The men who had been sent to terrify Europe made a simple discovery: it was easier -- and far less dangerous -- to terrorize at home.” Underlying the plot is the tension between the traditional and the modern, and the reactions in religion, warfare and daily life. As a radical fringe, the Janissaries sowed unease among citizens. “Their behavior was threatening and insolent, as they swaggered through the city streets, fully armed and wielding sticks, uttering loutish blasphemies.”

Remnants of this mutinous band seem the obvious culprits for a sudden round of killings -- especially since most of the dead are the sultan’s soldiers. But Yashim suspects that the corruption lies elsewhere. Exceedingly polite, cautious and intuitive, he is adept at getting people to open up in conversation, often without their knowing it. He takes his time following leads -- but the pressure is on for a quick solution because of the panic building in the city. Even the palace is on the brink of a coup attempt. The sultan’s mother shrieks at her son, “We may all be murdered in our beds.”

Soon Yashim’s investigation leads him into the heart of the palace, to the brusque royal seraskier, commander of the New Guard, who becomes an increasingly shadowy figure.

“The Janissary Tree” vividly evokes its era, but not in a way that seems didactic or overly stuffed with detail. Nor is Yashim’s status as eunuch much of an issue; he is such a savvy, understated sleuth that his intelligence, rightly so, takes prominence.

Like Alexander McCall Smith in his “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, Goodwin has an easygoing, appealing prose style that belies the wealth of historical knowledge informing his story. This is a rare novel in which prose and plot are equally impressive, and it is a smart, welcome installment to a promising new mystery series.

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Carmela Ciuraru is the editor of six anthologies of poetry, including “Solitude” and “Motherhood.”