"Baksheesh" by Esmahan Aykol, translated by Ruth Whitehouse / Tuesday, March 5, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Bribery can get you many things. Including an apartment where a dead body turns up and you become the main suspect.  Such is the case with Esmahan Aykol’s second book in her Kati Hirschel series, translated beautifully by Ruth Whitehouse.  I love the charm of the main character.  She’s of German descent, though born in Turkey.  She owns a small mystery bookstore, reminding me of one of our Killer Nashville sponsoring bookstores, Mysteries & More. I am drawn to the subtlety of the storytelling.  It doesn’t hurry as an American genre novel would.  It’s like a slow flowing brook.  It eventually gets there in its own good and purposeful time, to be enjoyed along the way, not rushed, maybe like a fine Turkish tea in the afternoon. It’s a mystery, but you have to get rather far into it (by American standards) before the body shows up.  You know, sometimes we need something different, maybe a journey abroad.  If you’re not thinking of reading it now, go ahead and buy it while it is still available in the States.  These foreign titles, my experience, don’t stay around as long as we would like.  And then on that day in the future when you are feeling a need to get away, it will be there, to the right, on the third shelf waiting, and in no time you’ll be strolling the streets of Istanbul, finding yourself maybe in a quaint little mystery bookshop.  No finer place could one be on a rainy afternoon.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!