Book Description

Lawrence Goodman’s first novels were dreamt up as two self-contained parts of a quartet. The third ‘A Grain of Salt’ has just been published. Evocative, lighthearted, completely entertaining, they capture the atmosphere of the Istanbul’s min-archpelago in the Sea of Marmara, the Princes Islands - an hour from Istanbul but a universe apart. The characters lead somewhat wilder lives than one might suspect from their appearance as one steps off the islands ferry, but they do make for perfect holiday reading. Who knows, maybe fact is stranger even than fiction. John Scott

In this third installment of his comic mystery series set on Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands, Lawrence Goodman brings back characters from the earlier volumes-private detective Ibrahim Gül, police inspector Osman Ilik, amateur sleuths Everett and Lily Blum, among others-and introduces Tod Perez, a Las Vegas gambler on the run, who works against time as he searches for a fortune stashed in Istanbul by his Aunt Jane’s late husband, a secretive Turk with a shady past. The zany plot-with Tod disguised as his aunt-takes the reader into the worlds of high-stakes gambling, spiritualism, and Istanbul’s seamy underworld. When Tod has nearly reached his goal, the mob closes in and the plot spirals to a wild and unexpected conclusion. The growing audience for Goodman’s comic romps will welcome this delightful continuation of the saga.