Death by Design

Another stunning addition to the Cetin Ikmen series by Barbara Nadel. This is very different to the usual books in the series, which are basically police procedurals set in or around Istanbul (and very good they are too). In this latest one Ikmen, still recovering from the death of his son (the climax of the previous novel Deadly river - which was reviewed here earlier in the year), is nearly killed when a suicide bomber blows himself up following a raid on a counterfeit goods factory. Ikmen goes undercover and follows a seedy trail of people trafficking through Turkey and Germany to London, where he sets to work in another counterfeit goods factory which appears to have links to Al-Qaeda, but all is not as it seems.

This is much more of a thriller than a straight police procedural. It is nonetheless fascinating, with some horrifying insights into the world of people trafficking and organized crime. It's perhaps not the best book to read first in the series, as it's very different to the rest, but it's extremely enjoyable, and has some of Barbara Nadel's best writing. Ikmen truly does get better and better.