When will the third Yashim mystery, The Bellini Card, be published in the US? I have heard Summer 2008, but it does not appear on any of the websits such as Amazon, Borders, or Barnes & Noble.
I have to tell you that i’ve been working on a novel that deals with the Auspicious Incident also. I thought I had an original idea…..then I discovered your series…. Now I feel like someone beat me to it. Mine is not a mystery novel, but my main character is a Naval Turkish officer escaping the events in 1826 and his adventures and misfortunes thereafter.
Sheila – thanks for wondering! I think you’ve crossed the UK and US schedules: the Bellini Card – publshed here in the UK this July, if you want a preview! – will be appearing in the US in March 2009, with the paperback edition of The Snake Stone due out this October, I believe.
James – I don’t think The Janissary Tree covers your ground. Your story is yours!
Good luck.
When we can read your another book, translated at bosnian, serbian or croatian language. We can read only janissary tree. Its exelent. I cant wait another books.
Omer – Sarajevo
I’m glad you enjoyed the Janissary Tree – and I can tell you that today, oddly, I signed a contract with Laguna to publish The Snake Stone in Serbia.
Biblioner – they are a bookseller, as well as publisher – will be publishing the three books – The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, and The Bellini Card – in Bosnian. If you’re in Sarajevo then maybe you can ask them…
You are great writter. I’m really glad that your new books will be soon at bh. market. I posted your website at my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1346393284, an recomend your books to everybody. I wish that you write many, many good books.
Alisa Lekic
Sarajevo
P.s. Istanbul is so great. Isn’t it?
Dear Mr. Goodwin:
Please let us know where we can buy your new novel/history “The Bellini Card” here in the United States or through a British publisher as soon as possible. I have one of those annoying cancers that may not allow me to wait until March 2009 to read it.
I studied years ago at UCLA under Spyros Vryonis, where we used Ostrogorski as our principal text for Byzantine history. Professor Shaw taught Turkish history, but I was unable to fit his classes in my schedule.
Your synthesis of history and imagination is admirable, if not close to envious.
Thanks for your mesmerizing work.
Respectfully, Eddie
In the midst of reading “A Time for Tea” (US version), which is a wonderful book. Thank you! I’m a photographer, in the process of making a book on the Spirit of Tea. I really appreciate the essence that you evoke in your writing, a welcome respite for the countless books of “information” about tea.
I think I recognize a friend in your pages, your Professor Tea in Hong Kong. Is this Ip Wing Chee? He was introduced to me by my Tea Brother, David Lee Hoffman (http://www.allinthistea.com/)
If you are in New York (and I am not in China), please come for tea.
It was great meeting you at Bouchercon. I’ve started reading The Snake Stone and am enjoying it immensely. The world you’ve created is compelling, and I love Yashim. Looking forward to The Bellini Card this spring. Hope to see you again at some point.
I just bought your book “The Janissary Tree” in Chinese version today…I hope they translated it in the right words..I probably will read the English one later! Interestingly, eunuches also played important roles in different dynasty in Chinese history
I am new to your books..but I am sure I will read more after this one!
I was aimlessly searching for a good book, then I came across Snake Stone. And what a read it was!! It was much easier and less brain-power consuming read than “My Name is Red” and I don’t why I found of echoes of “The Name of the Rose” in your book. Could it be because I got literature and a detective story in one book. I bought Janissary Tree and wasn’t disappointed at all. Refreshing! I am yet to buy Bellini card cause it is bit expensive in India. But a reviewer compared your style/genre with Boris Akunin, so I am trying his books now. Hope you would continue entertaining us. There isn’t a single page in your book that drags. I think that’s a stupendous achievement, particularly nowadays with the kind of thrash that is available!
The Bellini Card was ordered from Amazon.uk, delivered in London to an American student who brought it home in her luggage, and whose mother spirited it into the house to surprise me this morning. Where there was a will (my daughter’s), there was a way. Must sign off now because I am busy reading … For those who must wait for their copy, by page 20 I knew it was worth the wait. But it gives me a giggle that my patience need not be tried further.
The Bellini Card is a wonderful thriller and I was lucky enough to read it in Venice. I also love Istanbul and cooking Turkish food, so all in all very entertaining. Two tiny comments. What colour are Carla’s eyes? On one page they are blue and so Yashim makes the sign against the evil eye, then a page or two later they are black, and then blue again. Un mistero? The other is the church scene in pre-Vatican ll RC practice wine was never offered to communicants, and even today in Italy almost never is. Thomas Cranmer introduced Holy Communion in both kinds, as it’s called. Also RCs never received the host in their hand, and again in Italy even today rarely do. I’m a priest, so a bit whacky about those details, no onw else would notice of course. Complimenti.
So nearly alright – it was all wafer and no wine until the very last moment! Thank you so much for that – I’ll see to it that we clean up our act for subsequent and foreign editions. When we were trekking across Transylvania almost 20 years ago, we often liked to insinuate ourselves with Catholic priests because they had communion wine, from Alba Iulia, and very delicious it was; nothing like the sinister filth peddled in the shops. They also usually had a lovely old village lady to look after them properly; the Calvinists had families.
As for the colour of the Contessa’s eyes, well, deeply misterioso; it must be the changing Venetian light. I think it’s been corrected for the paperback, along with some other startling errors. Apologies.
Jason,
Firstly, congratulations to Izaac on the great job he’s done on the web site.
I’ve just read the Bellini Card and enjoyed it immensly. Sending Palewski to Venice and then having Yashim turn up in Sherlock Holmes style disguise was inspired. I also noticed a different side to Yashim in this story: a much tougher cookie with no qualms about killing the bad man.
When I took my 10 year old daughter to Venice a few years ago she observed that is was “shabby looking”. I knew what she meant but couldn’t quite put my finger on the reason. Your vivid descriptions solved it for me – thanks.
On another note, now I’ve read all three I feel I have a real feel for how Istanbul must have been in the early 19th Century. I know you haven’t read Pratchett but some aspects of his city of Ankh Morpork are very similar: the city watch, the violent no go areas, the mix of cultures, the underground waterworks, and the secretive guilds. Seeming chaos with an invisible order, and an absolute ruler in total charge. Perhaps Pratchett was partly inspired by Ottoman Istanbul – just a thought.
Dear Mr. Goodwin: I finished “The Bellini Card” over the weekend and remain enchanted, after the three books, with your physical descriptions of locales, architectural details (what are “crockets”?), almost tactile sense of place and atmosphere, and fabulously entwined plots. When Yashim emerged from the pile of rags, I almost jumped from my chair. Wonderful storytelling. One tiny point: agreeing with earlier comment, RC priests offered communicants, in my youth, only the wafer, on the tongue. Communicants *never* touched it. One slight typo: “Dar al-Hab” should of course be “Dar al-Harb.” Ah, Yashim: the compleat Ottoman gentleman. I’m getting a serious crush on him. I keep wondering which movie star should play him. All good wishes on your and Yashim’s future. Looking forward to more. Janet Heineck
I have settled into the Bellini Card–recommended by a friend because I am planning a short visit to Venice. If I had read the book earlier, I would have planned more time for the city. I am on p.123 and I simply can’t wait to board a plane.
In addition, I am very interested in Venice, early l960s and want to find out what the ministry of culture might have been like then. Does the ministry of culture still exist by that name or another? I am trying to find someone who might have worked there in l960. Thanks for this wonderful book. I am now a fan and look forward to reading your other works. Thanks.
I love all of your books! I live in Hawaii where there are many different cultures living in harmony as it is in Istanbul. I do hope you continue the Yashim mysteries. Will there be another one out soon???
Thank you, Joyce, and let’s hope nothing ruffles the harmony of Hawaii. I’m working on another Yashim story now, An Evil Eye. It’s set around the harem of the young Sultan Abdulmecid, in an environment where magic and superstition were live realities; not to mention the old sins of envy and greed.
June 17, 2008 at 3:27 pm |
When will the third Yashim mystery, The Bellini Card, be published in the US? I have heard Summer 2008, but it does not appear on any of the websits such as Amazon, Borders, or Barnes & Noble.
June 17, 2008 at 4:05 pm |
I have to tell you that i’ve been working on a novel that deals with the Auspicious Incident also. I thought I had an original idea…..then I discovered your series…. Now I feel like someone beat me to it. Mine is not a mystery novel, but my main character is a Naval Turkish officer escaping the events in 1826 and his adventures and misfortunes thereafter.
Tell me i’m not wasting my energy?
June 17, 2008 at 5:48 pm |
Sheila – thanks for wondering! I think you’ve crossed the UK and US schedules: the Bellini Card – publshed here in the UK this July, if you want a preview! – will be appearing in the US in March 2009, with the paperback edition of The Snake Stone due out this October, I believe.
James – I don’t think The Janissary Tree covers your ground. Your story is yours!
Good luck.
July 5, 2008 at 9:14 pm |
Dear Jason,
When we can read your another book, translated at bosnian, serbian or croatian language. We can read only janissary tree. Its exelent. I cant wait another books.
Omer – Sarajevo
July 5, 2008 at 10:03 pm |
Dear Omer,
I’m glad you enjoyed the Janissary Tree – and I can tell you that today, oddly, I signed a contract with Laguna to publish The Snake Stone in Serbia.
Biblioner – they are a bookseller, as well as publisher – will be publishing the three books – The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, and The Bellini Card – in Bosnian. If you’re in Sarajevo then maybe you can ask them…
All best wishes
July 19, 2008 at 7:17 pm |
Dear mr. Goodwin
You are great writter. I’m really glad that your new books will be soon at bh. market. I posted your website at my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1346393284, an recomend your books to everybody. I wish that you write many, many good books.
Alisa Lekic
Sarajevo
P.s. Istanbul is so great. Isn’t it?
July 26, 2008 at 12:48 am |
Dear Mr. Goodwin:
Please let us know where we can buy your new novel/history “The Bellini Card” here in the United States or through a British publisher as soon as possible. I have one of those annoying cancers that may not allow me to wait until March 2009 to read it.
I studied years ago at UCLA under Spyros Vryonis, where we used Ostrogorski as our principal text for Byzantine history. Professor Shaw taught Turkish history, but I was unable to fit his classes in my schedule.
Your synthesis of history and imagination is admirable, if not close to envious.
Thanks for your mesmerizing work.
Respectfully, Eddie
September 10, 2008 at 2:49 pm |
Herd your interview on NPR got the books, reading Book 2. Glad to see you have a 3rd coming. Very well written and a pleasure to read.
October 12, 2008 at 4:00 pm |
Hi Jason,
In the midst of reading “A Time for Tea” (US version), which is a wonderful book. Thank you! I’m a photographer, in the process of making a book on the Spirit of Tea. I really appreciate the essence that you evoke in your writing, a welcome respite for the countless books of “information” about tea.
I think I recognize a friend in your pages, your Professor Tea in Hong Kong. Is this Ip Wing Chee? He was introduced to me by my Tea Brother, David Lee Hoffman (http://www.allinthistea.com/)
If you are in New York (and I am not in China), please come for tea.
best,
Matthew
http://www.matthewlondon.com
October 14, 2008 at 2:11 pm |
It was great meeting you at Bouchercon. I’ve started reading The Snake Stone and am enjoying it immensely. The world you’ve created is compelling, and I love Yashim. Looking forward to The Bellini Card this spring. Hope to see you again at some point.
November 1, 2008 at 5:21 pm |
I just bought your book “The Janissary Tree” in Chinese version today…I hope they translated it in the right words..I probably will read the English one later! Interestingly, eunuches also played important roles in different dynasty in Chinese history
I am new to your books..but I am sure I will read more after this one!
November 11, 2008 at 1:31 pm |
I was aimlessly searching for a good book, then I came across Snake Stone. And what a read it was!! It was much easier and less brain-power consuming read than “My Name is Red” and I don’t why I found of echoes of “The Name of the Rose” in your book. Could it be because I got literature and a detective story in one book. I bought Janissary Tree and wasn’t disappointed at all. Refreshing! I am yet to buy Bellini card cause it is bit expensive in India. But a reviewer compared your style/genre with Boris Akunin, so I am trying his books now. Hope you would continue entertaining us. There isn’t a single page in your book that drags. I think that’s a stupendous achievement, particularly nowadays with the kind of thrash that is available!
December 25, 2008 at 10:33 pm |
The Bellini Card was ordered from Amazon.uk, delivered in London to an American student who brought it home in her luggage, and whose mother spirited it into the house to surprise me this morning. Where there was a will (my daughter’s), there was a way. Must sign off now because I am busy reading … For those who must wait for their copy, by page 20 I knew it was worth the wait. But it gives me a giggle that my patience need not be tried further.
February 27, 2009 at 5:10 pm |
The Bellini Card is a wonderful thriller and I was lucky enough to read it in Venice. I also love Istanbul and cooking Turkish food, so all in all very entertaining. Two tiny comments. What colour are Carla’s eyes? On one page they are blue and so Yashim makes the sign against the evil eye, then a page or two later they are black, and then blue again. Un mistero? The other is the church scene in pre-Vatican ll RC practice wine was never offered to communicants, and even today in Italy almost never is. Thomas Cranmer introduced Holy Communion in both kinds, as it’s called. Also RCs never received the host in their hand, and again in Italy even today rarely do. I’m a priest, so a bit whacky about those details, no onw else would notice of course. Complimenti.
February 27, 2009 at 6:10 pm |
So nearly alright – it was all wafer and no wine until the very last moment! Thank you so much for that – I’ll see to it that we clean up our act for subsequent and foreign editions. When we were trekking across Transylvania almost 20 years ago, we often liked to insinuate ourselves with Catholic priests because they had communion wine, from Alba Iulia, and very delicious it was; nothing like the sinister filth peddled in the shops. They also usually had a lovely old village lady to look after them properly; the Calvinists had families.
As for the colour of the Contessa’s eyes, well, deeply misterioso; it must be the changing Venetian light. I think it’s been corrected for the paperback, along with some other startling errors. Apologies.
March 7, 2009 at 2:05 pm |
Jason,
Firstly, congratulations to Izaac on the great job he’s done on the web site.
I’ve just read the Bellini Card and enjoyed it immensly. Sending Palewski to Venice and then having Yashim turn up in Sherlock Holmes style disguise was inspired. I also noticed a different side to Yashim in this story: a much tougher cookie with no qualms about killing the bad man.
When I took my 10 year old daughter to Venice a few years ago she observed that is was “shabby looking”. I knew what she meant but couldn’t quite put my finger on the reason. Your vivid descriptions solved it for me – thanks.
On another note, now I’ve read all three I feel I have a real feel for how Istanbul must have been in the early 19th Century. I know you haven’t read Pratchett but some aspects of his city of Ankh Morpork are very similar: the city watch, the violent no go areas, the mix of cultures, the underground waterworks, and the secretive guilds. Seeming chaos with an invisible order, and an absolute ruler in total charge. Perhaps Pratchett was partly inspired by Ottoman Istanbul – just a thought.
Regards
Mike
March 31, 2009 at 2:35 am |
Dear Mr. Goodwin: I finished “The Bellini Card” over the weekend and remain enchanted, after the three books, with your physical descriptions of locales, architectural details (what are “crockets”?), almost tactile sense of place and atmosphere, and fabulously entwined plots. When Yashim emerged from the pile of rags, I almost jumped from my chair. Wonderful storytelling. One tiny point: agreeing with earlier comment, RC priests offered communicants, in my youth, only the wafer, on the tongue. Communicants *never* touched it. One slight typo: “Dar al-Hab” should of course be “Dar al-Harb.” Ah, Yashim: the compleat Ottoman gentleman. I’m getting a serious crush on him. I keep wondering which movie star should play him. All good wishes on your and Yashim’s future. Looking forward to more. Janet Heineck
May 12, 2009 at 10:51 am |
I have settled into the Bellini Card–recommended by a friend because I am planning a short visit to Venice. If I had read the book earlier, I would have planned more time for the city. I am on p.123 and I simply can’t wait to board a plane.
In addition, I am very interested in Venice, early l960s and want to find out what the ministry of culture might have been like then. Does the ministry of culture still exist by that name or another? I am trying to find someone who might have worked there in l960. Thanks for this wonderful book. I am now a fan and look forward to reading your other works. Thanks.
November 1, 2009 at 4:33 am |
I love all of your books! I live in Hawaii where there are many different cultures living in harmony as it is in Istanbul. I do hope you continue the Yashim mysteries. Will there be another one out soon???
November 1, 2009 at 12:24 pm |
Thank you, Joyce, and let’s hope nothing ruffles the harmony of Hawaii. I’m working on another Yashim story now, An Evil Eye. It’s set around the harem of the young Sultan Abdulmecid, in an environment where magic and superstition were live realities; not to mention the old sins of envy and greed.
If you like the books, do tell a friend!