Suleyman’s mentor,Inspector ikmen；currently on sick leave knows more than Suleyman about Arabesk's overblown traditions，for his wife is a fan of its melodramatic laments．But even Ikmen is taken aback by Tansu，Erol’s ageing girlfriend，a manipulative monster of vulgar rapacity that not even the slums of Karak6y,where the ancient bathhousekeeper Madame Kleopatra now lies dying，could rival…‘The delight of Nadel’s Ikmen books is the sense of being taken beneath the surface of an ancient city which most visitors see for a few days at most’Independent.

When the peasant wife of one of Turkey"s most popular musicians is murdered，the highly cultured Inspector Suleyman knows he is hopelessly out of his depth．The raucous,plebeiar world of Arabesk music，in which：Erol Urfa is a star,is a foreign country to him．Why,he wonders，did Erol have a secret wife，when his relationship with the chanteuse Tansu was so well known?And what has happened to their child?