The Prophet Murders: A Hop-ciki-yaya Thriller
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Long-time consumers of crime fiction are usually searching for something new -- there's nothing worse than realising that you have started to read something which is merely a re-warming of earlier themes and ideas. Such readers will be pleased by the appearance of The Prophet Murders, an outrageously entertaining novel by Mehmet Murat Somer.
The book is set in Istanbul, where the glories of the Ottoman Empire have long vanished. One of the quirkier attractions of the modern city are the transvestite clubs, which offer a wide variety of diversions (some of them very physical). When a series of corpses begins to appear (some recently killed, others murdered years before), the world of the clubs is very disturbed -- particularly as the methods of dispatch are often extremely unpleasant. The narrator of the novel, the club-owner Burcak, is a transvestite, routinely described as ‘she’ by those who know her (even though Burcak is male, with no surgical alterations); Burcak has been dealing with personal threats based on her irreligious behaviour, but now it's beginning to look imperative that she track down a particularly nasty killer.
As well as being a crime novel of a particularly outrageous character (rather like the author, in fact), we have the added value here of being taken into the transvestite gay subculture of Istanbul, which will be something of a new experience for most crime readers. And Mehmet Murat Somer is the perfect tour guide to this unusual world (where the iconoclastic secular world rubs shoulders with an unbending, religious ethos); Somer’s skill as a writer has enabled him to create a particularly unusual protagonist. The author has said that he may be straying into pastures new with future books, but in the meantime this entertaining outing is more than enough to be going on with. --Barry Forshaw
Review
"'M M Somer's novels are hysterically funny and get better each time' Time Out, Istanbul 'They are as refreshing as cookies and cold lemonade on a summer day. I wish there was a Turkish Almodovar to film all these novels one day' Perihan Magden, author of 2 Girls"
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First Sentence
I grabbed a cup of coffee and the morning paper and settled into my chair by the window. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I grabbed a cup of coffee and the morning paper and settled into my chair by the window. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is something really new. It's centred on a transvestite nightclub in Istanbul, and told at a brisk pace by our hero, the club manager, who's one of the fairest of them all. Girls from the club are being murdered in sinister circumstances, and so far as he's concerned, this is no time to stand idly by and listen in on the gossip. He's spurred into action, and we follow his progress, step by step, as he criss-crosses the city, sometimes as a man, sometimes in full drag, and then moves south for a sexy, dangerous, and very dark denouement. Not a detective by profession, his day job as a computer specialist is research training enough, and he's driven by his determination to safeguard the girls from whoever is bumping off one by one any and every girl who was named at birth after one of the holy prophets.
There are brief encounters, good friendships, and some truly disturbing moments along the way, but his resolve doesn't ever falter, and nor does the sprightly intelligent tone with which he relates his adventures, more or less as they happen. Through gay scenes and everyday scenes, he's not going to be daunted, and takes it all in his stride - tenderness, exploitation, silliness and horror are all reported while they occur to this bold, good-humoured and unnamed queen. The pace varies, dwelling for a while on a drag performer whose ambition is to be the perfect housewife, then on a techie nerd who wants to be a masochist ... but the tone is unhesitating, always open and ready to cope, whether the events and encounters are sweet or grim, seductive or ugly.
This is the first of six such thrillers by Mehmet Murat Somer, and it's a lively translation, with not a moment's lapse into boredom. It is too a window onto a very special world that few if any non-Turks can access, one that's brave, startling, and ultimately highly cheerful. It'll no doubt be compared to classics of high-camp comedy, for instance to Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City", but in truth this is something very different - unsentimental, and far more modern, more like Keith Ridgway, the Irish gay writer who's also not afraid of the dark. And unlike even the best of Turkish gay cinema - unlike films such as "Hammam", or that searing toughie, the award-winning "Lola and Billy-the-Kid" - here sympathy and feeling are never allowed to tumble down into melancholia and pathos. This is vivid resistance fiction, from a gay culture that's refusing victimhood and compromise, and is instead asserting its vitality, its huge variety, and its absolute right to life.
You hardly can believe this book could exist until you actually start reading it, and it's great news there's a whole series more just waiting for translation.
There are brief encounters, good friendships, and some truly disturbing moments along the way, but his resolve doesn't ever falter, and nor does the sprightly intelligent tone with which he relates his adventures, more or less as they happen. Through gay scenes and everyday scenes, he's not going to be daunted, and takes it all in his stride - tenderness, exploitation, silliness and horror are all reported while they occur to this bold, good-humoured and unnamed queen. The pace varies, dwelling for a while on a drag performer whose ambition is to be the perfect housewife, then on a techie nerd who wants to be a masochist ... but the tone is unhesitating, always open and ready to cope, whether the events and encounters are sweet or grim, seductive or ugly.
This is the first of six such thrillers by Mehmet Murat Somer, and it's a lively translation, with not a moment's lapse into boredom. It is too a window onto a very special world that few if any non-Turks can access, one that's brave, startling, and ultimately highly cheerful. It'll no doubt be compared to classics of high-camp comedy, for instance to Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City", but in truth this is something very different - unsentimental, and far more modern, more like Keith Ridgway, the Irish gay writer who's also not afraid of the dark. And unlike even the best of Turkish gay cinema - unlike films such as "Hammam", or that searing toughie, the award-winning "Lola and Billy-the-Kid" - here sympathy and feeling are never allowed to tumble down into melancholia and pathos. This is vivid resistance fiction, from a gay culture that's refusing victimhood and compromise, and is instead asserting its vitality, its huge variety, and its absolute right to life.
You hardly can believe this book could exist until you actually start reading it, and it's great news there's a whole series more just waiting for translation.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There's a recommendation from the author Val McDermid on the cover which describes this book as a "cappuccino", frothy on top but dark and bitter underneath. And that's exactly right: as witty as the writing is it is also insightful and defiant.
The window the story provides into the transvestite community in Turkey is fascinating. But what i found most interesting was the recurring theme of duality, the tension and potential of living on a boundary. The narrator lives as both man and woman. Turkey is shown to be both European and Asian, secular and Muslim, traditional and ultra-modern (the internet and hacking play an important part in the story).
Something else that interested me was the almost total absence of biological women in the story (apart from the odd cleaner or mother) and the defensive attitude displayed by the narrator and other transvestite characters towards them. And also the minimisation of family in the narrative. Transvestite society is shown as though it were almost entirely self-contained. The author, in his long and entertaining acknowledgments section comes across very differently - as a (presumably gay) man deeply bonded to his family including many women.
Finally, there is the fact that the story, rather than being primarily a whodunnit, is actually more concerned with how easy it is for the person whodunnit to get away with it when the victims are society outsiders. I suspect some people will be disappointed with this lack of mystery, but not me. The tension is in the danger that our transvestite heroine risks as she struggles to bring the killer to justice - just because in doing so she is stepping outside the space Turkish society permits her: physically - night clubs; socially - sex work, entertainment.
But this makes it sound as if the book is earnest and worthy. It isn't - it's sharp and funny. I found it unputdownable. Can't wait till the rest of the series are translated.
The window the story provides into the transvestite community in Turkey is fascinating. But what i found most interesting was the recurring theme of duality, the tension and potential of living on a boundary. The narrator lives as both man and woman. Turkey is shown to be both European and Asian, secular and Muslim, traditional and ultra-modern (the internet and hacking play an important part in the story).
Something else that interested me was the almost total absence of biological women in the story (apart from the odd cleaner or mother) and the defensive attitude displayed by the narrator and other transvestite characters towards them. And also the minimisation of family in the narrative. Transvestite society is shown as though it were almost entirely self-contained. The author, in his long and entertaining acknowledgments section comes across very differently - as a (presumably gay) man deeply bonded to his family including many women.
Finally, there is the fact that the story, rather than being primarily a whodunnit, is actually more concerned with how easy it is for the person whodunnit to get away with it when the victims are society outsiders. I suspect some people will be disappointed with this lack of mystery, but not me. The tension is in the danger that our transvestite heroine risks as she struggles to bring the killer to justice - just because in doing so she is stepping outside the space Turkish society permits her: physically - night clubs; socially - sex work, entertainment.
But this makes it sound as if the book is earnest and worthy. It isn't - it's sharp and funny. I found it unputdownable. Can't wait till the rest of the series are translated.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
On the cover of 'The Prophet Murders' there is a quote from Peter Tatchell saying 'Watch out, here comes the transvestite killer thriller.' How could I resist?!
In Istanbul, transvestites are being murdered in increasingly bizarre ways. Our narrator, a fellow transvestite, decides to find out what is going on using the local grapevine.
I did enjoy this novel, but that had more to do with the characters than the plot. There is a strong cast of characters and the novel is filled with pithy one-liners, whether they come from the mouth of the local women who does home waxing treatments or the chat room heckler known as JIHAD2000. The only downside for me was that the plot was a little flimsy. We don't really learn anything about the murders other than flimsy second-hand accounts and yet our narrator manages to work out who is responsible. There isn't even a twist.
On the whole, this is a good fun novel (with quite a dark scene at the end.) I'm hoping that the promise shown in this novel will reach its full potential in the subsequent books in the series.
In Istanbul, transvestites are being murdered in increasingly bizarre ways. Our narrator, a fellow transvestite, decides to find out what is going on using the local grapevine.
I did enjoy this novel, but that had more to do with the characters than the plot. There is a strong cast of characters and the novel is filled with pithy one-liners, whether they come from the mouth of the local women who does home waxing treatments or the chat room heckler known as JIHAD2000. The only downside for me was that the plot was a little flimsy. We don't really learn anything about the murders other than flimsy second-hand accounts and yet our narrator manages to work out who is responsible. There isn't even a twist.
On the whole, this is a good fun novel (with quite a dark scene at the end.) I'm hoping that the promise shown in this novel will reach its full potential in the subsequent books in the series.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Camp comic fun...
Former engineer and bank manager Mehmet Murat Somer made his international debut with this translation of the first entry into his intriguing Hop-Ciki-Yaya thriller series which... Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by Mutt
An Alternative Take on Istanbul's Underbelly
We go light-hearted with Mehmet Murat Somer's tale of a transvestite detective in The Prophet Murders. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2009 by Feanor
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