TripFiction talks to author Barbara Nadel about ‘The Turkish Detective’

15th July 2024

We are delighted to be talking to author Barbara Nadel, whose Inspector Ikmen novels are the inspiration behind the new TV series: The Turkish Detective, which is now available towatch on BBC. The 27th novel in the series, coming May 2025, is The Wooden Library and all the books brim with the sights, sounds and smells of Turkey. They are mainly set in Istanbul but some venture beyond this stunning city on the Bosphorus. The sense of place is so strong that – especially after watching the TV adaptation – people are sharing on Social Media that they have booked for a visit to the city. That is the power of literary tourism!

Credit: BBC

TF: Please tell us about your books and the inspiration behind them?

BN: I first started writing these books as a way of relaxing after work, especially when I began working in a psychiatric hospital. For part of my time I worked on a forensic unit for mentally disordered offenders and so it was psychologically challenging. It was and is also an imperfect world inside those places. People who have killed who don’t know they’ve killed, people too delusional to know who or what they are, confused relatives visiting, victims who fail to obtain closure. I wrote crime fiction because it is a perfect world. The good guys win and when Cetin Ikmen popped into my head I knew he was one of the best. Further he was one of the best in my favourite place in the world: Istanbul.

TF: What is your connection to Istanbul? Do you feel at home there?

BN: I started going to Turkiye more years ago than I care to recall. Then I had family there. But more importantly I fell in love with the city – everything about it good and bad. It is of course stunningly beautiful, it’s history is fascinating, it’s people full of stories and it is filled with unexpected nooks and crannies. Some days it’s almost as if you’ve time travelled. One minute you’re standing outside a vast new steel and glass office block, the next you’re witnessing a ceremony from the dawn of time. Yes, I do feel comfortable there. I’m basically in love and it is a passion that never goes away.

TF: How did I discover a production company was interested and what kind of discussions ensued?

BN: A lot of authors will been approached by production companies with a view to optioning their work for film or TV. Most of these approaches come to nothing. I’d had a few in the past. One company had even bought the option but then, although they tried very hard, couldn’t manage to raise the necessary money to fund the show. When Paramount/Miramax finally approached my agent in 2019, I was really casual about it, considering what had gone before. But they were serious and they had money and we were all set to go until just a few months later in 2020, Covid hit. This put a dampener on everything for a couple of years but then in 2022 I discovered that we were ‘on’. I was so excited. I went out to Istanbul to watch the filming in October 2022. I met the cast, crew, director and script writer, Ben Shiffer. Everyone was so professional, so dedicated and brilliant I couldn’t have asked for more.

TF: As the author how much involvement did I have with the production?

BN: I provided breakdowns of all my books and recommended some casting ideas, including Haluk Bilginer as Ikmen. I also had discussions with Ben Schiffer. Not a huge amount but I was in there!

TF: How does it feel to see the essence of what you had created on the screen?

BN: It was nerve wracking at first, but when I saw the first 2 episodes at a viewing in London last year, I was delighted. I think they’ve done a brilliant job and really I couldn’t be happier.

TF: How do the characters on the screen mirror your own conception of them?

BN: Obviously there are differences. For instance in my books, Suleyman is not British and is the son of a man related to the Turkish royal family. However the reason for this change is sound. The stories are set in what to most of the audience is unfamiliar territory. The character of Suleyman gives them the opportunity to hang on to someone familiar while they acclimatise to the series. And Ethan Kai, who plays Suleyman, is brilliant. Haluk Bilginer just IS Ikmen. Absolutely perfect, ditto Yasemin Kay Allen as Ayse and I adore Fatma and the whole Ikmen family.

TF: Any tips for visiting Istanbul?

BN: It’s a vast, chaotic, beautiful city that can be tiring. There’s so much to see, so pace yourself. Give yourself time to look into the little alleyways and backwaters as well as the great monuments and museums. Istanbul has excellent public transport so get yourself an IstanbulKart (like Oyster card in London) and explore. I love that it’s now really easy to get to the Asian side of the city via the Marmary link underneath the Bosphorus, although I am an absolute addict of the ferries that cross the waterways and a day spent just cruising out to the Bosphorus villages, across the Golden Horn or out to the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara is time very well spent. Ditto people watching outside the many, many cafes and bars particularly in Beyoglu. I also find that the city’s many parks, often overlooked, provide calm, green spaces many of them affording magnificant views. Gulhane Park in the Old City and Yildiz Park on the shores of the Bosphorus are two that I particularly enjoy. And finally, go with the flow. I have discovered some of my most treasured places by just wandering about.

TF: How do you research tricky issues like international crime, the occult, drugs?

BN: I’ve always got my ‘ear to the ground’. Maybe because I trained as a psychologist but I am that person people talk to. I am also that person who always manages to sit next to someone in crisis! It’s not conscious. So I’m always looking and listening and I’m forever reading – books about crime, politics, the occult. One of my jobs is to get my Turkish news every day. We live in a fast world and so things can and do change quickly. Also my friends are brilliant and help me a lot. I also try to go to all the locations I describe. In the past, I’ve been up on the roof of the Grand Bazaar, down in small forgotten Byzantine cisterns and I’ve experienced Syrian Orthodox Easter in Aramaic when I went out to the eastern city of Mardin to research for my book ‘River of the Dead’.

TF: Your next book is called The Wooden Library. Please tell us a bit about it.

BN: The Wooden Library is centered around a dead body discovered in a neglected Ottoman library in Taksim at the centre of the city. As the police look into possible motives for this person’s death, they discover an ancient feud between two old Ottoman families.

TF: Suggestions for a reading list about Istanbul/Turkey?

BN: There are so many books now and I am here for it, believe me! So to start with the well known, Elif Safak is just brilliant, particularly her The Bastard of Istanbul and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World. Orhan Pamuk’s wonderful memoir Istanbul – also his The Museum of Innocence and A Strangeness in my Mind. For more cop action, A Memento for Istanbul by Ahmet Umit and of course anything by the late, great Istanbul scholar, John Freely and his daughter Maureen Freely. Midnight at the Pera Palas: The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King looks at the city through the prism of its most famous hotel  and is one of my favourite books about the city. Farewell Fountain Street by Selcuk Altun is a psychological mystery centered around a dying aristocrat in modern Istanbul. Jason Goodwin‘s Yashim crime novels are brilliant. Set in the 19th century Ottoman court, Yashim is a palace eunuch and an excellent cook! Modern Turkey meets  late Ottoman Turkey in a recent book by Pat Yale called Following Miss Bell – Travels Around Turkey in the Footsteps of Gertrude Bell. Bell, a British explorer and possibly spy, travelled extensively in Turkey during her youth before achieving fame during World War 1. Climbing mountains and exploring archeological sites, Bell’s intrepid journeys are retraced by modern travel writer, Pat Yale, who provides an entertaining and fascinating account of her 21st century travels in the footsteps of the adventurous Bell.

Barbara Nadel

Barbara’s latest novel is The Darkest Night, published in May 2024, and is set around a festival called Bocuk Gecesi which is a sort of Turkish version of Halloween.

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Catch the author on Twitter X @BarbaraNadel

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