Priceless artifacts are disappearing from the ancient Hittite site of Karakuyu in Turkey, and the site director has vanished. Called in to solve the mystery, archaeologist Renaud Townsend is hindered by both his inability to speak the language and the knowledge that the local police are corrupt. His attraction to translator Anne Pierson is immediate, although he is troubled by her refusal to talk … talk about the past and her fear of public scandal.But when murder enters the picture, both Anne and Renaud realize that the risk of falling in love is not the only danger
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This is my one hundred and fifty fourth review. Yet, I’m sitting here intimidated to write my thoughts and feelings about The Turkish Affair. Why is that? Have you read the author’s biography or read any of her interviews? I typically don’t get awestruck but this is my third J. Arlene Culiner novel and I’m dumbstruck. She is a marvel. A cut above the rest. A class act. Hopefully you get my point that she’s a brilliant writer and has led an admirable life. She doesn’t even own a TV according to one interview I read. I can’t imagine.
There isn’t anything remarkable about the life I’ve led. I’m living a good one but certainly not anything extraordinary. Needless to say, I’m not feeling worthy to write a review for The Turkish Affair but here goes nothing.
Above all else, though, I have to say… go buy the book! To quote NIKE “Just do it”. There isn’t a book of the past 153 that I’ve read that compares to the quality and quantity of research presented in a realistic and entertaining manner that I found in The Turkish Affair. The details provided are eloquently implemented with such polish that one can’t help but feel like they are present with the characters. With that said I don’t have a desire to go on a Turkish tour. I love my modern-day comforts too much.
In regards to the characters, they are splendid. I had to read slowly and pay attention to follow the suspense/mystery. I was riveted to my seat from beginning to end, trying to guess who was stealing the artifacts because I was suspicious of everyone. The best thing – I was surprised at the end. I didn’t find the plot predictable at all because I was too busy trying to figure out why certain characters were hostile to others and who could be trusted.
The romance between Renaud and Anne was complicated by outside forces but they couldn’t resist each other. There are many plot threads woven in synchrony between who is corrupt, who is telling the truth and the desire for Renaud and Anne to be together. I was thoroughly engaged in trying to comprehend and anticipate what would happen next.
On a side note, I woke up and declared this day was going to be a “do nothing” day so that I could sit on the couch and read. My husband woke up and declared that this would be the day we’d go mattress shopping because he was not going to sleep another night on our deplorable mattress. I was rather annoyed. Thankfully the matter was settled rather quickly and I was back on the couch in a matter of a couple of hours. I spent the entire time mattress shopping reviewing in my head what I had read so far. It’s that kind of book, nearly impossible to put down and impossible to get out of my head.
Now that I’ve finished reading it, I’m still thinking about certain scenes. I’m very particular in my requirements that an author ties up those loose threads, so accepting it as written is a rare event. I don’t think it would have been realistic for the author to wrap up the ending with a neat and tidy bow. Not when the story takes place in another country where the guilty would need to be extradited and especially when the author wants to keep the story genuine and authentic. Without giving any spoilers, I can what really matters most – Renaud and Anne did receive their happily ever after.
In conclusion, I will repeat myself. Go buy the book!
A missing site director, missing artifacts and a suspicious replacement archeologist at a Turkish dig site…not exactly what Anne was thinking she’d find when she escorts tourists to the site. Although they got off to a bad start, Renaud and Anne forge an alliance to get to the truth of what’s happening at the site. As they navigate the foreign culture and its intricacies, the pair begin a relationship. They must be careful, however, because the bad guys are watching and becoming more daring and dangerous.
Enjoyable mystery with some romance.
The Turkish Affair
J. Arlene Culiner
Kindle, 235 pages
Wild Rose Press, Jan 15, 2020
Contemporary Romance – Cultural
Provided by Author
The cover is attractive and appropriate for the book, however, I think I would have liked to see the heroine pictured on the cover since she is the more dramatic character and the one whose POV is used. *** I just found this second cover for this great story! One I like a lot better and which gives this book a 5-Star rating! Look at this!
Ms. Culiner has created a story with such drama and so many twists that it captured my imagination almost immediately. I found the beginning just a bit confusing. Once I got my bearings I was okay with it all. But everyone has secrets and secret agendas, so nothing is straight-forward. I think I must call Ms. Culiner’s writing style in this book ‘slight-of-hand’. Someone was there and then they weren’t. It took forever to figure out where they had gone and why. This one has a lot of twists and turns as well as a hotter-than-the-desert love affair. And the desert is very hot. Ms Culiner makes sure that we know just how hot it is. Her descriptions of the surroundings and the people and the shimmering heat are absolutely marvelous. You can almost taste the teas and coffees and smell the spices used in the cooking. You want to wipe away your own sweat along with the characters in the book.
And this book is alive with other things, too. Corruption, jealousy, and murder. Anne and Renaud are stymied in trying to get at the truth by not being able to rely on the police because they were so corrupt. They also had to be very careful of their behavior in public. She lived with a local family and she had to keep her reputation clean or it would reflect on this family and cause problems. Even holding hands in public could blacken her reputation. As a woman in a Muslim society, her behavior was watched very closely by everyone. At the dig site, Anne and Renaud had to be careful because of the other woman there who was jealous of Anne. She had been in love with the missing director and thought that Anne had had a close relationship with him. She wasn’t too happy about Anne’s scooping up the new director. And then they discovered that the former director had been murdered not that far from the dig. The field of suspects suddenly was all around them. And could Anne be eliminated from the list? The police certainly didn’t think so.
This is an exciting, twisty romantic mystery that I highly recommend from a favored author. I hope we see more such books from this author.