Body Count

By Barbara Nadell
This mystery, set in Istanbul, involves the gruesome murders of several people on the 21st day over several months.  Some of the victims are loosely related.  Several of them have had their hearts cut out.   The first victim, apparently somewhat mental, had strange writing, that was at first thought to be math formulas in his home.  The writing was later identified as related to the Mayan calendar.  The police wonder if the mrders are somehow connnected to Mayan rituals.

As Inspector Suleyman goes about trying to solves the crimes he encounters a gypsy woman, a former lover of his.  Their affair is reignited.  This causes him to abandon a young female colleague he was in a relationship with.

As the victims all have crimes/sins in their background (adultery, crime, pedophilia, homosexuality the police wonder if the murders are being done to punish the"sinners".  The search for the killer results in the death of Suleyman's female colleague and Suleyman comes close to death at the hands of the serial killer.

In the end, it is one egomaniac academic, who got one of the victims pregnant as a young girl, who was having an affair with one of the victims and who has a hatred for the Ottoman descendents who is the serial killer.

It was an interesting mystery.  The various police officers had unique and endearing personalities.  The setting in Istanbul and the time frame in current Turkey added extra colour and life to the story.