The Snake Stone

Description

It is Istanbul, 1838, and Lefevre, a French archaeologist, has arrived in Istanbul determined to uncover a lost Byzantine treasure. Yashim is hired to investigate him, but when the man turns up dead, there is only one suspect: Yashim himself. Once again, the investigator finds himself in a race against time to uncover the startling truth behind a shadowy secret society dedicated to the revival of the Byzantine Empire, caught in a deadly game deep beneath the city streets, a place where the stakes are high ? and betrayal is death.

Jason Goodwin fell under the spell of Istanbul while studying Byzantine history at Cambridge University. On Foot to the Golden Horn, his second book, recounts the story of his six-month pilgrimage across Eastern Europe to reach the city for the first time. Jason went on to write Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire praised by Jan Morris as ?a high-octane work of art'. His first Yashim mystery, The Janissary Tree, became an international bestseller when it was published in 2006; it and its sequel, The Snake Stone, have been translated into 37 languages. He is married to Kate, his companion on the walk to Istanbul; they live in Dorset with their four children.