Kismet

Description

It all began with a favour. Kayankaya wanted to help out Romario, the owner of a small Brazilian restaurant, who had been threatened by extortionists. Then suddenly there were two bodies on the floor of Romario's restaurant, their faces caked in white powder. Kayankaya is troubled by these deaths and decides to find out who the men are, until he himself is pursued by a mysterious mafia organisation. It becomes clear that he is facing the most brutal and dangerous group of gangsters ever to run Frankfurt's station quarter.

Jakob Arjouni is the author of the celebrated Kayankaya novels featuring a Turkish detective in Frankfurt. Titles include Happy Birthday Turk, More Beer, One Man One Murder and Kismet. Magic Hoffmann, a standalone novel was shortlisted for the IMPAC Award. His last novel, Brother Kemal, was published by No Exit Press in August 2013.

Arjouni forges both a gripping caper and a haunting indictment of the madness of nationalism, illuminated by brilliant use of language: magnificent -- Cathi Unsworth * The Guardian * Arjouni's fourth Kayankaya novel and they deserve to be better known in the English-speaking world. One worth waiting for -- Peter Millar * The Times * Arjouni's PI hero Kayankaya has to deal with racism as a Turk living in modern Frankfurt -- Jake Kerridge * The Telegraph * true hardboiled detective fiction, realistic, violent and occasionally funny -- Susanna Yager * Sunday Telegraph * There is hardly another German-speaking writer who is as sure of his milieu as Arjouni is. He draws incredibly vivid pictures of people and their fates in just a few words. He is a master of the sketch - and the caricature - who operates with the most economic of means * Die Welt, Berlin *