The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin is the winner of the 2007 Edgar Award for best novel.
The New York Times review called it “the perfect escapist mystery.”
It is set in 1836 during the Ottoman Empire's declining decades. Just before the Sultan announces sweeping modernizations, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court.
For 400 years the Janissaries were the empire's elite soldiers, but they grew too powerful, and ten years ago the Sultan had them crushed. Are the Janissaries staging a brutal comeback?
The investigation is in the hands of a court eunuch, Yashim Togalu, who is of the opinion that he is the perfect man for the job as he is “unencumbered by the plums.”
The Agatha Award will be awarded this coming week as part of Malice Domestic XIX in Arlington, Virginia, which I will be attending.
The best novel nominees for the Agatha are:
All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear
The Saddlemaker’s Wife by Earlene Fowler
The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard
Why Casey Had to Die by L.C. Hayden
I am rooting for Spencer-Fleming, although I am also a huge fan of Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs mysteries.
There will be many author panels and interviews and I look forward to hearing about what’s new and exciting in the crime fiction world.
