The cover of this book says, " A powerful blend of murder, mystery and romance set in the Ottoman court."
The book is set in 1886, and starts with the discovery of a naked woman's body washed up on the shores of the Bosphorus. It soon comes out that the woman is a foreigner. The investigator, Kamil, goes to the British Embassy in order to find out who the mystery woman could be. The chapters are short and to the point. At first the story seems disjointed until Kamil weaves all the threads together in his quest to discoverwho the woman was, and why she has been murdered. Sybil, the daughter of the English Ambassador helps him in his quest, by going amongst the women to find out what she can. (It being a Muslim country Kamil is iunable to question the women himself.) I ended up not being able to put this book down.