The Janissary Tree

A Novel

By: Jason Goodwin

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

The Janissary Tree, the first book in a new series, is set in a most extraordinary world and features a most extraordinary sleuth.

It is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court. Who is behind them? Only one intelligence agent can be trusted to find out: Yashim Togalu, a man both brilliant and near-invisible in this world.

You see, Yashim is a eunuch.

He leads us into the palace's luxurious seraglios and Istanbul's teeming streets, and leans on the wisdom of a dyspeptic Polish ambassador, a transsexual dancer, and a Creole-born queen mother. He finds sweet salvation in the arms of another man's wife. (This is not your everyday eunuch.) And he introduces us to the Janissaries. For, 400 years earlier, the sultan had them crushed. Are the Janissaries staging a brutal comeback?

©2007 Jason Goodwin (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

• Edgar Award, Best Novel, 2007

"A work of dazzling beauty....The rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." (The New York Times Book Review)

A Real Page Turner

This was one of the most riveting historical mysteries I have listened to in a long time. The wealth of detail about the Ottoman Empire and life in Istambul really makes this book come alive. I love historical mysteries that really make you live in the period and this is one of them. The detail is marvelous and adds to the depth of the book. While at first I didn't much care for the narrator, the more I listened the more I felt he was just right for the book and his ability to vocally differentiate the various characters in the book is really marvellous. Highly recommended.

Entertaining

A mix of intrigue, building plot and humility. Novel setting with unique characters does nor disappoint.

Narrator made a Russian of a Pole

My one quibble is that the narrator who briefly started out w a decent Polish accent for the Polish ambassador quickly went over to a Russian one. That left him w no good Russian accent for the Russian characters! If you don't notice accents, you won't find this an issue.

Wow, what an enthralling story.

Draws you in and tantalizes, with vivid descriptions and draping clues... Oh well. On to the next Yashim mystery.

Quite wonderful

Fascinating insight into another world, with a complex story and wonderful characters. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.