The Kiss Murder

The last thing I would expect a book set in Istanbul to feature is a transvestite subculture, but that’s exactly what you have in this Hop-Çiki-Yaya series. The nameless main character is quite interesting… he knows exactly what he is, and isn’t apologetic about it. He plays up his masculine and feminine sides equally well. The story here isn’t about the murder as much as it’s about the blackmail, and the main character’s drive to find out what is going on, mostly for his own curiosity. I didn’t love the story, but I did enjoy it and would probably read more. I found the writing to be somewhat stilted and choppy, but I don’t know if that’s how the writing is or if it’s an aftereffect of translation.

Despite the fact that I never read murder mysteries or spy thrillers, I picked this one up because the stylish cover illustration promised something a bit more exotic. I was expecting a cross-pollination of "The Avengers," "To Wong Foo…" and that madcap international caper film, "Topkapi," but what I got was a pretty standard whodunnit with a fairly engaging heroine and an ending that, unfortunately, I had figured out by page eight.

Not that the book is entirely devoid of charm. The steamy Istanbul locales brought to mind the atmosphere of a Bollywood film, the secondary characters are colorful, the writing style is brisk, and, of course the alluring drag queen protagonist is able to throw shade with the best of them. But none of show more those things entirely outweighed the fact that this is still pretty formulaic stuff.

I probably would not read other books in the series, although I enjoyed this well enough for what it is - a literary palate cleanser. show less

Without naming names, Buse tells the owner of the transvestite night club where she hangs out that she still has letters and photos from a youthful liaison with an important public figure who very much wants the evidence to disappear. The next day, Buse is murdered but the police are uninterested, so the only way to find the murderer is to find the letters and photos.

A fascinating narrator and some very funny scenes in this thriller set in an interesting milieu. Unfortunately the font in this ebook was unable to cope with Turkish diacritics, which was distracting at times.

When I saw a review calling the sleuth in The Kiss Murder "Istanbul's Miss Marple," I was intrigued. I like Turkish mysteries. I love Miss Marple. What could be better? Though the nameless sleuth is, in some ways, like Miss Marple, picture Miss Marple as a transvestite nightclub owner in Istanbul and you'll get a feel for The Kiss Murder.

I've read over 1,600 mysteries but I can honestly say I've never read a mystery like The Kiss Murder. Parts of it were fun and entertaining. Some parts, not so much. Even though I thought it was only okay to good, I think it has great potential and I've already bought the next one in the Turkish Delights series.

The Kiss Murders is probably not for everyone but it is entertaining in an odd sort of way.

I decided to read this book and catch up on the series. I enjoyed it. It is more focused than the first book, with fewer characters and a tighter plot. The main character is also more polished, but still not all that likable.

This time a transvestite, Buse, is being pressured to turn over incriminating pictures, and letters of her and a prominent straight man, who was once her lover. He is highly placed in a political party that features family values as its claim to power. Buse is killed and the race is on to find the documents and pictures. Buse's blind mother is missing, and an upstairs neighbor is murdered.

There are competing groups: the blackmailers and those who work for the politician are stalking people, spying and show more threatening/roughing up people to get what they want.

Some of the characters from the previous book are back, and some are missing. The POV's love interest is not in this book or even mentioned. The masochistic crippled hacker is also not mentioned. Several characters do reappear. Hassan the gossipy-nosy club Maitre'D, Husseyn the taxi driver with the puppy-dog crush on the POV. Hassan becomes unreliable, and the POV finally gives Husseyn a chance.

The POV is still arrogant, self-absorbed, and prone to violence. She does seem to be more polished, and less nasty. She also acts a bit dumber in this book however. She refuses to talk to people who might have information or clues, refuses to listen to phone messages, because she is too busy, or tired. Its a common tactic to keep the suspense and mystery simmering, but with the POV talking about how stupid everyone else is, it doesn't sit well.

Still it was an interesting, quick read set in a very different world. The writing was good and the translation worked well. I will read the next one. show less

I will give it 3 stars and actually explain why. Certainly the combination of transvestites and drag queens (working girls, really) with Istanbul places this book on a shelf of its own. It deserves some attention due to the unusual characters and settings, though the descriptions of some seem highly unlikely, having grown up in Istanbul. The "girls" certainly seem to enjoy a freedom and lack of abuse that I find incredulous. As open-minded as Istanbul dwellers may be... uhm, not really. And of course, the men... the copious amount of men running after, pining after the main character seems rather unlikely, no matter how stunningly Audrey Hepburn she may be. Don't get me wrong, we are talking about an Istanbul where the transvestites show more were on so much demand (from the married, straight manly men, of course) that the other prostitutes were ratting them out to eh police to take back the market! So I am not saying that it is unlikely that macho Turkish men would be pining after our heroine, here, but rather that they would be so readily accepting it in public when, say, someone mentions it, or they would just simply blush when their desire is found out... We're talking about a highly homophobic society here, and these men, no matter how much they like the "girls" would be enraged if such things were insinuated about them.
So let's leave all that behind, and say that the book is meant to be a romp, in this respect. It's meant to be tongue-in-cheek, with a hint of wishful thinking. The main character and many of the other characters, especially the girls, are all very stereotypical. Again, let's say this is due to the fact that all of this is a bit like a drag queen show; you go for the over-the-top effect. Some characters, though again a bit too stereotypical, are done well. The nosy neighbor of Sabiha Hanim, for example, is spot on. The main character is well developed and after a while one can start to see the world through his/her eyes. The plot did not bother me as much as it seems to have bothers others. I thought it was plausible (though what happens in the end at the mosque is highly unlikely) and there were enough twists and back stabbings to last for another book.
So why not, say, four stars? Several other people mentioned this and I will try to address it more thoroughly: The writing. I am waiting to get another one of Somer's books to see if the problem might have been the translation. I will read the next one in Turkish and see if the choppy feel that dominates throughout the book is due to translation. Some things in the translation were done well, though. For example, the sen/siz (the familiar you and the formal You) issue is hard to explain, but I thought the translation did a good job with it. But other times, too many times, the narration fails to flow and sometimes even gets confusing due to awkward language.
I don't think translation is the only thing to be blamed here, though. I think the main problem with the narration was that it was told in first person. First person narration is very hard to do well and in many cases it is tiring and flat out annoying to read after a while. The writer could have easily focused on the main character, kept the reader and the main character in the dark just the same, with third person narration, which I think would have helped the flow. I understand that a noir detective story is usually told in first-person, but the limitations of this narrow point of view and the lack of a personal voice (due to the narrator and the main character being the same voice) cause the story to suffer. Basically, it it were written better, either a better translation and/or better narration, it would have been a four. show less

Glamorous Turkish drag queen (whose day job is as a computer consultant) attempts to unravel the mystery behind a colleague's murder, and unwittingly discovers a web of blackmail and political intrigue. Fortunately our heroine is a master of Thai kick-boxing!

Amusing romp set in the intriguing milieu of Istanbul's transvestite community. There are a few hints of underlying corruption and hypocrisy among the politically and socially powerful in contemporary Turkey, but essentially this is "light reading." I did find it very interesting to read about "same-sex sexuality" in a "modernizing" country that nonetheless retains strong elements of a traditional past. This is the first in Mehmet Murad Somer's "Turkish Delight" series that I've show more read - I'm planning to get at least one more. It would be nice if there was a little more substance in the next one that I read, but it's escapism, so I won't mind too much if there isn't! show less