I love the character of Yashim to eunuch detective, the love the setting in 19th century Istanbul, and I love the writing when he's talking about the city and the cooking and so forth, but the writing when it comes to the plot is driving me crazy. Space is one thing, but reading this book is like watching a movie through shower glass. There are too many nouns when it comes to characters - with too little description - making it very difficult to keep track of who's who. Then there are too few nouns and verbs when it comes to dialogue and action. It's hard to tell who is saying what, almost alwasy hard to tell what what's being said means, and as for action - well just give it up, because you cannot understand what's taking place by reading the text. There will be a altercation and Goodwin will make a reference to a hand gesture and then a character will will make some vague action and then it's over, and you have no clue what just happened.
As with the last book - and probably the one before because I thought this was the third and looks like it is the fourth, so I've combined the last two in my mind apparently, I have no idea what the title means, or what the plot is about.
