The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin
Posted by IronMac on February 18th, 2009
Years ago, I had read one of Goodwin’s earlier works - Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire - and was surprised to see that he’d come out with a mystery book of all things. Yes, there was that book about walking from England to Istanbul which I didn’t particularly like and, subsequently, never finished but I never really expected that he’d be able to pull off a good historical mystery.
And he does pull it off very well as Goodwin brings us to early 19th-century Istanbul and its stew of simmering tensions between the old, possibly disloyal Greek population, the newer but flagging Ottomans, the brash and fresh Europeans and, mixed in, a seasoning of religious and commercial rivalries. It’s an interesting look at how the Ottoman Empire might have looked like as it slowly begins its fade away from the world stage and is increasingly eclipsed by the Western Powers.
And we see it all through the eyes of one of its more unique symbols, a eunuch at the Ottoman court. More precisely, an epicurean, bibliophile of a eunuch who spends more of his time shopping, cooking and chatting up friends than he does at Topkapi let alone guarding the harem. Through one of his friends he is thrown into a mystery that involves all of the players mentioned above along with a hunt for archaeological treasure and dealing with the consequences of the Greeks’ fight for independence.
An excellent book for those of us who relish historical mysteries that move along quickly and are informative to boot.
