"My one single favorite book of the year." - Anthony Boucher, Edgar Award-winning critic for The New York Times Book Review Turkish philosopher and scholar Nuri Bey lives for his books and longs to study at Oxford. His dream is unattainable without the help of his rich patron, Madame Miasma, so when she asks Bey to deliver a parcel to a friend of hers, he readily agrees. The simple-sounding favour leads to Bey's unwitting participation in a fateful string of events, from an airport shootout with members of an international drug smuggling ring to his sudden and unexpected involvement with a rootless British teenager. This atmospheric tale of murder and suspense unfolds in Istanbul, which provides a vivid backdrop of minarets, mosques, and the Bosphorus, the dark and winding waterway that bisects the city. Winner of the 1962 Gold Dagger award from the British Crime Writers' Association, it colorfully portrays the differences between British and Turkish sensibilities in the 1960s. The story reflects a society at the crossroads of Europe and Asia that's caught between a proud sultanic past and a compelling modern future. AUTHOR: Joan Fleming (1908-80) twice received the Gold Dagger Award for Best Novel, awarded by the British Crime Writers' Association, for When I Grow Rich in 1962 and for Young Man, I Think You're Dying in 1970. Fleming published five children's books before her first adult crime novel, 1949's Two Lovers Too Many, after which she wrote more than 30 other books in the genre. Her novel The Deeds of Dr. Deadcert was the basis for the 1958 film Rx for Murder.