A routine shakedown leads Frankfurt PI Kemal Kayankaya (One Death to Die, 1997, etc.) to a maze of slimy, violent crooks. The Saudade Restaurant doesn't do enough business for Romario, its owner, to pay a protection fee of 6,000 Deutschemarks per month. So after losing his thumb to a pair of tough guys who say they're from the Army of Reason, Romario gets Kayankaya and his buddy Slibulsky-the ice-cream man whose resume includes work as a bouncer and bodyguard-to protect him from the protectors. The result is a bloodbath that doesn't end until the Saudade is reduced to ashes. And it doesn't really end even then, because Kayankaya won't let the case die. Convinced that Dr. Michael Ahrens, the soup king whose BMW was obligingly parked outside the restaurant, is behind the racket, he digs in his heels. So does Ahrens, and there's a stalemate until Kayankaya, who's already got one client whose dog he's being paid to find, takes another, a teenaged refugee named Leila, who wants him to find her mother while Leila perfects her German by reading pornography. Despite the jocular mood, no story involving so many sordid felonies can end happily, and this one doesn't. The plot is full of holes and awkward shifts as Kayankaya hurtles from one nest of vipers to the next. But even apart from the obligatory anti-Turkish episode, the unsavory atmosphere is inimitable.
Hard-boiled detective fans should welcome German author Arjouni's U.S. debut, the fourth book in his popular series (Happy Birthday, Turk! etc.) featuring Kemal Kayankaya, a wisecracking Turkish immigrant PI. When a ruthless gang calling itself the Army of Reason demands 6,000 marks a month from a Frankfurt restaurateur acquaintance of Kemal's, Kemal and his sidekick, Slibulsky, wind up in a gun battle that leaves two thugs dead. In 2001, the year this novel was first published, Balkan refugees were streaming into Frankfurt. Kemal must deal with Croatians trying to move in on territory already divided among German, Albanian, and Turkish bosses as well as searching for a wealthy woman's lost dog and protecting an all too worldly 14-year-old Bosnian girl. While Kemal lacks charm, this entry will whet readers' appetite for the three earlier Kayankaya mysteries. (Oct.)
Praise for Kismet
“As winning a noirish gumshoe as has swooped onto the mystery scene in some time.” —Richard Lipez, The Washington Post
“In the emphasis on action and quck-jab dialogue, readers will notice an echo of James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, but Arjouni’s stories also brim with the absurd humor that made The Sopranos so entertaining.” —Vikas Turakhia, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
“Jakob Arjouni’s downbeat detective Kemel Kayankaya has proved as enigmatic as Columbo, as erudite as Marlowe and occasionally, as crazed as Hammett’s Continental Op . . . Arjouni forges both a gripping caper and a haunting indictment of the madness of nationalism, illuminated by brilliant use of language: magnificent.” —The Guardian
“This lively, gripping book sets a high standard for the crime novel as the best of modern literature.” —The Independent
“With its snappy dialogue and rumpled heroes, Arjouni’s crime fiction owes an obvious debt to American noir but it is equally reminiscent of many Eastern European satirical novels. The plot of Kismet may recall any number of gangster romps, but the society so caustically depicted here is as recognizable as that conjured up, for instance, by Jaroslav Hasek in The Good Soldier Schweik.” —Anna Mudow, The Barnes & Noble Review
“Re-imagines the dull capital of the German financial industry as an urban hell where minority groups and crime bosses prey on one another with ruthless abandon.” —The Daily Beast
“If you like your investigators tough and sassy, Kayankaya is your guide.” —The Sunday Times (London)
“This is true hardboiled detective fiction, realistic, violent and occasionally funny, with a hero who lives up to the best traditions of the genre.” —The Daily Telegraph
Praise for One Man, One Murder
“Kemal Kayankaya is the ultimate outsider among hard-boiled private eyes.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“A zippy, deliciously dirty tour of legal fleshpots and low-down scams victimizing illegal aliens . . . Plotted with verve and written with passion.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The book is as hard-boiled as private eye stories come.” —The Toronto Star
Praise for Happy Birthday, Turk!
“The greatest German mystery since World War II.” —Süddeutsche (Germany)
International Praise for Jacob Arjouni’s Kayankaya novels
“A worthy grandson of Marlowe and Spade.” —Der Stern (Germany)
“Jakob Arjouni writes the best urban thrillers since Raymond Chandler.” —Tempo (UK)
“A genuine storyteller who beguiles his readers without the need of tricks.” —L’Unità (Italy)
“Arjouni is a master of authentic background descriptions and an original story teller.” —SonntagsZeitung (Germany)
“Arjouni tells real-life stories, and they virtually never have a happy ending. He tells them so well, with such flexible dialogue and cleverly maintained tension, that it is impossible to put his books down.” —El País (Spain)
“His virtuosity, humor and feeling for tension are a ray of hope in literature on the other side of the Rhine.” —Actuel (France)
“Pitch-black noir.” —La Depeche (France)
Established racketeering in Frankfurt—fairly peacefully divided among German, Albanian, and Turkish crime bosses—is upset when the mysterious Army of Reason suddenly starts asking business owners for exorbitant sums and lopping off their thumbs when demands aren't met. After restaurateur Romario becomes a victim, he turns to PI Kemal Kayankaya for help. His plan to scare off the Army of Reason, carried out with friend Silbulsky, turns into a shoot-out that leaves two extortionists dead, Kayankaya scratching to trace the new crime organization, more people killed and buildings blown up in retribution, and another country vying for a piece of the Frankfurt crime action. Winner of the German Thriller Prize and best sellers in Europe, Arjouni's four-book series featuring the wisecracking PI of Turkish descent who's not above using bribery and lies and calling on sources inside and outside the law to get what he needs is now being released in the United States for the first time. VERDICT Germany is a roiling melting pot in Arjouni's noir fiction with a light touch. A good bet for readers of the genre. [This title launches the publisher's new Melville International Crime imprint, previewed in Wilda Williams's "Passport to Mystery," LJ 4/15/10.—Ed.]—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA
