Dead of Night

April 9, 2012
Nadel’s provocative 14th Inspector Ikmen mystery (after 2011’s A Noble Killing) takes the Turkish policeman and his fellow inspector, Mehmet Süleyman, to Detroit for an international conference on “Policing in Changing Urban Environments.” While visiting a housing project, Ikmen and Süleyman meet Ezekiel Goins, an elderly man of mixed race, whose son was murdered 30 years earlier. Ikmen, who feels a strong kinship with Goins not only due to ethnicity but because he too lost a son, is drawn into pursuing this cold case. Ikmen’s careful interrogations and his own intuition reveal a tangled saga of maverick cops, unscrupulous property developers, and corrupt officials, all united by greed and serious racism. Unfortunately, the complexities spawned by Ikmen’s unsanctioned prying are so ponderous they must be repeatedly explained, while a subplot involving a romance back in Istanbul distracts. Still, the fully realized portraits of the two inspectors, both of them experienced, street-smart, and compassionate, bring strength to the story.