The Janissary Tree is the first in the series, and the year is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the sultan of the Ottoman Empire feels he has no choice but to follow suit. But just as he’s poised to announce sweeping political change, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court. Who is behind the killings? Deep in the Abode of Felicity, the most forbidden district of Topkapi Palace, the sultan—ruler of the Black Sea and the White, ruler of Rumelia and Mingrelia, lord of Anatolia and Iona, Romania and Macedonia, Protector of the Holy Cities, steely rider through the realms of bliss—announces, “Send for Yashim.” Leading us through the palace’s luxurious seraglios and Istanbul’s teeming streets, Yashim places together the clues.
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