The Winter Thief

Kamil Pasha #3

by Jenny White

A bank robbery and illegal weapons lead Kamil Pasha to uncover a plan to massacre an entire valley.

December 1888. Vera Arti carries The Communist Manifesto in Armenian through Istanbul’s streets, unaware of the men following her. When the police discover a shipload of guns and the Imperial Ottoman Bank is blown up, suspicion falls on a socialist commune Arti’s friends organized in the eastern mountains. Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha is called in to investigate. He soon encounters his most ruthless adversary to date: Vahid, head of a special branch of the secret police, who has convinced the sultan that the commune is leading a secessionist movement and should be destroyed—along with surrounding villages. Kamil must stop the massacre, but he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, framed for murder and accused of treason, his family and the woman he loves threatened.

Exploring the dark obsessions of the most powerful and dangerous men of the dying Ottoman Empire, The Winter Thief also reflects the mad idealism of those turbulent times. .

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Historical Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 17, 2010

About the author

For her scholarly works, see also Jenny B. White

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't so much a mystery, but more of an adventure that would make a good movie. While Kamil Pasha is the main character, White doesn't lack for strong, but in different ways, female characters.

White does a good job of getting time and place done, and that pretty much makes the book worth reading. The story is dark and to give White credit, she doesn't pull punches. It's not a deep book, but a riveting adventure story.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Jenny White's historical mysteries is somewhat akin to meeting a group of new acquaintances at a party or business meeting: you might leave with an overall favorable impression and then (when you start thinking) you start nit-picking. . . .

There is alot to like in this book and the other Kamil Pasha novel I recently read.
. . . Turkey is a complex, mysterious, magical place for me;
. . . Kamil Pasha, White's protagonist, has an interesting background and solid moral core which adds spice to the series;
. . . I've been seriously under-educated in the history and culture of the East and anything that helps fill that void is a plus.

That said, as an anthropologist, White is probably so knowledgable about the people and practices, strife and suffering (of Turkey and its surrounding region) that her writing is not always as clear or consise as it should be for recreational readers. I wanted to learn about the Armenian refugees that were featured in this book ,but concluded my reading with empathy but not understanding. If political and social issues are introduced into a novel they should evolve in a natural way that presents a relatively complete picture. That was missing for me.

Overall, I think two books in her series is enough for me.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Winter Thief" is a historical mystery set in 1888 in Istanbul and in some rural villages along the border with Russia. This book was the third in the series and may spoil events in the previous novels, however, you don't need to read them to understand this one. It wasn't until I was about to write this review that I even realized this book was a part of a series.

The vivid setting details and historical political and everyday details were expertly woven into the story, bringing it alive in my imagination without slowing the pace or falling into a history lesson. The suspense was created by mystery, physical danger, and relationship tensions. Curiosity about what happened to or would happen to the characters kept me turning the pages. However, it's a rather dark novel and included torture and a lot of people dying needlessly for Vahid's ambition.

The characters were interesting, complex, and realistic. The author did an excellent job of letting the reader know why people were acting the way they were and it was consistent with their background. She even worked some subtle symbolism into various scenes.

There was a minor amount of cussing and swearing. There was one page containing a graphic sex scene and several very brief but sometimes graphic scenes of torture and rape. Overall, I found the novel very well written even though I didn't really enjoy the story. While realistic, the story was too depressing for me to enjoy. However, if you're in the mood for a dark story and like historicals, I'd recommend this one.

I received a review copy of this novel from the publisher.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Winter Thief by Jenny White is the third and so-far, the last book in her historical mystery series featuring Turkish Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha. I do hope that at some point, she decides to continue the series but this third book was published in 2010 so it's not looking good.

This book is a rich. exciting mystery and historical adventure. It starts off with the robbery of the Imperial Ottoman Bank of a haul of gold and gems by purported Armenian nationalists. At the end of the robbery, there is an explosion that also destroys a near-by café, causing a major fire. It seems that Kamil's brother-in-law, Huseyin, may have been hurt severely by the fire as he meets in the café with another woman.

The investigation conducted by Kamil, at the direction of the Minister of Justice, Nisam Pasha, will lead him into conflict with the head of the secret police, Vahid, a terrifying, evil man. This conflict will endanger, Kamil, his sister, Feride and his friend, Elif, and all of his close friends and acquaintances.. Besides himself of course.

The investigation will ultimately lead him to a conflict in Eastern Turkey, where a group of idealistic Socialists are trying to form a Utopian community (with the help of arms bought in America and also the stolen gold.. but let's not think on that too much). That is the gist of this fantastic story.

The story, itself, will move from character to character; Kamil, Vahid, Armenian woman Vera, held and tortured by the secret police, Feride (searching for her missing husband), Omar, Kamil's friend and police chief, and so many others. There is intrigue, danger, love and so much more. It's a fascinating story, offering a historic perspective of the time and a great picture of such an exotic country as it struggles with the past and the future. There is a constant menace from the secret police, especially Vahid, who will give you the creeps. Great story and excellent, satisfying conclusion, leaving a teaser of future stories. I definitely hope there will be more. (5 stars)

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third in a series though this is the first I've read. Set largely in Istanbul in late 19th Century. Interesting that the Armenian community in Turkey (about which I know little) are the perceived enemies of the State, as are the socialists. A lot of really nasty, violent events, and much cruelty to women, which is probably quite accurate. Yet two of the strongest characters in the novel are women.
Although the book was interesting, not compelling enough for me to want to read more by Jenny White.

[Kay Robart · Rating 3 out of 5]

As we follow the adventures of a slew of characters the book begins to feel too disorganized and diffuse. My interest flagged a little. However, the threads of the story all come back together when the Sultan dispatches Kamil Pasha to the wilds of Armenia with a small troop of soldiers to find out whether the new settlement is a band of Armenian revolutionaries or a harmless socialist commune.

See my complete review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/t...

[Jehnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first two Kamil Pasha books so well that I found the third installment excessively disappointing. White tries to weave together so many different characters and plots that the overarching story lags in the middle. She does an amazing job with the history and the world she has created, but this book just didn't quite live up to my expectations.

[Darla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Istanbul in 1888. Sounds like a good place for a historical mystery. Unfortunately this wasn't a well written book. It was written in a choppy style, many chapters being only a page or two. In places it slid into the historical romance category. I won't be reading any more of what appears to be a series.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kamil Pasha has good character but the rest of the bureaucrats are evil, Istanbul is an intriguing city but the story lacked excitement. I'm glad I've tried this mystery series about Asia Minor and my grandfather's home town of Smyrna is mentioned, hurray. But, I don't think I'll go back for seconds.

[Celiavg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appreciated the historical setting. You can tell by all of the political/historical/anthropolical details that the author is a scholar. The characters and the action are good, too.

[Janet Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of the books in this short series--well researched, well written, and fascinating view of the Ottoman Empire in its declining years. I really wish White would revisit Kamil Pasha

[Patrice Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving this a 4.5. Very absorbing thriller about a Pasha working as a detective in Ottoman Istanbul during the 1880's. [Quite different from a series of mysteries set in Istanbul that I read a few years ago.]
Kamil Pasha is surrounded by both a large, supportive family, and loyal subordinates in the police force. He hobnobs with the current Sultan, and yet is also being undermined in a not-so-secret way by the newly minted head of the secret police.
He's drawn into world events by a small group of Armenian socialists who are planning to create a "utopia" in a small valley in eastern Turkey. They are secretly gathering money & arms in Istanbul before settling down in their perfect new town.
The reader is very good, and enhances the book!

[x · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked the descriptions of the setting, and the political situation was interesting and intriguing to read about. The author clearly knows what she’s talking about. I enjoyed that the focus shifted between many different characters.

The writing/plot details however often brought to mind pulpy crime/mystery tv series, a lot of things being over explained, but also quite a few non sequiturs that even going back and re-reading a page or two I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

I really enjoyed the “historical” part of this historical fiction and feel like I now have a better understanding of the time and place. The “fiction” part was somewhat sloppy. Overall I enjoyed this book but I won’t be reading the others in the series.

[FicusFan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. It is book 3 of the Kamil Pasha mystery series. It is set in 1888 in a remote Turkish valley and Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire.

I had it on my wishlist to pick up when it was published in tradepaper, so I was going to read it anyway. I have books 1 (The Sultan's Seal) & 2 (The Abyssinian Proof), but have not yet read them. That lack did not hamper my enjoyment of this book. The characters and relationships are well defined. I am already familiar with the Ottoman Empire, so I understood the undercurrents, politics and social setting.

I loved this book. It took me a bit to get into it, but when I did, I lost myself. I just disappeared and ended up in the world of the story and the characters. White is spot on in depicting the time period, setting and characters in terms of making a seamless whole with nothing jarring you out of the book and back into the modern world.

There are several POV characters, but the main one is Kamil Pasha, a magistrate in the Ministry of Justice in Istanbul. He is a rich and powerful man, but still must be careful of other bureaucrats. There is backbiting, jealousy and intrigue in those surrounding the Sultan. Kamil becomes locked in a battle with Vahid the head of a new secret police agency. The Vizier is under Vahid's sway and he tries to influence the Sultan against Kamil. Vahid is feeding the Sultan's fear of invasion by the Russians and attempted uprisings by ethnic minorities.

The story is about a group of Russian-Armenians who come to Turkey to start a communist worker's commune in a remote valley. They have been hounded out of Czarist Russia. Vahid paints them as revolutionaries and terrorists. He wants to wipe them out along with the people who live in the surrounding villages, also Armenians, whom he feels must be in league with the newcomers. Vahid wants advancement and power and doesn't care who he kills or slanders to get it.

The Russians are dedicated to the idea of an egalitarian workers' commune, and oblivious to the local Armenian political factions, and the enmity of the Ottoman rulers. Politically naive, they try to smuggle weapons for their protection, which are intercepted. Using local Armenians with their own agenda, they rob an imperial bank, which turns deadly. These crimes feed into the idea that they are dangerous to the empire. Kamil tries to untangle the truth to prevent a slaughter since the Sultan is being advised to send in his irregular Kurdish troops to kill everyone in the valley.

One of the POVs is an upper class Russian, Vera, who has married an operative in the new commune. She is dedicated to him and the idea of uplifting the workers - but she is idealistic and has no practical experience. She doesn't know how to do cloak and dagger and falls into the hands of the secret police. We see the secret police, the local Armenian community and the commune through her eyes.

Amid all the professional chaos Kamil is also shown with his family. He dotes on his sister Feride and is smitten by her friend, Elif. He visits Feride and her husband Huseyin, also an Ottoman official, often, since Elif is there a lot. She is Armenian and a refugee from a Turkish police action. She has not recovered from the trip where her husband and son were murdered. She likes Kamil but is unready to move forward with him.

Kamil also has connections with a very powerful older man, Yorg Pasha. He is an Uncle and also a weapons' dealer and he helps Kamil to understand the aims of the new Russian immigrants. Kamil works with Omar, a Police chief in a section of Istanbul who is a good personal and professional friend.

Eventually Kamil's personal and professional life converge when Huseyin is a victim of the aftermath of the bank robbery and goes missing. Feride and Elif are out searching for him, and having to fend of the attacks of Vahid's men. Missing Huseyin has somehow drawn Vahid's ire.

Kamil is framed for a murder committed by the sadistic Vahid and incarcerated. When released he is sent to the remote valley by the Sultan on a fact finding mission; he succeeds in planting doubt about the motives and truthfulness of Vahid and the Vizier. Left on his own, the Sultan changes his mind and sends the troops to attack after Kamil has gone to the valley. Notification recalling Kamil is mysteriously never sent and he and Omar and the tag-along Elif, are caught in the middle of the fight.

The story had many twists and turns with many settings. They were all done well and I was never lost or confused. The setting and people seemed real and I cared about them. The writing was very good and gripping.

I plan to read the first 2 books in the series soon, and will continue to follow the series when the next book comes out.

This was one of my top 5 reads this year. It reminds me in setting and quality of the mystery series by Jason Goodwin, also set in the Ottoman Empire: Inspector Yashim Togalu (The Snake Stone and The Janissary Tree).

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Corruption, murder, smuggled guns, robbery, kidnapping and political maneuvering are featured in this book which takes place during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. Kamil Pasha tries to serve his country, but what to do when what is best for the country conflicts with what the government wants?

Although this book was a bit hard to get into at first, I was soon caught up in the action and in the ethical dilemmas presented. We also see that history repeats itself. When the truth doesn't serve the needs of the power hungry, lies are useful tools; same as today.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is irrelevant, and the book is not a mystery (like the earlier books in the series) but a political thriller set in the Ottoman Empire of the 1880’s. It was a great combination of escapism and education for me, since I know so little about that time and place. I also enjoy the characters, although I worry about our hero, Kamil Pasha, becoming cynical. He has seen too much.

[Kutsua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, yet not perfect. Slow and sometimes tedious. The plot seemed too convoluted. The actual end comes at 75 %, the rest is a sort of epilogue.
I loved the two scenes of the audience with the sultan.
However, the idea of a blood-thirsty maniacal woman as a positive hero and the MC's erotic reaction to her in such a state was deeply disturbing.

[Ania · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely preferred the abyssinian proof but maybe it’s just because it featured more personal themes. i read the majority of this book in 4 days bcs it was really engaging but uni interrupted me finishing it straight away womp womp

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good! So many sub-plots!

[Robin Dawes · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of an adventure than a mystery, but supremely entertaining nonetheless.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brutal Ottoman empire, the seeds of Russian pressure along its borders. Wealth and privledge

[Vikasitha Liyanage · Rating 3 out of 5]

of course it was interesting but some parts seemed too far fetched & instantaneous. I clearly loved the 1st two books more than this novel.

[Tammy King Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because my two favorite genres are Mysteries and Historical Fiction, and this combines them both - a historical crime, so to speak, based in Turkey/the Ottoman Empire in 1888. I took a chance becuase the author, Jenny White, is a professor of Anthropology at Boston U., and clearly had an invested background into the historical aspects of the novel. Having said that, just because you KNOW history doesn't make you good at recounting it. 100 pages into the book, and I was ready to toss it. But I HATE not finishing books, so I kept at it, and somewhere around halfway through, it seemed like an entirely different Author picked up the ball and started running with it - - the characters actually began to develop, the action and suspense became more intriging, and the story and it's course became much more satisfying.
I am mad when it takes me that long to get into a book.
I am not sure if I will try any more in the series.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series, and I use it as a parallel universe to the Nadel series of Inspector Ikhmen, in current-day Istanbul (although he travels to the outer reaches of Turkey in some of the more recent books in the series.) The Kamil Pasha series takes place in Ottoman Turkey, and it is a time when the Ottoman Empire is shrinking, being chewed on and threatened by the British and the Russians, and with internal struggles with the Armenians and Kurds. In truly Byzantine fashion, Kamil Pasha must solve his mysteries while watching his back; he has jealous, bitter enemies. This particular book takes us east, to Trebzon, a part of Turkey I have never seen and which excites my imagination, ever since reading the Dorothy Dunnett Niccolo series.

This isn't just any old mystery; there are even reader's guide questions at the end to help you notice things you might otherwise overlook. It's a treacherous world Kamil Pasha lives in . . . hmmm . . . not unlike our own.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This mystery/political thriller is set in the late 19th century Ottoman Empire. The authorities intercept a shipment of illegal weapons bound for an Armenian settlement near the border with Russia. Then, a terrorist attack occurs against the Imperial Bank in Istanbul. While Kamil Pasha, a detective and the main character of the story, investigates, the head of the secret police sets his own plans in motion to resolve the situation. I appreciated the historical atmosphere (likely enhanced by the author's position as an anthropologist on the region), compelling characters, and fast-paced plot. The author did a good job of weaving real life events into a fictional plot. While I think in some places she was overly sympathetic to the Ottoman authorities, the story contains a nuanced portrait of the late empire and its peoples.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up because I was interested in the unusual setting and protagonist - a Turkish investigator in the Istanbul of the waning Ottoman empire. The parts that related to the social/political environment and customs were all well-done and interesting. The mystery aspect didn't hold up quite so well, for me - maybe because of the number of bodies piling up, maybe because it felt like the reader knew a little too much about who did what when. The story is more about how the hero puzzles things out than how the reader puzzles it out along with him. Still, an entertaining read from an exotic (to me) setting with likable protagonist and some interesting twists on gender expectations.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Winter Thief takes Kamil out of Istanbul and into new parts of the Ottoman Empire. It also brings in bigger political intrigue, a bit of a faster pace and a bigger bang than the first two Kamil Pasha novels. As I've said in my other reviews I like how Kamil is modern, yet still seems to fit perfectly with his 19th century surroundings. He's honourable, almost to a fault, and both enjoys and feels constrained by the formalities of Ottoman customs and his position in society. Some reviewers do not enjoy the amount of historical detail, but I find it to be one of the strengths of this series, and what drew me to it in the first place.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third in a series of novels involving the 'detective' Kamil Pasha, a relatively well connected higher up in the twilight years of the Ottoman empire. This particular outing involves Armenian nationalists, International Utopian Socialists and a serious black flag operation by an unscrupulous secret police officer intent on creating a new security service. As usual the Kamil Pasha novel's strength is the atmosphere of Istanbul and the Ottoman Court. By adding in the element of the Armenian unrest and foreshadowing a true historical calamity that still resonates today, White gives the novel an even sharper edge.

[Jodie Scales · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only been to Istanbul twice, but every time I pick up one of White's Kamil Pasha books I feel as if I am taken back to the ancient streets of that intriguing city. It had been quite a while since I read the first two books, but it only took the first few pages to take me back once again into the world of Kamil Pasha. While I found the story (plot ) of the first two books to be more personally interesting, this third story is written just as well as White's earlier volumes. She entwines such small historical details effortlessly into character driven stories of a world lost, the Ottoman Empire. Very good book.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as well as I liked the first two in the series, but it was still a fun, quick read. "The Winter Thief" starts out in Istanbul, but becomes a bit less interesting when the action moves out to a small valley near the Black Sea. White does a good job of portraying the upper-class Ottomans in the late 1800s, but the narrative falls a bit flat when she tries to focus on the Armenian locals. Maybe it's related to what another reviewer said, and it's just too hard to stay invested when the bodies really start piling up near the end.