Jenny White, The Abyssinian Proof (W. W. Norton, 2008)
I reviewed the first novel in this historical mystery series, The Sultan's Seal, back in 2006 when it was initially released. I found it highly enjoyable and was looking forward to this sequel with eager anticipation. Alas, for me The Abyssinian Proof just didn't generate the same electrical charge.
As was the case with The Sultan's Seal, the novel's main character is the magistrate Kamil Pasha, a Paris-educated Ottoman Turk. His job gives him the responsibility and authority to investigate and prosecute crimes in the Lower Beyoglu district of Istanbul. The action takes place in 1887, by which time the city was already beginning to look more European than Asian.
Using a narrative technique I associate with the Joe Sandilands novels of Barbara Cleverly, White opens The Abyssinian Proof with a chapter set in 1453, during the successful invasion of Byzantine Constantinople by the Ottomans under the leadership of Sultan Mehmed II. In this prologue, Isaak Metochites flees the besieged city with his wife and children, bearing with them a precious reliquary, a box that contains the so-called Proof of God. This box and its mysterious contents figure in the present-time action of the novel and provide its title. The person who becomes the guardian of the reliquary after the fall of Constantinople is Melisane, Isaak's daughter by an Abyssinian slave.
In Kamil Pasha's time, numerous ancient artifacts -- many holding sacred meaning for members of Istanbul's minority religions -- are disappearing, presumably stolen and shipped off to eager private collectors in Europe and elsewhere. As if this weren't enough to heighten civil unrest, hordes of Muslim refugees are streaming into the city from the Balkan provinces, fleeing religious prosecution and in most cases having no resources beyond whatever they were able to carry away with them.
The primary plot thread brings Kamil Pasha into the investigation of the missing artifacts, most specifically the Proof of God reliquary. His work on this case has a personal aspect because the caretaker of the reliquary is his friend Malik. Malik is a member of the Habesh clan of Abyssinians. Most of the members of this group live in a place called Sunken Village, because it's built inside an open (and evidently dry) cistern.
Malik and his sister Balkis share caretaking responsibility for the reliquary and are also the leaders of the Melisites, a religious sect named after its founder, Melisane Metochites. Since they are getting on in years, they are trying to prepare Balkis's son Amida and daughter Saba to take over as leaders of the sect. While Saba is willing to carry on the family tradition, Amida is most definitely not. In fact, he and some of his friends appear to be involved in the theft of the artifacts.
In addition to Malik and his family members, four other characters play strong roles in this story. One is Omar Loutfi, chief of police for the neighborhoods of Balat and Fatih where many of the thefts have taken place. With his street smarts, he makes a good foil for the cerebral Kamil Pasha. Another is an equally street smart boy named Avi, who helps Omar and Kamil Pasha in ways that remind me of the Baker Street Irregulars in Sherlock Holmes. The third is Elif, a refugee from Macedonia who is staying with Kamil Pasha's sister and brother-in-law. The young woman, who turns out to be a very talented painter in the impressionist style, lost her husband and son in the ethnic fighting and is clearly suffering from what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder. She provides Kamil Pasha's rather minimal love interest in this novel. The fourth is a historical person, Osman Hamdi Bey, a Turkish painter who at this point was also director of the Imperial Museum and as such a key player in the protection and preservation of local artifacts.
If this description of plot and characters is already starting to make your head spin, I wouldn't be surprised. But, I have only given you the barest particulars. There is so much going on in The Abyssinian Proof that I had a terribly hard time keeping track of everything. On many occasions I found myself flipping back through the chapters I'd already read in an attempt, not always successful, to figure out where I had last seen a character or which plot thread the author was picking up again. While I have certainly read and enjoyed historical novels of this complexity, it's not what I expect to encounter in a mystery.
Although the action of The Abyssinian Proof takes place not long after the end of The Sultan's Seal, White makes very little reference to either the plot or the characters from the earlier novel. Apart from the aforementioned Avi and of course Kamil Pasha and his manservant Yakup, the only other recurring characters are his sister and brother-in-law and the Sufi sheikh Ismail Hodja, who helps Kamil Pasha understand the true meaning of the so-called Proof of God.
From the viewpoint of someone who did not read The Sultan's Seal, I suppose this lack of continuity is a good thing. From my viewpoint, I found it a shortcoming; for example, I read over one hundred pages in The Abyssinian Proof before learning that Sybil, Kamil Pasha's friend and love interest in the earlier novel, returned to England with her father. This is merely a throwaway line; yet given the nature of his relationship with her, I would have expected him to think of her more often, maybe even to exchange letters periodically. I am not sure why one would write serial fiction except to tell parts of an ongoing story. I certainly read serial fiction for the pleasure of watching longer plots unfold!
As I noted in my earlier review, author Jenny White is an academic anthropologist with significant scholarly interest and expertise in Turkish politics and culture. I just don't think that The Abyssinian Proof is her best work. I wonder if she or Norton will decide to continue the adventures of Kamil Pasha. If so, I can only hope that the next installment will mark a return to the high caliber I remember from The Sultan's Seal!
