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    The Bellini Card: A Novel
    The Bellini Card: A Novel
    The Bellini Card: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Bellini Card: A Novel

    Written by Jason Goodwin

    Narrated by Stephen Hoye

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Istanbul, 1840: the new sultan, Abdulmecid, has heard a rumor that Bellini's vanished masterpiece-a portrait of Mehmed the Conqueror-may have resurfaced in Venice. Yashim, our eunuch detective, is promptly sent to investigate, but-aware that the sultan's advisers are against any extravagant repurchase of the painting-decides to deploy his disempowered Polish ambassador friend, Palewski, to visit Venice in his stead. Palewski arrives in disguise in down-at-the-heel Venice, where a killer is at large, as dealers, faded aristocrats, and other unknown factions seek to uncover the whereabouts of the missing Bellini.

    But is it the Bellini itself that endangers all or something associated with its original loss? And how is it that all of the killer's victims are somehow tied to the alluring Contessa d'Aspi d'Istria? Will the Austrians unmask Palewski, or will the killer find him first? Only Yashim can uncover the truth to the manifold mysteries.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 20, 2009
    ISBN9781400180127
    Author

    Jason Goodwin

    JASON GOODWIN is the Edgar Award–winning author of the Investigator Yashim series. The first five books—The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, The Bellini Card, An Evil Eye, and The Baklava Club—have been published to international acclaim, alongside Yashim Cooks Istanbul, a cookbook of Ottoman Turkish recipes inspired by the series. Goodwin studied Byzantine history at Cambridge and is the author of Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, among other award-winning nonfiction. He lives with his wife and children in England.

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    Reviews for The Bellini Card

    4/5

    17 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      All through the book I felt that I was missing the undercurrents - a typical ugly American being confronted with Eastern subtlety. But if someone more subtle than I can follow the unspoken story, it's no less enjoyable for that. The twists and turns are - there is no other word for it - Byzantine, and the scenic descriptions of both Istanbul and Venice bring a great deal of realism to the story. Recommended for anyone who likes their mysteries with a dash of Eastern spice, a sprinkling of historical fact, and just a pinch of the mysteries of the ages.
    • 4/5
      Yes, a eunuch detective. It works, I swear. After a slightly disappointing second novel in this series, the Bellini Card once again shoots this series into my top favorite mysteries. Set in Venice, it is a joy to read if you have ever visited that decaying city, and the Polish Ambassador is a very good character.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful historic mystery novel concerning the painting of Mehmet II, the "conqueror"of the Ottoman empire, by Italian artist Gentile Bellini. Takes the reader back and forth between Istanbul and Venice of 1840, where intrigue, murder, politics, and art all converge.Author is an expert on the Ottoman Empire and wrote a nonfiction book about that period.
    • 2/5
      This book is another entry in Goodwin's series following 19th Century eunich, Yashim. However it, too, is susceptible to the flaws that have prevented his previous books from being top-tier. A new sultan is ruling the Ottoman empire, and he's heard tell of a portrait, by Bellini, of the Sultan Mehmet. The ever-discrete Yashim is instructed to find it in Venice, but instead puts his friend Palewski to the task. But once Palewski arrives in Venice, art dealers start dropping like flies - what is going on?First, to the positives. As ever, Goodwin has used his considerable knowledge and research chops to summon up an almost tactile vision of the canal city. The descriptions of faded - if not actively decrepit glory - echo contemporary impressions of the Venice and it gives the book an elegiac mood at odds with the fiery determination of the city's residents to survive and flourish under their new Austro-Hungarian masters. Palewski himself is less tragicomic away from his beloved Istanbul, and - unlike previous entries in the series - Goodwin paces the narrative quite well, and seems to be building to a genuine mystery. Alas, its third act is the great undoing. As in previous books, the climax is a hurried mix of implausible action and hasty exposition - both rendered in an elliptical, confusing fashion. Worse, Goodwin can't resist his typical, truly stupid and arbitrary love interest (Yashim, a eunich, always seems to have sex with women who barely know him). Compounding these errors is his habit of piling twists on top of twists, with a hefty garnish of coincidence. Maybe Goodwin feels the rug-yanking is apropos in a story of Turks, but the machinations are more Byzantine than Ottoman, and - crammed into the last thirty pages - all they do is confuse, and reduce reader investment. It's hard to care about the conclusion when you're not entirely sure what's going on, it's liable to change three times in a paragraph, and it bears little relationship to any clues or information contained in the first two thirds of the novel. If I sound aggrieved, it's because I'm frustrated: there's a decent mystery lurking in The Bellini Card - as there was in his previous books. The unique settings, likable characters, and - until the last third - engaging plots are the perfect ingredients for a satisfying book. But they are overpowered by flashy shenanigans every time. Seeing Goodwin sacrifice his plot, the credibility of his characters, and the pace of his narrative for such unworthy, glib third acts is a let-down. Likely to be the last Yashim book I read; they aren't developing.
    • 3/5
      The cover says "Investigator Yashim goes to Venice." Well, he does eventually, but for nearly half of the book he isn't in it much at all. His friend, Palewski, former Polish Ambassador to the Ottoman Court, goes to Venice in Yashim's place on a mission for the new young sultan, searching for a painting which may or may not exist. I couldn't seem to get caught up in this story. This often happens to me in Venice--I don't think I'd like it there, and am not susceptible to its intrigue. Much of the time I found myself zoning out, but it didn't seem I ever missed much of consequence. Lengthy descriptions of fencing in the sport's unfamiliar lingo left me bewildered. The segments involving the Venetian police didn't have much bearing on the story, as far as I could tell. I think there was too much book for the amount of story here. And the narration sometimes distracted me. I understand the need to distinguish character's voices on audio, but I think there's something fundamentally wrong with using stereotypical accents to accomplish that. All of the narrator's Italian accents struck me as cheesy; his women always sounded whiny, even when they were threatening someone at sword-point; and then there was that beggar who sounded like Stanley Holloway's Alfred P. Doolittle. Hoye also tended to be melodramatic with dialog, especially with the Venetian characters. He did better when the story line took us back to Istanbul, as did I. I don't think it was entirely the fault of the narrator that this book did not captivate me as the first two Yashim adventures did. I took a print copy out of the library so I could look back to see if I had missed things while listening, and I read the last third from the page. I didn't care for the setting; parts of the story were overdone, tedious, or even pointless; there was too much Palewski and not enough Yashim. The foodie bits were wonderful, though.
    • 4/5
      Jason Goodwin's entertaining third installment of his unique Investigator Yashim series takes our Turkish eunuch detective from Istanbul to Venice (after The Janissary Tree: A Novel and The Snake Stone: A Novel). The young new sultan Abdulmecid receives a whispered invitation from Venice to purchase Gentile Bellini's 15th century portrait of Mehmut the Conqueror. A new sultan means a new vizier and this one intends to be the power behind the throne. When Abdulmecid dispatches Yashim to Venice to find the seller and bring back the painting, Resid Pasha intimates that Yashim should forgo the trip; the weakening Ottoman Empire cannot afford to waste precious coin on old paintings.Yashim seeks to please both masters and craftily sends his friend Palweski, the nominal Polish ambassador to the Ottomans to find, acquire, and retrieve the painting (`Nominal' because Poland was enduring one of its periodic disappearing phases). Venice turns out to be every bit as Byzantine as Istanbul. Who, if anyone, really has the painting? Is it for sale? Is it even genuine? Why are dead men turning up around Palewski? The Austrian stadtmeister especially wants that question answered. And around that point, Yashim turns up to lend a hand.The answers are all delivered in due course along with some solid action, loads of intrigue, a beautiful woman, and a satisfying conclusion. Despite the occasional violence, Goodwin's novels are comfortable. Yashim makes the reader feel that `all is right in the end' - or much as possible in the declining Ottoman Empire.Yashim indulges his passion for cooking a bit less than in the first two books. Goodwin's extensive knowledge of Byzantine history solidly grounds this work of historical detective fiction. We learn a bit about painting, a bit about fencing, a good bit about Venice (as Goodwin tells us, Venice and Istanbul do have long connected histories) - in many ways the star of the book. The other star, the portrait of Mehmut the Conqueror can be visited in the 21st century at the National Gallery in London. The plotting gets a bit hectic, but the real strength of the Yashim books is the aura of historical reality that Goodwin creates. To the book's detriment, fewer pages are spent on the historical setting in The Bellini Card than in the first two books. I also found myself wishing that more time was spent in Istanbul (one hopes Goodwin still has a few Istanbul based story lines). On the other hand, the development of the Palewski character was a positive.There is a drop off from the first two books, but the Bellini Card is still worth a read for fans of historical detective fiction or anyone interested Istanbul or Venice.
    • 4/5
      Interesting -- as the previous two Yashim mysteries were -- but a little too much Venice and not enough Istanbul in this one. The end, however, makes up for the wait.
    • 3/5
      I read the first book in this historical mystery series last year (actually I listened to it) so when I was looking for some more audiobooks to download I was happy to see the next two were available. However, I ended up listening to this one first and now I have to go back to Book 2. I wasn't as happy with this novel as I was with the first one mostly because Yashim doesn't really come into the action until the last half. A new and young Sultan has taken over the throne in Istanbul. It remains to be seen how he will conduct himself. He has learned that a painting done by Gentile Bellini during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror) of the Sultan is for sale in Venice. He instructs Yashim to go to Venice and buy the painting. However, the Sultan's vizier, Reshid Pasha, warns Yashim against going so Yashim talks his friend, the Polish ambassador Palewski, into going. Palewski poses as an American, Mr. Brett, in Venice. An impoverished nobleman, Count Ruggierio, befriends Brett and circulates his card. Two art dealers are killed right after Palewski arrives and then Ruggierio is also killed. The police suspect Palewski but he is provided an alibi by a beautiful young courtesan, Maria. Palewski is shown a painting in a darkened palazzo but then a gunfight breaks out and he has to swim the Grand Canal. He is beginning to wonder if his search is going to end in his own death. There is a lot going on in this book and I'm not sure if it was all necessary to the plot. Yashim is an interesting character but he is not in evidence until close to the end. I also did not care for the Italian accent the narrator used for the Venetians. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this unless you have read the first two and just have to have another fix.
    • 4/5
      When the new sultan of Istanbul voices a desire to own a rare painting of Mehmet the Conqueror by Bellini, Investigator Yashim enlists his friend Stanislaw Palewski, the Polish Ambassador, to travel to Venice to locate the painting while posing as a rich American named Signor Brett. Third historical to feature the eunuch Yashim as an investigator, but it can stand alone. Intellectual rather than fast-paced. Complexly-plotted with intriguing characters and great descriptions of Venice and the time period.
    • 5/5
      Combines many of my favorites: Venice, Yashim Togalu, history, mystery, Istanbul.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book much more than the first book. I don't know if it was because of the location of this one (Venice, Italy) or the content. This book involved Yashim's friend Palewski more than anyone and I liked his "bumbling" personality. Yashim did step in to save the day and tie up loose ends, but that was okay. Overall, it was a decent storyline and I enjoyed the read.
    • 5/5
      loved this book! I actually look forward to my comute because of it. thanks!

    • 4/5
      This is the 3rd in the series.... but I read it second. In fact it seems as I am reading backwards, but it all works out, for this was better than the last: "An Evil Eye". There was still the alternating chapters with the main characters & what the murder was doing, but it was much less confusing. I was better able to understand what was going on.

      I find it interesting, that even in 1840, that the canals of Venice was a stinking mess of sewage, yet when I take into consideration when Venice was built, there would have been more than enough time to have passed to make it so.

      1840 in Istanbul, the young Sultan has heard that there is a portrait of his (Great?) Grandfather by Bellini. The previous Sultans did not believe in such vanity, so the portrait disappeared.... The Sultan calls upon Yashim to locate and return the portrait to him, however, the Sultan's young Vizier makes it perfectly clear to Yashim that it would be in his safest interest to not to follow the Sultan's orders.

      In a quandary, Yashim, sends his friend, the Ambassador of Poland, Palewski in his stead...... Enter the intrigue & murderer......

      I enjoyed this book very much, it was very interesting, especially reading about the history of the Ottoman Empire, Venice, & the world of art forgery.