Serpent's Tongue (Ikmen Mystery 28)

Meet Ikmen in THE TURKISH DETECTIVE, BBC Two's sensational TV series

By: Barbara Nadel

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

The twenty-eighth mystery featuring Çetin İkmen and Mehmet Süleyman, stars of BBC Two's gripping crime drama series The Turkish Detective, available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
When two women are found dead in Istanbul - one bitten by a snake in the slum quarter of Kuştepe, the other killed by a suspected terror attack in Teşvikiye - Inspector Mehmet Süleyman and his team cannot see an obvious connection between the two cases.

Ex-inspector Çetin İkmen isn't so sure. In Kuştepe, helping a friend place a collection of dazzling sculptures at one of the city's art galleries, İkmen discovers that one of the sculptures bears a startling resemblance to the Kuştepe victim. Did the deceased artist know her and, if so, in what capacity? And what, if anything, does the death of a devout Muslim woman in Teşvikiye have to do with an alleged terror plot aimed at undermining the security of the city?

Süleyman and İkmen soon discover there is more to this situation than meets the eye and they must uncover the truth in order to prevent more bloodshed . . .

Praise for Barbara Nadel's İkmen mysteries:

'Complex and beguiling: a Turkish delight' Mick Herron

'İkmen is one of modern crime fiction's true heroes, complex yet likeable, and the city he inhabits - Istanbul - is just as fascinating' The Times

'Barbara Nadel's distinctive Istanbul-set Inspector İkmen thrillers combine brightly coloured scene setting with deliciously tortuous plots' Guardian©2026 Barbara Nadel (P)2026 Headline Publishing Group Limited