The Bellini Card

It is a very brave writer that chooses for his hero a Eunuch of the Ottoman Court considering the contempt and indeed revulsion with which these unfortunate men have been viewed in the West. However, with his creation Yashim Jason Goodwin has successfully overcome this and given us a sympathetic and intriguing character. In this, his third story, he provides us with a satisfyingly complex tale set against a well researched and illustrated background. The story opens when the newly enthroned Sultan Abdulmecid orders his Vizier, Resid Pasha, to find a portrait of his ancestor Sultan Mehmet , the conqueror of Constantinople, which was painted by the Venetian Bellini but later removed from the palace by the Sultan Beyazid. In some interpretations of Islam the production of images of God's work is considered blasphemy and therefore a portrait would be anathema to many devout Muslims and Resid Pasha stalls hoping that the Sultan will forget about it. He does not and sends for the Court's number one problem solver Yashim and gives him the task of locating the painting. Resid Pasha makes it clear that any such move on Yashim's part will earn his enmity which the eunuch cannot afford. To try to satisfy both masters Yashim recruits his friend Stanislaw Palewski, Ambassador to the Sublime Porte of a Poland that no longer exists. Palewski travels to Venice to track down the portrait and finds himself up to his neck in plots and danger. The Venice of this story is a sad shadow of the glory days of the Serene Republic. Invaded and looted by Napoleon's army then taken into the Austrian Empire following the defeat of the French the despair and cynicism of the Venetian people is wonderfully portrayed in this excellent book whose twists and turns kept this writer glued to the page.