Following on from successes with The Janissary Tree and The Snake Stone, The Bellini Card is Jason Goodwin’s third entry in his Yashim the Eunuch series of detective novels set in Ottoman Istanbul during the 1830s.

Yashim is a fixer for the royal household, utilising discretion and brainpower to sort out the most delicate of delicate problems. However, the old Sultan is dead, Viziers compete for the ear of the new, young Sultan and Yashim may not be in favour with any of them.

Yashim is instructed by Sultan Abdulmecid to travel to Venice in order to locate and recover Bellini’s 1479 portrait of his ancestor, Mehmet the Conqueror. But the Vizier, Reshid Pasha, warns Yashim not to go if he wants to gain favour with the powers that be behind the throne. Treading a delicate path, Yashim sends his friend, the stateless Polish ambassador, Palewski, on a secret mission to Venice to recover the painting for the Sultan.

Disguised as Brett, an American connoisseur, Palewski arrives in Venice, a city of sinister beauty, decaying and seemingly impenetrable. It is part of Europe but alien to Europeans and Ottomans alike. As portrayed by Jason Goodwin, it is as wonderful a backdrop for a detective story as it was in Death in Venice or Don’t Look Now . It is made especially enjoyable as on his mission, Palewski encounters a variety of impoverished nobles, hustlers, beautiful Contessas, courtesans, hidden assassins, Armenian monks and the forces of the occupying Austrians. Who is help and who is murderous hindrance?

This is the first two thirds of the novel, which take place with barely a mention of the lead character, Yashim. This absence is a brave and very effective trick. Not only does it give time to properly introduce Palewski but also for Goodwin’s evocation of Venice to come alive and for Palewski to be slowly but inexorably submerged within it. When Yashim eventually does make his appearance it is pure theatre.

This is classic Holmes and Watson stuff, with a brilliantly enigmatic lead alongside a dogged but naïve foil. It is not the only echo of other classic crime fiction. One staple is the “thinking quirk” a device that allows the detective time to reflect and also establishes them as someone not quite the same as others. Petrocelli had his brick wall, Yashim’s preferred thinking method is cookery. Not only does it work as a device but it gives a chance for Goodwin to present some completely pleasurable in their own right cookery lessons, just as it does for Barcelona’s Manuel Vazquez Montalban in his peerless Pepe Carvalho novels.

The Bellini Card, like the others in the Yashim series, wears its period detail well. Goodwin evokes time and place with convincing detail which rarely if ever appears shoehorned or superfluous. These books are full of love for a time and a place. Because they are also full of wit, rich characterisation  and exciting action, all three are well worth investigating.

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