A Dead Man in Istanbul

This novel is Michael Pearce's sequel to "Dead Man in Trieste".  It is now 1911 and Seymour is in Istanbul to look into the suspicious death of a member of the Foreign Service.  Cunningham had gotten it into his head to repeat the feat of Leander and swim the Dardanelles.  Unfortunately, as he stepped out of the water,  he was shot in the middle of the forehead.

Shortly afterwards Cunningham is accused of spying by the Turks, but the British ambassador claims he was simply bird watching when he sailed up and down the strait.

It isn't long after this that a British actress is murdered in her theatre.  Seymour was to meet with her that evening.  At the same time, the Turk who rowed with Cunningham is threatened for working so closely with the infidels.

The British military attaché thinks that the road being built south to Gallipoli is for the purpose of building gun emplacements.  Could Cunningham have been spying on that?

Cunningham is connected to the actress; both of them are connected to Prince Selim, who is a potential heir to the Turkish throne.  Are their deaths somehow connected to the prince?  Working with the local terjiman, Muhktar, Seymour hopes to find out exactly what is going on.  What they find out is indeed surprising resulting in an interesting conclusion to this novel.