This book just isn't not for me. I can't get over my issues with the writing style, e.g. "He wasn’t speaking Ottoman Turkish, the official language of the empire since its inception. It wasn’t Persian either, a language the educated upper echelon of society could speak and read, mostly useful for literature and poetry. No, the man was using an unusual dialect of Arabic, a language the sultan only used when reading and discussing religious verse." We get it, you studied up on Arabic languages used in Turkey. The reader doesn't have to know all the superfluous research you did for the books. Also, the messy introduction of the characters and their names leaves something to be desired. This along with other issues I had with the writing made it difficult for me to focus on the actual action of the story. Maybe casual readers of the mystery/thriller genre will enjoy this book, but this isn't my usual genre and this definitely isn't the book that would "convert me" to it. Pun intended.