No Exit Press - Brother Kemal by Jakob Arjouni

ABOUT THE BOOK

Fifth mystery featuring Kemal Kayankaya

Valerie de Chavannes, a financier's daughter, summons private investigator Kemal Kayankaya to her villa in Frankfurt's diplomatic quarter and commissions him to find her missing sixteen-year-old daughter Marieke. She is alleged to be with an older man who is posing as an artist. To Kayankaya, it seems like a simple case: an upper class girl with a thirst for adventure. Then another case turns up: The Maier Publishing House believes it needs to protect author Malik Rashid from attacks by religious fanatics at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Rashid has written a novel about, amongst other things, attitudes towards homosexuality in an Arabic country. Kayankaya is hired to be Rashid's bodyguard for three days. The two cases seem to be straightforward, but together they lead to murder, rape and abduction, and even Kayankaya comes under suspicion of being a contract killer for hire.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR JAKOB ARJOUNI

'A worthy grandson of Marlowe and Spade.'
- Stern

'Jakob Arjouni writes the best urban thrillers since Raymond Chandler'
- Tempo

'There is hardly another German-speaking writer who is as sure of his milieu as Arjouni is. He draws incredibly vivid pictures of people and their fates in just a few words. He is a master of the sketch – and the caricature – who operates with the most economic of means.'
- Die Welt, Berlin

'Kemal Kayankaya is the ultimate outsider among hard-boiled private eyes'
- Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

'it takes an outsider to be a great detective, and Kemal Kayankaya is just that'
- Independent, Jonathan Gibbs [read the full review]

'Arjouni is a master of authentic background descriptions and an original story teller'
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

'Arjouni tells real-life stories, and they virtually never have a happy ending. He tells them so well, with such flexible dialogue and cleverly maintained tension, that it is impossible to put his books down'
- El País, Madrid

'His virtuosity, humour and feeling for tension are a ray of hope in literature on the other side of the Rhine'
- Actuel, Paris

'Jakob Arjouni is good at virtually everything: gripping stories, situational comedy, loving character sketches and apparently coincidental polemic commentary'
- Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich

'A genuine storyteller who beguiles his readers without the need of tricks'
- L'Unità, Milan

Brother Kemal by Jakob Arjouni

Translated by Anthea Bell

Brother Kemal

by Jakob Arjouni