Screaming children and paper-thin hotel walls. Cold poached eggs on your full English breakfast. That Wolverhampton hen party hogging the karaoke.
Turkey may be a great destination for a budget package holiday, but it’s a risky bet. There are plenty of things that can ruin everything, although you have to hope that the all-inclusive package doesn’t include a dead body in the pool.
Istanbul billionaire Mesut (Baris Kislak) in The Turkish Detective was not the type to book a cheap double room at a three-star resort. His luxury villa was practically a private hotel for one person. But he still ended up in the water, face down and strangled.
If something similar happens to you during your holiday, ask for a refund. However, there should be no problem finding a sun lounger by the pool after that.
Adapted from Barbara Nadel’s crime novels (more than two dozen of them), The Turkish Detective delves into a world hidden from tourists. Haluk Bilginer plays Inspector Cetin Ikmen, a bragging, chain-smoking maverick whose team worships him as a hero.
The Turkish detective, from left to right, Ayse Farsakoglu (Yasemin Kay Allen), Cetin Ikmen (Haluk Bilginer), Mehmet Suleyman (Ethan Kai)
Mehmet Suleyman (Ethan Kai), a refugee from Scotland Yard, is smart, eager to impress but is taken aback by his new boss’s unorthodox tactics.
Ikmen drives with such recklessness that even taxi drivers swerve out of his way. He uses the same approach when questioning suspects: sneaking past security thugs to crash a drug lord’s party or gaining the trust of a hacker by giving him his own online bank account details.
Such an arrogant attitude might seem boring if he were not also a devoted family man and an intuitive student of human psychology.
Into their orbit appears a refugee from Scotland Yard, Mehmet Suleyman (Ethan Kai), a strict, intelligent man, eager to impress but surprised by the unorthodox tactics of his new boss.
If all this sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because it’s the same setting as Life On Mars. Suleyman hasn’t fallen into a time warp to Gene Hunt’s 1970s era, but Istanbul Police is the next best thing. And it comes with the added benefit of postcard-worthy cityscapes and snaps of urban street food.
The first two episodes focused on the investigation into the murder of an internet fashion influencer and her millionaire fiancé. The circle of suspects was limited: the killer had to be the girl’s father or her brother.
As the stakes grew higher with each twist, things got a little silly during the second episode. Suleyman and his detective partner Ayse (Yasemin Kay Allen) were lured to the docks, where snipers trained laser sights on their foreheads while the drug lord lectured on the importance of paying for dinner.
It could have been a complicated metaphor, or he could have been frustrated that customers at his noodle restaurant chain were just leaving. By now, I was confused.
The climax was even more disconcerting as the murder victim’s brother turned out to be a feminist-hating suicide bomber who intended to blow up the school where Ikmen’s daughter was a pupil.
Perhaps the writers had overindulged with a couple of alcoholic cocktails, which is always a danger on all-you-can-drink vacation packages.