Historian Jason Goodwin's foray into novels, "The Janissary Tree," is both entertaining and educational. Drawing upon his expertise on the Ottoman Empire, Goodwin crafts a murder mystery with an unusual detective: a eunuch called Yashim.Four cadets in the sultan's New Guard are abducted at the beginning of the tale. Their bodies begin to show up around Istanbul in conditions that seem to indicate a return of the Janissaries, theoretically eradicated a decade earlier by edict of the sultant. Yashim is investigating the cadets' disappearance when he is also called into the seraglio at Topkapi to investigate the murder of one of the gozde (harem girls) and the disappearance of the Valide Sultan's (think "queen mother") Napoleonic jewels.There are numerous complications in all of the cases, and Goodwin brings the stories together in a way that I did not see coming at all. Highly recommended for whodunnit and history buffs alike.
