The Baklava Club

Yashim the Eunuch Series, Book 5

By: Jason Goodwin

Narrated by: Gemma Dawson

Three naïve Italian liberals, exiled in Istanbul, have bungled their instructions to kill a Polish prince - instead, they've kidnapped him and absconded to an unused farmhouse. Little do they realize that their revolutionary cell has been penetrated by their enemies, who are passing along false orders under the code name La Piuma, the Feather.

It falls to Yashim to unravel all this - he's convinced that the prince is alive and that the Italians have hidden him somewhere. But there are just a few problems: He has no idea who La Piuma is, and he's in no mood to put up a fight - he's fallen in love! As he draws closer to the farmhouse and to the true identity of La Piuma, what Yashim discovers leaves him shocked and in the most dangerous situation of his career.

Goodwin has an eye for detail like no other, and in The Baklava Club he conjures Istanbul in all its glorious exoticism. This is a breathtaking, extraordinary conclusion to one of the most beloved series in mystery fiction, and its ending will leave you truly astonished.

©2014 Jason Goodwin (P)2018 Tantor

A very poor choice for narrator

I have loved most everything about this series and I was very much looking forward the the next “chapter.” BUT I am returning the book unfinished. The rushed monotone of the narrator is not a good match for this rich story.

Great story, but riddled with editorial failures

I’ve really enjoyed this series. It’s always a bit jarring to get a new narrator, and at first I wanted to blame her for some jarring mistakes, but then I realized they were mistakes the editors at Tantor Audio should have caught. Within the first 13 chapters (out of 81), I caught 7 instances of the narrator repeating a sentence (or part of a sentence). At first I thought she just wasn’t paying attention, and was repeating herself, but then I realized that in many instances she was changing the pronunciation of a foreign word. Why didn’t the editors catch this? It was very distracting, and took me out of the narrative.

Not Following Through

I have been waiting for the audio version of this book for over a year, and now when I finally get it, it's a let down. How do you have the same narrator for four books, then for the fifth, you change them. The story is still good don't get me wrong, I was just looking forward to Steven Hoye or at least another man. Having a female narrator just changes Yashim for me. Thank you "Tantor Media" for a let down. I would not recommend this book if having a different narrator than all previous books bothers you. Stick to the hard-copy.

Seems like it wasn't audio edited?

The story is good. The narrator is fine, although it's weird that they changed narrators most of the way through a series.

More significantly, in the first half of the 'book' the narrator occasionally flubs a line, and then immediately repeats it. I'd guess that an audio editor was supposed to go in and remove those, but missed them.

Fun, but seemed truncated.

Well written, but seemed rushed. And can't the narrators ever be taught Turkish pronunciations? Please?