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Barbara Nadel

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Barbara Nadel
BornLondon, England, United Kingdom
OccupationAuthor
NationalityEnglish
Genre
Years active1999–present
Notable works
  • Inspector İkmen
  • Francis Hancock
  • Hakim and Arnold

Barbara Nadel is an English crime fiction author and former healthcare professional. She is best known for her Inspector İkmen series of novels set in Istanbul, Turkey, and her Francis Hancock and Hakim and Arnold series of novels, both set in the East End of London.

Background

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Born in the East End of London, Barbara Nadel trained as an actress before becoming a writer. Now writing full-time, she has previously worked as a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship's Good Companion Service and as a mental health advocate for the mentally disordered in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in schools and colleges, and was the patron of The Acorn Group in Shrewsbury,[1][2] a charity (now apparently closed following a cut in funding[3][4]) caring for those in emotional and mental distress.

She has been a regular visitor to Turkey for more than 25 years.

Writing

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Nadel is best known for her series about Çetin İkmen, a chain-smoking and hard-drinking detective on the Istanbul police force, and his colleagues Mehmet Süleyman, Balthazar Cohen, and Armenian pathologist Arto Sarkissian. Ikmen's father's ancestry hails from the Cappadocia region while his mother is Albanian. Books in the series have been translated into a number of languages, including Turkish, and have been released as audiobooks in English and German.

Her second crime series, set in West Ham in the East End of London, during The Blitz, features undertaker Francis Hancock.

On 24 January 2011, Quercus announced having signed Nadel to write a new crime series set in modern-day East End which was to be published starting in Summer 2012 under the pen name B J Nadel.[5] The book, A Private Business, was ultimately published and credited to Barbara Nadel.[6] The series focused on private investigator Lee Arnold and his British Bangladeshi assistant Mumtaz Hakim. Her parents had moved to the Spitalfields neighborhood in the 1960s from East Pakistan before the latter became independent in 1971.[7]

Publication moved to Allison & Busby from the fifth book in the series.

Other published works include short stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, plus British magazines (My Weekly and Woman's Own), and travel pieces for British newspapers (The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent), and the US food magazine Saveur.[citation needed]

Personal life

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Barbara Nadel is married. The couple have one adult son who is a comic book writer,[8] and one grandson who was born in 2016.[9]

According to Nadel, she cannot sleep until she's read for at least half an hour.[10] She quit drinking alcohol but used to enjoy rakı.[9] She enjoys eating almonds, pickles, fish sandwiches, baklava, profiteroles and kokoreç.[8]

Until late 2014, Nadel lived in "the wilds of the north of England" with her husband and six axolotls,[11] her "very demanding Persian cat" having died on 23 December 2011,[12] but then moved from the Pennines to "a small village in Essex just outside London".[13]

Awards

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Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result
2005 Crime Writers' Association's
Silver Dagger 		Deadly Web (from Inspector İkmen series, book #7) Won
2006 Jury magazine's
Flintyxan ("Flint Axe") 		Best Historical Crime Novel Dödlig rättvisa, Marianne Alstermark's Swedish translation of Last Rights (from Francis Hancock series, book #1) Won
2007 Crime Writers' Association's
Dagger in the Library 		Herself Nominated
2008 Redbridge Libraries's
Big Red Read Awards 		Book of the Year Ashes to Ashes (from Francis Hancock series, book #3) Won
2010 Crime Fiction of the Year Sure and Certain Death (from Francis Hancock series, book #4) Won
2013 Short Mystery Fiction Society's
Derringer Award 		Best short story "Nain Rouge" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2012) Nominated

Bibliography

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Inspector İkmen

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Published by Headline

  1. Belshazzar's Daughter (1999)
  2. A Chemical Prison (a/k/a The Ottoman Cage) (2000)
  3. Arabesk (2001)
  4. Deep Waters (2002)
  5. Harem (2003)
  6. Petrified (2004)
  7. Deadly Web (2005)
  8. Dance With Death (2006)
  9. A Passion for Killing (2007)
  10. Pretty Dead Things (2007)
  11. River of the Dead (2009)
  12. Death by Design (2010)
  13. A Noble Killing (2011)
  14. Dead of Night (2012)
  15. Deadline (2013)[14]
  16. Body Count (2014)[15]
  17. Land of the Blind (2015)[16]
  18. On the Bone (2016)[17]
  19. The House of Four (2017)[18]
  20. Incorruptible (2018)
  21. A Knife to the Heart (2019)
  22. Blood Business (2020)[19]
  23. Forfeit (2021)
  24. Bride Price (2022)
  25. Double Illlusion (2023)
  26. The Darkest Night (2024)

Francis Hancock

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Published by Headline

  1. Last Rights (2005)
  2. After the Mourning (2006)
  3. Ashes to Ashes (2008)
  4. Sure and Certain Death (2009)

Hakim and Arnold

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Published by Quercus

  1. A Private Business (2012)
  2. An Act of Kindness (2013)
  3. Poisoned Ground (2014)[20]
  4. Enough Rope (2015)[21]

Published by Allison & Busby

  1. Bright Shiny Things (2017)[22]
  2. Displaced (2018)
  3. A Time to Die (2020)
  4. Web of Lies (2022)

Adaptation

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Main article: The Turkish Detective

In June 2020, it was announced that Miramax TV and ViacomCBS International Studios would produce a television adaptation of the Çetin İkmen novels entitled The Turkish Detective.[23]

By April 2022, the project was greenlit for a full series of eight episodes, to be released on Paramount+. The series is written by Ben Schiffer, and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. Acclaimed Turkish actor Haluk Bilginer stars as İkmen, alongside Ethan Kai as Mehmet Süleyman, and Yasemin Allen as Ayşe Farsakoğlu.[24] The series released in September 2023.

The series will air in the UK on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.[25]

References

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  1. ^ "The Acorn Group home page". btconnect.com. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  2. ^ The Acorn Group (pamphlet (large JPG) ed.). Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  3. ^ "Charity to Close in Funding Crisis". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 12 August 2010. Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  4. ^ "Charity Number 1118270". UK Charity Commission Register of Charities. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  5. ^ "Blog entry". Quercus. 24 January 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  6. ^ Nadel, Barbara. Private Business: Hakim Arnold Mystery. ASIN 0857387731.
  7. ^ "Web of Lies Sample Chapter" (PDF). 7 June 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  8. ^ a b Sümer, Gencoy (25 May 2023). "Interview with Barbara Nadel". Dedektif Dergi. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Barbara Nadel". annecoatesauthor.com. 6 May 2020. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  10. ^ https://independentbookreviews.co.uk/interview-with-barbara-nadel/
  11. ^ Nadel, Barbara (19 April 2012). "Tweet at 2:40 AM". Twitter. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  12. ^ Nadel, Barbara (2 May 2012). "Blog entry". International Crime Authors Reality Check. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  13. ^ Nadel, Barbara (19 April 2015). "Blog entry". International Crime Authors Reality Check. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  14. ^ Headline web site. Accessed 16 July 2012
  15. ^ Headline web site. Accessed 17 September 2014
  16. ^ Headline web site. Accessed 17 September 2014
  17. ^ Headline web site.[permanent dead link] Accessed 11 December 2015
  18. ^ Headline web site. Archived 6 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 6 November 2016
  19. ^ "Blood Business (Ikmen Mystery 22) by Barbara Nadel - Books". www.hachette.com.au. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  20. ^ Quercus web site. Archived 7 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 17 September 2014
  21. ^ Quercus web site. Accessed 2 September 2015
  22. ^ Allison & Busby web site. Accessed 6 November 2016
  23. ^ Kanter, Jake (24 June 2020). "ViacomCBS International Studios Partners With Miramax On 'The Turkish Detective'". Deadline. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  24. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (13 April 2022). "'The Turkish Detective' From Niels Arden Oplev & Miramax TV Gets Paramount+ Series Order, Sets Cast". Deadline. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  25. ^ Hibbs, James (7 July 2024). "Meet the cast of The Turkish Detective". Radio Times. Retrieved 10 July 2024.

Further reading

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