The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin

Yashim is a eunuch of the court of the Sultan Abdulmecid, newly sitting on his throne. But when he hears that the great painter Bellini painted a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror. He commands Yashid to get it for him.

Instead, Yashid goes to Constantinople while sending on his friend and colleague, the Polish Ambassador Stanislaw Palweski to Venice instead. Palewski, pretending to be an American named Brett, a buyer of art, try and track down the Bellini. But of course, no one has seen the Bellini since shortly after it was returned to Venice. And while Brett is contacted by a local Art Dealer named Antonio, Palewski is contacted by the Contessa d'Albi to attend a party.

Since the Sultan isn't willing to make a big fuss by contacting the owners directly and offering large sums of money for the portrait, the others must work in secret to try and find the painting and obtain it from the Sultan. But when people start being murdered, dumped in the canal after being beheaded and stabbed, the Venice Police investigate and pin the crime on "Brett", and Yashim must come to his friend Palewski's rescue and determine why someone wants anyone connected with the painting dead- including the Contessa D'Albi, the current owner of the painting.

Can Yashim protect the Contessa when the killer comes to call, and save the painting that the Sultan wishes so very much to protect? Or will unseen foes rob Yashim of both the painting and his life- as well as the lives of his friends?

I like this series, but the subtle poetry of the writing makes it a little hard to get into, and we actually don't get to see much of Yashim until about halfway through the book, when Palewski is wanted by the police, Palewski's love Maria has been kidnapped and imprisoned in an underground space (and Palewski doesn't even know she's missing!), and a murderer is on the loose.

Nope, Yashim is in Constantinople, cooking with a damascened cooking knife he recieves early on from a merchant friend, and looking up a retired former scribe at the Palace who moved to Constantinople after he retired. Yet both these seeming "distractions" become important later- the knife saves his life, and the conversation with the daughter of the deceased allows him to find the painting.

This is a good book, but I wasn't completely thrilled by it. It's not until Yashim actually arrives in Venice that things really start to pick up. Before then, it's a bit of a slog, so I recommend it, but not highly.