A Passion for Killing (Inspector Ikmen Series #9) Book

Another in the series of Inspector Ikeman. Reading all of these books out of order, therefore I am often taken back in time, finding out information about the characters, that I did not know before.

I really enjoyed this book as it involved a story about T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia. As a child in the late 40s, 50, and 60's, before the rest of the world saw the movie of Lawrence of Arabia, my grandmother and I would make our yearly visit, a pilgrimage, to Lawrence's grave. We would visit his effigy first in the church in Weymouth, where my grandmother would go over his story, and then with flowers, plants and cleaning tools we would go to Morton, Dorset and clean up Lawrences grave. Which no one at that time ever took care of, it was always badly neglected. Tourists had not yet clambered in masses to this small grave site. There was no Peter O'Toole as Lawrence! We often traveled the road, which leads to Bovington, where Lawrence was killed riding his motor bike. I always found this amazing, as back at that time, the road was hardly traveled. Later, when his house was opened to the public, we would visit his home "Clouds Hill". When I emigrated as a teenager from the U.K. my visits did not stop to Lawrences grave. I always like to return to the beautiful church at Morton, (well worth the visit, a story unto itself, wonderful famous windows), and one goes across the road to the grave yard, that is not attached to the church. There lies the grave of T.E. Lawrence. Nothing fancy. I hope someone is taking care of it! Why do I mention this? This book includes, information and wisdom that one generation passes to another. It is through the telling of history and stories, that the mystery of a carpet is solved.

Therefore, finding a book, that actually included a story about T.E. Lawrence was an added bonus. Barbara Nadel, the author takes us on a journey. A Magic carpet journey, my mind flashed back to the wonderful stories my grandmother would tell of Arabia and the magic carpet, and the intrigue and mystery of the casbahs. Nadel mixes it all in, the mystery of a carpet, a special carpet, a carpet long
gone missing. A carpet covered in blood, that once belonged to a Prince, a Princess and Lawrence of Arabia! A war, a new killing and a who dun it.

But Nadel does not just include one murder or the killing of a young carpet dealer, she mixes in a hideous crime, of rape, killings and secrets. She brings in Sulyeman and his Royal Ottoman blood, his family, a Princes and a charming British soldier, with a kind heart, long dead, but he and a picture and the stories he has handed down to a grandson, solve a mystery, of a magic carpet and a love story.

Stories, handed down from one generation to another, crimes committed in one generation and then inflicted on innocents in another. Nadel weaves a story, and she weaves it with the magic of the weaving of a carpet. Well done Ms. Nadel.