The Prophet Murders

The Prophet Murders

The Prophet Murders cover
Author	Mehmet Murat Somer
Original title	Peygamber Cinayetleri
Translator	Kenneth Dakan
Country	Turkey
Language	Turkish
Series	Hop-Çiki-Yaya
Genre	Crime novel
Publisher	Serpent's Tail
Published in English	8 May 2008
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	224 pp
ISBN
OCLC	195730885
Followed by	The Kiss Murder

The Prophet Murders (Peygamber Cinayetleri in Turkish) is a Turkish detective fiction novel by Mehmet Murat Somer originally published in Turkish by İletişim Yayınları in 2003 and in English by Serpent's Tail in 2008. It is the first published entry in the author’s Hop-Çiki-Yaya series about an unnamed transvestite amateur detective in Istanbul.

Somer wrote “The Prophet Murders” along with two other novels in the Hop-Ciki-Yaya series back-to-back in 2001, after health problems forced him into semi-retirement, but had trouble finding a publisher as, “His characterisation of radical Islamic groups proved a tough sell for small publishing companies.” Finally Iletisim Yayinlari, who had published one of Somer’s favourite books, My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, agreed to take on the project commencing in 2003 with this the second book in the series, and Somer credit the prestigious company's stamp of approval with, “protecting the books from a hostile reception." Serpent’s Tail published Kenneth Dakan’s English translation of this novel in 2008 with Somer stating that, “I believe, the Nobel prize Orhan Pamuk won, opened the international door for Turkish writers, including me."

The narrator sets out to investigate the mysterious death of two of the employees at the transvestite nightclub she runs, only two discover that they are part of a larger sequence of murders of transvestites named after the prophets.

"This is heady ground," according to Peter Millar of The Times, “for a camp comedic thriller, especially when it is littered with references to rampant homosexual practice." "The novel promises at first to be as screamingly camp as its hero/ine's wardrobe," agrees Jake Kerridge of The Daily Telegraph, “but turns out to be quite sober and thoughtful, witty rather than arch and restrained even when filthy."

"The mystery part of The Prophet Murders unwinds fairly predictably: it's a paint-by-the-numbers work in that respect,” states The Complete Review, “though competently enough done to satisfy most fans of the genre." "I couldn't have cared less ‘whodunit’ in The Prophet Murders,” confirms Chris Wiegand of The Guardian as, "Somer says he considers plot secondary to character and atmosphere."