Most books that I read about Turkey normally have one of two themes. They either talk about historical facts, which has become a passion of mine or purely focus on lives of expats in the country.

So reading the storybook called Blue Voyage by Diana Renn was a complete change from my normal interests and one that I was, at first, dubious about because it has been a long time since I delved into the world of fiction, never mind a fiction book about Turkey.

Released in October 2015, the book is based on the Mediterranean coast, Istanbul, and Cappadocia, and the Plotline focuses on a 16-year old girl and the underworld circles of smuggling artifacts and antiques, a crime in Turkey that receives a hefty jail sentence.

Wondering if this was going to be the female equivalent of Midnight Express, admittedly, at first, I was intrigued more by the author rather than the story line.

I’d never heard of Diana Renn and wondered just how much of Turkey she accurately reflected in the story.

Had she spent time in the country?

Would I be opening the book to find Turkey massively misrepresented?

Sure, it was a fiction book but I still expected certain aspects such as geographical facts to be written into the chapters.

A quick search on Google revealed that she is already an established author having published other fiction books.

However little was mentioned about her time in Turkey, so with concerns that the author would write in a major literary faux pas, or completely ignore little snippets that cement an excellent plotline for an interesting book, I started reading and to my surprise couldn’t put the book down.

About the Book

It took me just two days to read the 464-pages of Blue Voyage. Not only was I pleasantly surprised with the author’s style of writing but also pleased to see true references to Turkish culture, traditions and typical mannerisms of Turkish people. Along with these, the plot-line and characters were marvelously sewn together to form a perfect picture in my head as the book progressed.

The main character is Zan, a teenage girl with a skin condition, dodgy family relationships, and hang-ups that are normal to everyone else but to a teenager, the bane of their lives.

Despite first assumptions that the plotline would involve the typical holiday love story of Zan falling foul of the Turkish Romeo groups dominating the med coast, she instead goes on to confront her inner demons and emerge with confidence on what is intended to be a bonding holiday with her mother.

Embarking on a Blue Cruise voyage of the Turkish Riviera at Marmaris, they travel along the coastline on a stunning gulet boat with Zan’s pregnant auntie whose husband has just died in a tragic accident in Cappadocia, yet she believes he was killed.

Without spoiling the plotline for future readers, Zan’s auntie is unaware that she is carrying a priceless antique belonging to the cursed Karun treasure, and events led Zan and her family to be followed by smugglers and arrested at Dalaman airport.

She goes on to commit a crime of breaking and entering in Istanbul and trying to find her way out of an underground city in Cappadocia. It soon transpires that the smuggling ring is not some wannabe street criminals, but instead a group that reaches into the heart of the police and historical societies of Turkey.

The characters that enter her life were extremely intriguing. Including the Turkish cook on the gulet boat, her new female friend traveling solo and her auntie’s employees at the boutique hotel she owns in Istanbul, I wondered constantly if her new companions could be trusted.

Who would stab her in the back?

Who would betray her to save their own skin?

The characters, plotline, and setting in Turkey have made this book one of my favorite reads so far and I strongly recommend it for your summer reading list.

But there is more…

Since I was immensely satisfied with the book, I read the acknowledgments and notes at the end and was intrigued to learn that the Karun treasure, featured so heavily in the book does actually exist, and is not a figment of the author’s imagination.

Also known as the Lydian Hoard, it is 363 pieces from the 7^th century BC that sparked an international row between Turkey and the New York Museum of Art. They are currently on display in the Usak museum of western Turkey but many locals will the treasure is cursed.

That is the excuse anyway, of why the museum director was jailed in 2006 for selling original pieces of the treasure and replacing them with fakes, a major ploy used in the fictional plotline of Blue Voyage.

Anyway, the Karun treasure isn’t widely known outside of historical circles (well, I’ve never heard of it before,) so for the author to accurately weave this historical story into a modern-day plotline, she has certainly done her research and congratulations to her for a wonderful read.

Read more reviews and buy the hardcover book from Amazon here

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