The Adventure of the Second Wife

The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan

By Andrew Finkel

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Strange that the last great Ottoman Sultan would have Sherlock Holmes stories read to him before going to sleep. Stranger still, his addiction helped change the course of history. A clue to these goings-on lay in Conan Doyle’s dying words that the one adventure that still intrigued him was ‘The Second Wife’. For no such story exists… Or does it?

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Contents

Part One: THE FIRST WIFE


Exhibit ‘A’: The Sultan’s Gaoler


Chapter 1: The Arrival of Leyla Arslan

Chapter 2: The Mystery

Chapter 3: My Legacy to Anandita

Chapter 4: 2WIF

Chapter 5: I Buy a Ticket

Chapter 6: The Honeymooners

Chapter 7: More Toby than Mycroft

Chapter 8: Uncle Fred

Chapter 9: Estağfurullah


Exhibit ‘B’: ‘The Adventure of the Second Wife’

The introduction attributed to A. Conan Doyle


Part Two: ELLE


Chapter 10: Grandfather Esad

Chapter 11: The Mystery of the Centre Forward

Chapter 12: The Death of Elle

Chapter 13: The Damat

Chapter 14: The Mosque of the Holy Mantle

Chapter 15: The Capricious Bladder of Adile    Sultan

Chapter 16: Leyla Pays for Lunch 


Part Three: CONSTANTINOPLE IN LONDON


Chapter 17: The Adventure of the Polka-Dotted Cummerbund

Chapter 18: The Theatre of Life 

Chapter 19: Pumpkin Curry

Chapter 20: Royal Blood


Part Four: ‘The power of complexity and the complexity of power’


Chapter 21: The Tale of the Sultan’s Gaoler 

Chapter 22: The Purloined Letter

Chapter 23: Our Grandfathers Meet

Chapter 24: An Early Morning in the Abode of Felicity

Chapter 25: ‘The Tragedy of Proud Love’


Part Five: THE SECOND WIFE


Chapter 26: The Bushwacking Sentries of Bhurtee 

Chapter 27: The Deadliest Sin

Chapter 28: The Game Was Afoot

Chapter 29: The Earth Moves


Part Six: ‘AND YET I THINK OF YOU’


Chapter 30: A Ghost

Chapter 31: The Loreley

Chapter 32: The Rescue from the Inferno

Chapter 33: Aqua Tofana

Chapter 34: The Smile

Chapter 35: The Rotten Molar

Chapter 36: The Bearers of the Sultan’s Commission

Chapter 37: An Incident Hard to Reconcile with the Settled Order of Nature

Chapter 38: A Final Destination

Chapter 39: Snake

Chapter 40: The (Final) Tale of the Sultan’s Gaoler 


Acknowledgements

About the Author

Andrew Finkel has been a journalist based in Turkey since 1989, and has corresponded for a variety of print and broadcast media including The Daily TelegraphThe TimesThe EconomistTIMEThe Art Newspaper and CNN. More unusually, he has worked in the Turkish language press both in the newsroom and as a featured columnist; he is food critic and contributing editor for Istanbul’s Cornucopia magazine. His free-lance articles and editorials have appeared in a large number of publications including The Washington PostThe Guardian, the ObserverForeign AffairsThe Financial TimesLe Monde Diplomatique and in the Latitudes column of the New York Times.


He is also a founding member of P24, an Istanbul-based NGO that supports independent journalism. His handbook, Turkey, What Everyone Needs to Know is published by Oxford University Press and a novel, The Adventure of the Second Wife is published by Even Keel.