A rather silly thriller though I stuck with it till the end. I picked it up obviously because it had Istanbul in the title, a mistake. Marlowe 'Kit' Cobb is a journalist, roustabout, having just returned from adventures in Mexico when he is asked by his government to follow a German intellectual to Europe. Unfortunately, they take the ill fated Lusitania to Europe, where it's torpedoed and Cobb miraculously survives, also saving the life of famous film star Selene Bourgani, who he just happened to bed a few nights before the disaster, a la Jack Reacher. There's always a woman around to bed. She, unfortunately, seems tied up in the intrigue, involving the German Kaiser, and the Young Turks who are governing Istanbul. Cobb ends up having to kill the German in England, then follow Selene, 'the star of Istanbul', to Turkey where she hopes to seduce one of the young Turks, Enver Pasha, then kill him, as we find out later, for his participation in the Armenian suicide. Cobb stays at the Pera Palas, in Istanbul, finds out where Enver Pasha is staying, discovers that Selene has been kidnapped by the Germans. Cobb rescues her, reunites her with her father. I won't even explain why he's there. And then, just as they are to board a boat and escape, Selene and her father refuse to leave, vowing to exact revenge on the Turks and the novel ends, not with a 'bang but a whimper.' It's decently written but too coincidental, silly, with little suspense though I did like the scenes in Istanbul. And the escape from the Lusitania was ridiculous, as Kit risks his life to go back and save his lover. What a fool!
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