Barbara Nadel

Barbara Nadel is an English crime and historical fiction author and former healthcare professional. She is best known for her Inspector İkmen series of novels set in Istanbul, Turkey, and her Francis Hancock series set in the East End of London. She has also written the Hakim and Arnold and the Ten Bells Street series, the latter under the pen name Mary Collins.

Early life Nadel was born and raised in the East End of London in the 1960s. Her father lived through World War II and witnessed The Blitz in the early 1940s. As a child, she wanted to be an Egyptologist.

Nadel trained as an actor before becoming a writer. She worked as a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship's Good Companion Service and as a mental health advocate for people with mental disorders in a psychiatric hospital. She also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in schools and colleges. She was the patron of The Acorn Group in Shrewsbury a charity that cared for those in emotional and mental distress.

Career Nadel tried to publish her first novel in 1992 but was unsuccessful. In 1999, she contacted the Julie Burton Literary Agency and signed with them. Nadel then signed a three-book contract with Hodder Headline, with her debut novel Belshazzar's Daughter being published that year.

Her Inspector İkmen series follow Çetin İkmen, a detective on the Istanbul police force, and his colleague Mehmet Süleyman.

Her Francis Hancock series, set in West Ham during The Blitz, follows undertaker Francis Hancock. The first novel Last Rights was published in 2005. With this second series, Nadel became a full-time professional writer in 2006.

In 2011, Quercus signed Nadel to write a new crime series set in the modern-day East End of London which was to be published starting in summer 2012 under the pen name B J Nadel. The book, A Private Business, was ultimately credited to Barbara Nadel when published. The series follows private investigator Lee Arnold and his British Bangladeshi assistant Mumtaz Hakim. The series' publication moved to Allison & Busby starting with the fifth book.

Nadel's other published works include short stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, My Weekly, and Woman's Own, as well as travel pieces for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and Saveur.

Personal life Barbara Nadel is married and has one adult son who is a comic book writer, as well as one grandson who was born in 2016. She quit drinking alcohol. Since November 2014, Nadel and her husband have resided in Essex in the East of England. The couple previously lived in Lancashire in North West England. She is a regular visitor to Turkey.

Awards Year Award Category Nominees Result 2005 Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger Deadly Web 2006 Jury magazine's Flintyxan ("Flint Axe") Best Historical Crime Novel Dödlig rättvisa, Marianne Alstermark's Swedish translation of Last Rights 2007 Crime Writers' Association's Dagger in the Library Herself Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award Dance with Death (from Inspector İkmen, book #8) 2008 Redbridge Libraries' Big Red Read Awards Book of the Year Ashes to Ashes 2010 Crime Fiction of the Year Sure and Certain Death 2013 Short Mystery Fiction Society's Derringer Award Best short story "Nain Rouge" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2012)

Bibliography Inspector İkmen Published by Headline

Francis Hancock Published by Headline Last Rights (2005) After the Mourning (2006) Ashes to Ashes (2008) Sure and Certain Death (2009)

Hakim and Arnold Published by Quercus A Private Business (2012) An Act of Kindness (2013) Poisoned Ground (2014)Quercus web site. Accessed 17 September 2014 Enough Rope (2015)Quercus web site. Accessed 2 September 2015

Published by Allison & Busby Bright Shiny Things (2017)Allison & Busby web site. Accessed 6 November 2016 Displaced (2018) A Time to Die (2020) Web of Lies (2022) The East Ham Golem (2026)

Ten Bells Street (written as Mary Collins) Published by Piatkus Ten Bells Street (2019) Ten Bells Street at War (2019) Victory on Ten Bells Street (2020)

Other books Back to the Future (2012)

Adaptation

In June 2020, it was announced that Miramax TV and ViacomCBS International Studios would produce a television adaptation of the Çetin İkmen novels entitled The Turkish Detective.

By April 2022, the project was greenlit for a full series of eight episodes, to be released on Paramount+. The series is written by Ben Schiffer, and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. Haluk Bilginer stars as İkmen, alongside Ethan Kai as Mehmet Süleyman and Yasemin Allen as Ayşe Farsakoğlu. The series was released in September 2023.

The series aired in the UK on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.

References

Barbara Nadel

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