An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin

Overall, the Desert Girls were not big fans of An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin.  Most found it difficult to get into and were turned off by the familiar use of foreign phrases and terms without a glossary or quick historical explanation.  The mystery itself was somewhat interesting, but not particularly compelling or satisfying in the end.  It was good to know, but it did not feel like a big sigh of relief once resolution was reached.

We speculated that perhaps reading the first 3 books would have given us a better appreciation for Yashim, for the foreign phrases such as efendi and pasha, and for the mystery and Yashim's backstory.  But as it was, reading the book independently and out of sequence, it felt like wading through mud to trudge through.

Additionally, everyone agreed that the insertions of cooking instructions and ingredients was a distraction and annoying.  It did not flow smoothly from the text and instead felt like too much effort was being made to be cute.

No one seemed to think it was a particularly *bad* book, but it felt rather "meh" overall.  We were all excited to move on and think about our next book, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

(For my personal review, see All Book Reviewer review of An Evil Eye.)