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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yashim_series_books.png]]
2Think all detectives are handsome devils that get all the girls? Well Yashim Togalu isn't. Not that the girls dislike him; or even that he isn't partial to their attention, insofar as he can receive it. The trouble is Yashim has one limitation which prevents him taking his desires in this area beyond a certain point. That is an obvious limitation placed on him by Ottoman tradition. Yashim is a Eunuch.
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4Yashim is a faithful servant of the Sultan and lives in UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}} during the nineteenth century. His hobbies are cooking and fighting crime. For the labyrinthine, and Byzantine complexities of The Great City are full of plotting. But with his best friend Stanislaw Pawlewski, an eccentric diplomat from the now extinct Polish Commonwealth (maintained at the Sultan's expense as a TakeThat to UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} and UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}), Yashim uncovers the fiendish schemes.
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6Yashim lives in a changing world with a memory of the glories of Ottoman civilization, but with the modern world closing in. He must adapt, yet he still pays respect to the GoodOldWays.
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8The Yashim series is written by a historian of the Ottoman Empire, Jason Goodwin.
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10Books (so far) include:
11* ''The Janisary Tree''
12* ''The Snake Stone''
13* ''The Belleni Card''
14* ''An Evil Eye''
15----
16!!Tropes include:
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18* ArabianNightsDays: An Ottoman [[ChasteHero Eunuch]] in the Nineteenth Century and his boon companion, a Polish NobleFugitive. They fight crime!
19* ChasteHero: Yashim, obviously.
20%%* CityOfAdventure
21* TheCityNarrows: Istanbul is like a labyrinth and one never knows what one will find where.
22* CrouchingScholarHiddenBadass: Yashim
23* DecadentCourt: The Sultan's court. Not as deadly or decadent as many portrayals of this trope but has more then a few traces of this.
24* EunuchsAreEvil: Averted. The main hero is a Eunuch.
25* ExoticDetective: Yashim
26* GentlemanAdventurer: Both Yashim and Pawlewski
27* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both Yashim and Pawlewski know a lot about various trivia and use it to solve crimes. They are also very gentlemanly.
28* GhostCity: Sort of. Istanbul is an inhabited city with ruins piled on each other from thousands of years and is as labyrinthine in time as in space. TruthInTelevision.
29* GoodOldWays: Both Yashim and Pawlewski
30* GovernmentInExile: Pawlewski is a one man government in exile
31* HandicappedBadass: Yashim
32* [[HeterosexualLifePartners Heterosexual - Exsexual life partners]] : Yashim and Pawlewski
33* HiddenDepths: Yashim, a time or two, appears to have the potential to be a ladies man. Eunuchs were not really devoid of desire; they were simply incapable of breeding.
34%%* MerchantCity
35* [[MultinationalTeam Multiethnic City]] : UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}}. TruthInTelevision. The City has representatives from almost every group in the Mediterranean and some from outside.
36* NobleFugitive: Pawlewski
37%%* NotSoSafeHarbor
38* OddFriendship : Yashim and Pawlewski
39** Pawlewski once notes that he is an exile from Poland and Yashim is an exile from maleness so they have something in common.
40* StandardRoyalCourt: The Sultan's Court
41* SupremeChef: Yashim. Stamboli cooking was once in high regard and its reputation may be coming back. Yashim is a master of it.
42* VestigialEmpire: The Ottoman Empire
43* WorthyOpponent: Invoked. One time Yashim and Pawlewski are making small talk and Yashim sighs wistfully for the days when "All of Europe trembled before us." Whereupon Pawlewski replies, "Not ''all'' of Europe." And Yashim raises a toast, "To the honorable enemy."
44* YeGoodeOldeDays: Both Yashim and Pawlewski dream of these and point out that they had more then a few advantages over modern times.

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