Inspector Cetin Ikmen and forensic pathologist Arto Sarkissian have been friends since childhood and, despite the differences in the religions, race and salary levels, their work together in Istanbul's criminal justice system has only served to cement their friendship. When both are called to a body in an apartment close to the Topkapi Museum there's no reason to think anything will change.
But the case is a strange one. The only person ever seen visiting the comfortable flat is a middle-aged Armenian; the dead boy's limbs are atrophied, the flat's windows nailed shut. The young man seems to have been a prisoner inside this gilded cage. But why? And for how long? And what, wonders Cetin Ikmen, is making his old friend Arto, himself an Armenian, so uncomfortable?
'A Chemical Prison' is a fascinating glimpse into a city layered with history and violence.