The Land of Lost Gods: Turkey’s Popular Crime Thriller Based on Greek-Byzantine Mythology By Ahmet Ümit

“That is why I shall begin in the place you thought you had forgotten. Those that forget shall pay the price for forgetting. Those that did not show due respect shall be rewarded with the severest of punishments: those that tore me from their hearts shall have their hearts torn out…”

In 1879, a grand monument of stunning statues was bought from Bergama in Anatolia (Türkiye) to Belgium. These idols from the temple in Pergamon, ancient Izmir in Türkiye, were the last relics of the complex Ottoman mythology. Until one day, all legends began to come alive…

A brilliant assassin, inspired by the Gods depicted in the reliefs of temples in Pergamon, a poet who writes epics in Zeus’ name in human blood on parchments. A mortal that despises mankind, wishing to become a God. And a child preparing to climb Olympus to confront his father. Are all at the center of a chaotic, adventures chase across Europe and the Mediterranean, threatening to uncover the veiled darkness of mankind, in the pursuit of their own truths, which could end the world as we know it.

As Yildiz Karasum, a Turkish detective, and her mysterious assistant, Tobias Becker, investigates the suspicious murders, they uncover secrets that could destroy the city that stubbornly clings on to its diversity without forgetting its past. And just as they seem to grasp the core of the missing and imperfect pieces of the puzzle, a new name is revealed…

And a truth, that is beyond the reach of any mortal justice.
Because when the Gods demand a sacrifice, there is always one to be chosen….