An island detective story in the shadow of Trotsky

Zeynep GÜVEN

Önay Yılmaz writes a political murder narrative that brings together the past and present. Büyükada , Istanbul's exile island, is now the scene of a murder. But not just any place: the Arap İzzet Pasha Mansion, commonly known as the Trotsky House. This historic structure, where Trotsky, one of the architects of the Soviet revolution, spent his years in exile, now bears witness to the reckoning of both the past and the present. Written by Önay Yılmaz, Trotsky House is a multilayered novel about both detective fiction and historical memory.

TENSION BETWEEN HISTORY AND POLITICS

The novel opens with a mysterious murder committed on Büyükada. The location where the body was found is the house where Trotsky once lived. It quickly becomes clear that this choice is no coincidence: the author constructs a historical charge and political implications through the setting. Trotsky's revolutionary shadow looms not only over the walls of the mansion, but also in the mind of the chief inspector trying to unravel the events, in the silence of the islanders, and in the veil of mystery surrounding the murder.

Önay Yılmaz has spent many years as a journalist. He successfully incorporates this experience into the novel's atmosphere. Interrogation room dialogue, forensic reports, evidence tracking, and small but impactful details about collective memory make the fiction as believable as possible. But Trotsky House isn't just a "find the killer" novel. It's also a narrative of confrontation.

One of the novel's most striking aspects is the way setting is incorporated into the narrative like a character. The Arap İzzet Pasha Mansion is not simply a location; it's a symbol representing the disillusionment of a period, the possibilities of revolution, and political exile. Without delving directly into Trotsky's Istanbul years, Yılmaz delicately weaves his presence into the novel's fabric. This lends the narrative a semi-real, semi-ghostly atmosphere.

The silence of the island characters, the disappearance of certain clues, the deliberate concealment of the past... Each of these can be interpreted as a reference to the collective reflex of forgetting in Türkiye. In this respect, The Trotsky House can be considered not only a detective story but also an interrogation of memory.

POLITICAL DEPTH IN POLICE

Breaking away from the "find the killer, end the story" approach often employed by classic detective fiction, the novel primarily focuses on systemic criticism. Elements such as the mechanical workings of law, security, and justice; conflicting witness testimonies; and media manipulation imbue the story with a contemporary reality.

The inner voices of the Chief Inspector character, his tension with judicial procedure and his intuitive approach to events transform an ordinary detective story into a character-driven novel, even one with psychological depth at times.

In his novel "The House of Trotsky," Önay Yılmaz presents a detective story that explores Türkiye's unconfronted past and the gaps in collective memory, drawing on the shadow of a historical figure. With its simple plot and multilayered messages, the novel opens a new door for readers of crime fiction and evokes powerful resonances for readers who value cultural memory.