Escape from Smyrna, a mystery novel set in Turkey and Greece,
unveils the intertwining histories of three families, Anglo-American, Turkish, and Greek, bound together by an ancient necklace that incites violence yet has powers of healing and redemption. It is
1982. Four Swiss hippies steal a gold locket from a chapel on a barren Greek island. Soon after, it appears for sale in Istanbul's Covered Bazaar. Oran Crossmoor, an athletic 26-year-old American,
buys the locket, recognizing it as part of a lost family heirloom, a necklace of four medieval reliquaries. When he shows it to Leyla Aslanoglu, a rich, witty octogenarian friend of his mother, she
claims it as treasure of her family. But neither Oran nor Leyla has any idea that the answer to their conflict over the necklace lies in a dramatic escape from Smyrna decades earlier.
Author Charles Gates is an archaeologist, specializing in ancient Greece and Turkey. A native Californian, has lived in Turkey much of his adult life. He teaches archaeology and art history at Bilkent University, Ankara, and has led many tours in Greece and especially Turkey. His books include Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome (2nd edn, 2011). He began writing fiction in Laurel Goldman's workshop in Durham, North Carolina. His other interests include hiking (he has walked the pilgrimage route from Le Puy-en-Velay to Santiago de Compostela), swimming, yoga, opera, classical piano, photography, and bridge.
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