‘The Turkish Mafia Conspiracy’ by Ralph Hayes - A review

Originally released back in 1974, ‘The Turkish Mafia Conspiracy’ (although the back of the book calls it ‘The Istanbul Conspiracy’) by prolific author Ralp Hayes is the third in the COMINSEC series.

Despite this, and for reasons of access, I went into this book with no prior knowledge or reading of the series. Thankfully, none of that mattered though, as this is very much a standalone story in which COMINSEC (the secret Committee for International Security) agent Taggart is tasked not only with retrieving or destroying a new and infallible US drug detector that was stolen by the Attaturk Society, a Turkish Mafia group, but also stopping the gang from flooding the West with high-grade heroin and destroying the decadent society.

One thing that immediately struck me about this book, beyond how long the chapters were, is how violent it is. By the end of the first chapter, we have three deaths, including one poor innocent soul, and things only get worse with eyeballs hanging down onto chins, bullets exploding heads and much more.

Although taking place across a range of locations and countries, the action mainly takes place in the Istanbul area and an American prison. While the undercover in jail angle isn’t particularly unique, I felt that here it added an extra layer of depth (as much as this type of story can) and diversity to the entertainment not to mention brilliantly exemplified the global reach of organised crime syndicates.

Managing all of this in under 170 pages, ‘The Turkish Conspiracy’ doesn’t overstay its welcome or get bogged down too much in internal thought, in fact our protagonist often mentions that relationships, fun and rest happens when he’s not on the job. Having a justified single-minded lead is a brilliant device and helps the story and us hurtle along until the conclusion.

And hurtle along I did. In fact, this was such a bloody good and gripping read that I went out and overpaid for two more paperbacks in the series. Incorporating the (Turkish) mafia, drugs, religious and political ideology (although not really tackled it underpins motivations), and greed through a lens of necessary and cold-blooded violence on all sides, ‘The Turkish Mafia’ was a wonderful surprise to me.

Although there were a few minor typos and very minor discrepancies, that is to be expected considering how quickly these books were written, nothing took me out of the moment nor gave me much pause for thought - rather I kept hurtling on through the pages.

So give this a read and if you enjoy it, also check out the modern (written at least) ‘Frenzi’ series by R.J. Calder that is keeping this type of genre alive.