"Without it there would be no such thing as a city skyline, or even a city as we know it. Yet Elisha Graves Otis invented the safe elevator almost by accident. He wanted simply to build a machine that would hoist a bedding factory's equipment safely. He built it, all right - and in doing so made possible the construction of the skyscraper and laid the technical foundation for dynamic urban centers around the world." "In Otis: Giving Rise to the Modern...

A history of the Ottoman Turks, founders of an empire lasting 600 years and stretching from the Persian Gulf to Hungary, to Algeria. The author describes the harems, the artistic and technological achievements--the cannon was first used by them in the siege of Constantinople--and the religious tolerance to which he attributes the empire's longevity.

In the second book of the Yashim the Eunuch series, Yashim Togalu is called in to investigate when a French archaeologist, who is tracking down lost Byzantine treasures, arrives in the city unexpectedly, and then is found mutilated outside the French Embassy.