The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: A Humoristic Novel of Oriental Mystery

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To the casual reader this novel is about a series of suspicious accidental deaths, disappearances, mutilations, and a drowning that supposedly occurred, when a luxurious cruise ship carrying TV actors, managers and directors visited during the summer various harbors and archaeological sites along the Asia Minor shores to shoot advertising video clips about a new TV series portraying the deeds and pitfalls of the famous and glorious Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
For the sensitive reader this novel is a bitter satire, about the modern trend of the movie industry to unearth historical heroes from past times and use them as themes for lucrative modern movie, TV series, or even video games, since contemporary real heroes are either absent, or too well defended by laws and lawyers to allow the intended libeling, or too well known to the general public for the intended glorification to be believable and easily consumable by the uninformed TV audience.
To achieve his literary goals the author chooses on purpose not Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Constantine the Great, or any lusty British king, as he considers them just too familiar to excite the imagination of his readers. Instead he gives preference to a renown Oriental Muslim ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent, who he considers relative virgin territory for most Occidental readers.
If this choice is successful or not may be debatable; however, what is indubitable and based on historical facts, is that Suleiman the Magnificent extended the limits of the Ottoman Empire from Vienna to Yemen, and from Baghdad to Algiers. He was also considered as the most powerful emperor in the world of his time, largely undefeated in most of his military expeditions, carried out by brilliant administrators as Pargali Ibrahim, Rüstem, Sokollu Pasha on land, and Hayreddin Barbarossa, Turgut Reis, and Piri Reis at sea. His era was also ornamented by numerous public buildings, aqueducts, bridges and mosques designed and constructed be possibly the most prolific and imaginative architect and builder ever on Earth, Mimar Sinan, that still stand, operate and adorn various cities in the Balkans and Middle East from Sarajevo to Istanbul and Jerusalem.
Since no human is perfect, Suleiman was also charged with various unwarranted executions of several of his illustrious associates including two of his sons that cannot be easily explained by all his praisers. It should be also apparent that despite what advertising companies claim, modern heroes like movie directors, managers actors, novel heroes, etc, involved in the mass media productions, are also not without blemishes.
The novel is loosely inspired by historical characters from the Turkish TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl, but the heroes of the novel have no connection to the actual actors, directors, script writers, etc, and what is contained within the pages of the novel is totally fictitious and has no relation with real persons who recently died of natural causes or are in perfect health. In fact, the author is among the most fanatical viewers of this TV series and unreservedly recommends his readers to follow closely each and every episode via YouTube, as the least they will gain is a useful knowledge of the modern Turkish language that, of course, has also very limited connection to the Ottoman Turkish.