Pacific Book Review   

“Voice of Conscience” is a fictional tale of a young boy living in a small village in eastern Turkey. Secure within his family structure, he is suddenly thrust into an adult world after the brutal murder of his parents and sister. He is whisked away in the middle of the night with only the clothes on his back, but carrying his heritage, his culture, all that he has learned from his parents, his family, his village. He finds refuge in Istanbul, in the home of a distant relative, a builder. For the next several years, he grows into a striking young man, finishing high school and working for the builder. His sense of security is shattered once more when his close friend is run down and killed. All his fears return, that his enemies have found him, that he will not survive.

He escapes to London, now totally on his own, but haunted by the need to avenge the murders of his parents and sister. He focuses solely on finishing his education, the belief that he will find a job that will provide him with the means to return to his village and find his enemies. All his plans go awry when he meets a young American tourist who completely captivates him, body and soul. When she suddenly leaves for home in California, he believes he will never see her again and his tortuous nightmares return. The young American herself is tormented by her own feelings, wanting to please her father and marry a man she does not love, but knowing she is completely in love with the young Turk. When she realizes she is pregnant, she confronts her father, then returns to London to find her love. The young Turk and the American marry in a quiet ceremony, much to the displeasure of her father.

The young couple return to California and settle in. Life continues on for the young Turk, with a loving and devoted wife, two beautiful little daughters, and success in business with his own company, far beyond anything he ever could have imagined. As the years pass he grows restless, doing battle with his conscience and what he believes in the debt he owes his parents and sister. Chance encounters lead the way to what he believes is a solution to his torment. He prepares himself for battle, both physical and mental. He begins his journey  back to his roots to take his long overdue revenge with his enemies, only to find out they are all innocent of the murders of his family. Filled with unrelenting guilt, he makes a decision he believes is his only recourse, nearly destroying the lives of his wife and daughters. But often times endings are only beginnings.

Author Behcet Kaya, in his first novel Voice of Conscience, transports his readers to the land of his birth, bringing to life all of the sights, sounds and smells of a place steeped in centuries of tradition and exacting customs. Calling upon his own life experiences he weaves a story of love and revenge that plays itself out on three continents.

Behcet was born in northeastern Turkey. Growing up in a very small village with long held traditions, his rebellious nature emerged at an early age. By the time he was ten, he had read, in secret, all of the Turkish translated stories of Mike Hammer. In addition, he read several of Dale Carnage’s works, and all of Yashar Kemal’s novels. His world burst out beyond that of his small village and he yearned for a more western way of life.

Defying his father, who wanted him to remain in the village to work and support his large family, Behcet left home at fourteen and travelled first to Istanbul and soon, on to London. In London his obsession was to complete his high school education and then a college degree in engineering. He supported himself by working full-time and earning scholarships from Inner London Education Authority. His long held belief was that, to earn an honorable and respectable living, he must complete his engineering degree and that no other employment would suffice. His creative side, however, began emerging when his drama and literature teacher cast him in a play in which his performance awed the audience. His insatiable appetite for literature widened to include the classics of Dickens, D.H. Lawrence and the Russian masters.

While at Hatfield Polytechnic, Behcet made his first visit to the U.S. as an exchange student with the British Universities North American Club. Behcet made the move to the U.S. in 1976 and became a U.S. citizen in 1985. While living in Atlanta, Georgia, he followed his creative yearnings, attending the Alliance Theater School and studying at the SAG Conservatory of Georgia, which earned him his Screen Actors Guild card. In 1994, Kaya and his wife moved to Los Angeles, where he continued his studies at the Roby Theater Company and the Shakespeare, A Noise Within Theater Workshop.

Along with acting, writing became a natural outlet for his creative yearnings. He has published several short stories and is currently working on two novels; one a sequel to Voice of Conscience, the other a story of a U.S. naval officer.