Jenny White (center) flanked by Norton editor Amy Cherry and publicist Erin Sinesky at last night's reception at the Turkish Center, across the street from the UN Building, in honor of the publication of White's first novel, The Sultan's Seal. White, a social anthropologist at Boston University, admitted to the audience that one of her motivations for writing a historical mystery, set in 1880s Istanbul, was to write about all the little details of life in Turkey that she couldn't find room for in her more academic work.