Description: It's 1909, and Cairo is the murder capital of the world. Deaths are two a piastre. But the death of an effendi is something different. Effendis--the Egyptian elite--are important. Especially if they happen to be foreign. When Tvardovsky, an effendi and a foreigner, is shot at a gathering of financiers, Gareth Owen - the Mamur Zapt, Chief of Cairo's Secret Police - is called in to investigate. But is he the right man for the job? In some countries, if someone goes for a walk, or a boat ride, with the Head of the Secret Police and doesn't come back, it's best not to ask any questions. And there are powerful people who might have preferred Tvardovsky dead.
Brief description:
Michael Pearce grew up in the (then) Anglo-Egyptian Sudan among the political and other tensions he draws on for his books. He returned there later to teach and retains a human rights interest in the area. His career has followed the standard academic rake's progress from teaching to writing to administration. He finds international politics a pallid imitation of academic ones.
Review Quotes: *Starred Review*
Fans of Pearce's delightful Mamur Zapt series will find this latest entry among the best of the bunch and clearly deserving of its shortlisting for the Ellis Peters Award. Captain Gareth Owen, Chief of Cairo's Secret Police (called Mamur Zapt), is asked to guard Russian financier Tvardovsky during a shooting party for potential Egyptian investors. But Owen fails. Tvardovsky, along with hundreds of birds, is shot dead, apparently by another member of the hunting party. Before Owen can set the investigatory wheels turning, Tvardovsky's body is spirited away, and another Russian is imprisoned for murdering him. Owen and his colleague Mahmoud are furious that the foreign effendi's death has not been properly investigated, and they're positive the wrong man has been jailed. But when the pair attempt to unearth the truth, they are thwarted at every turn. Their tenacity eventually pays off, and they crack the case, but even these two experienced investigators are shocked by the bizarre story that emerges. Witty and beguiling, with an amusing cast of characters, this story also offers a charming glimpse of turn of the century Cairo. The Mamur Zapt series has been underappreciated for too long; let's hope this one brings Pearce the wider audience he has long deserved. -- Emily Melton, Booklist (6/01/2004)