The Mamur Zapt and the Girl in Nile (Mamur Zapt, Book 5)

Description

A classic historical mystery from award-winning Michael Pearce, in which the body of a young woman washes up in the Nile and the Mamur Zapt is drawn into the seedy world of Egyptian politics. Egypt, 1908. A young woman has drowned in the Nile, her body washed up on a sandbar. Apparently she had fallen off a boat. Owen, as Mamur Zapt, Britsh head of Cairo's secret police, deems it a potential crime. But when the poor girl's body suddenly vanishes from its resting place, Owen begins a puzzling search for the truth that will take him from Cairo's sophisticated cafes through its dingiest slums - and into the seething waters of Egyptian politics.

Michael Pearce grew up in the (then) Anglo-Egyptian Sudan among the various tensions he draws on for his award-winning Mamur Zapt series. He returned there to teach, and retains a human rights interest in the area. In between whiles his career has followed the standard academic rake's progress from teaching to writing to editing to administration. He finds international politics a pallid imitation of academic ones. He lives in London. He is now a full-time writer. He was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious Last Laugh Award for funniest crime novel of the year for the 'Mamur Zapt and the Spoils of Egypt'. Michael Pearce is also the author of the crime novels featuring Dmitri Kameron, set in Tsarist Russia of the 1890s.

'Light touch and witty dialogue . . . a continuing delight' Sunday Telegraph 'A charming, clever invocation of a vanished world' Mail on Sunday 'Sheer fun' The Times 'Enjoyable ... original and charming' Independent