Death of an Effendi (Mamur Zapt, Book 12)

Description

Shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Award for best historical crime novel, this is an engrossing murder mystery set in the Egypt of the 1900s, featuring the inimitable Mamur Zapt. It's 1909, and Cairo is the murder capital of the world. But the death of an effendi is something different. Effendis - the Egyptian elite - are important. Especially if they happen to be foreign. When effendi Tvardovsky is shot in Crocodilopolis, the ancient City of the Crocodiles, Mamur Zapt - Chief of Cairo's Secret Police - is called in to investigate. But sometimes it's best not to ask any questions. And there are powerful people who might prefer Tvardovsky dead...

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.

Praise for Michael Pearce: 'Pearce takes apart ancient history and reassembles it with beguiling wit and colour' Sunday Times 'Marvellously convoluted... Dryly and deeply funny' Literary Review 'The beguiling Mamur Zapt sleuths around turn-of-the-century Cairo with verve and panache' Time Out 'Impeccable historical details ... enjoyable reading' Sunday Telegraph