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.