From the award-winning Michael Pearce comes an engrossing murder mystery set in the Cairo of the 1900s. After a series of attacks on public officials, the Mamur Zapt is called in to investigate. Cairo in the 1900s. While riding home, Fairclough of Customs is shot at from behind. It is the first of many similar attacks – all seemingly aimed at public officials. The Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo's secret police, is told to catch the killer – and quickly. His efforts to do so take him into Cairo's student quarter and out to a remote rural estate. And require him to handle a fading Pasha and a dangerous gypsy girl – whose claims he has to balance against those of his fiery Egyptian mistress.