Paperback: A lost child. A missing hero. A bitter rivalry. In Cairo the ghosts of the past are stirring.
Makana is a former police inspector who fled for his life to Cairo from his native Sudan seven years ago. He is scratching out a living as a private investigator.
Down on his luck and haunted by the past, he lives on a rickety Nile houseboat. When the notorious and powerful Saad Hanafi hires him to track down a missing person, Makana is in no position to refuse him. Hanafi, whose past is as shady as his fortune is glittering, is the owner of Cairo's star-studded football team. His most valuable player has just vanished and Adil Romario's disappearance threatens to bring down not only Hanafi's private empire, but the entire country.
But why should the city's most powerful man hire its lowliest private investigator?
Thrust into a dangerous and glittering world, Makana's investigation leads him into the treacherous underbelly of his adopted country - where he encounters Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters and a desperate mother hunting for her missing daughter. It becomes a trail that stirs up painful memories, leading him back into the sights of an old and dangerous enemy.
Published on the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt in 2012, The Golden Scales is an elegantly written, thrilling story set in a city of upheaval, chaos, and corruption.
The Golden Scales (2012) is the first book in the exciting Makana Mystery series set in Cairo. There are currently five books in the Makana Mystery series with a sixth one coming out on 11 July 2017.
About the author: Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub has published seven critically acclaimed literary novels, which have been widely translated, and has been awarded several prizes, including the Guardian African Short Story Prize, the St Malo Prix de l’Astrolabe, and the Mario Vargas Llosa Premio NH de Relatos. He has also published short stories and essays. Born in London, he has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo, and Denmark. He currently lives in Barcelona.
Rating: 5/5
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