Moody and atmospheric with an engaging private detective in Cairo

The year is 1998, and former police inspector Makana, a refugee from his native Sudan, lives on a rickety houseboat on the Nile outside Cairo. He fled his country years earlier when it became too dangerous for him and his family under the radical Islamic regime that had recently overthrown the previous government. He ekes out a bare subsistence working as a private investigator while mourning the loss of his wife and daughter, who didn't survive their escape. His fortunes have the opportunity to change for the better when he is hired to find a missing soccer star.

Adil Romario has been missing for over two weeks without a word or sighting of one of Cairo’s favorite sones. It is as if the young man has disappeared off the face of the Earth. The Dreem Team's owner, Saad Hanafi, is desperate to find Adil for his club's success and personal reasons. Hanafi wasn't always on the right side of the law, and old enemies may be behind the young man's disappearance.

As Makana delves into the mystery, he discovers there may be a link between Adil's disappearance and that of the young daughter of an Englishwoman who went missing 17 years earlier. When the Englishwoman is found dead, Makana, with some support from a friend on the local police force, two agents from Britain's Special Branch out of London, and a young, local reporter trying to make a name for himself, digs deeper and further afield, coming to the realization that Hanafi isn't telling him everything he needs to know to find the missing soccer star.

THE GOLDEN SCALES is a complex and intriguing historical mystery set in moody, atmospheric Cairo. The descriptions of place drew me into the story, where the writing and plot gripped me and never let go. The characters who populate the pages are colorful and well-drawn. I could easily visualize their dress, manner of speech, and gestures. I was invested in Makana's success as if it were my own. The story is action-filled, and Makana investigates like a pro, so I was quite satisfied when the resolution came.

THE GOLDEN SCALES is the first book in the Makana Mystery series by Parker Bilal, a pseudonym of renowned author Jamal Mahjoub, and was originally published in 2012. Currently, there are six novels in the series, the last of which was published in 2017. I recommend this book to mystery readers that would like an intriguing, well-crafted story with historical and political subplots enveloped in a setting that comes alive on the page. ( )

The first in a series featuring an ex-pat Sudanese policeman eking out a living as a private detective in Cairo. Having fled his country after its takeover by Islamists and the death at their hands of his wife and daughter, Markana rents a small floating structure on a riverbank and tries to earn enough to survive. He is approached by one of richest men in Cairo, one of the breed of gangsters who decide to go straight after making their fortunes. The star of his professional soccer team is missing, and, unsure of who he can trust, he wants someone to whom he has no connections otherwise. Multiple connected mysteries crop up, most prominently the murder of an Englishwoman who comes to Cairo each year to search for the daughter who disappeared almost 20 years ago as a young child.

The story is intense and interesting, and Cairo is certainly an unusual venue for the average English-speaking mystery reader. The action primarily takes place among people on two economic levels: the wealthy, who live in towers and barely notice people not in their own class (doesn't that sound familiar?), and the very, very poor, whose hovels often crouch at the foot of the towers. There's also quite a bit of information about the Islamist seizure of Sudan and what that meant for educated and professional people. Very rewarding reading. ( )

A superior thriller with a raft of interesting characters, an absorbing plot and a strong sense of time and place. If Sudanese ex-policeman and private investigator Markana is the main character, he is closely rivalled by Cairo itself, dark and brooding in its poverty and crime, bright and empty in its wealth, always vital. Politics and religion, greed and corruption are all examined alongside just enough human warmth and integrity to hold it together. 2 September 2017 ( )

This is a mystery set in Cairo back in the 1980s. Macana is an outsider, a former police inspector from Sudan who didn't turn a blind eye when he should have and who so was forced to leave his country and lost everyone dear to him. He barely makes a living investigating cases the local police don't get involved with. The sense of place is extraordinary. Bilal makes Cairo seem real--rotting away before your eyes. Corruption is everywhere. Macana's investigation on behalf of a "former" criminal overlord takes him through many levels and layers of society.
The thing I found hard to believe was Macana's incredible naivety that came through in the flashbacks--it didn't seem realistic that he would continually ignore all the danger signs that should have been telling him to leave the country long before he did.
Interesting mystery story. Fabulous sense of place. Good character. 3.5 stars ( )

Thriller in Cairo met veel corruptie, Russen en mensen die elkaar naar het leven staan. Alles is toch weer anders dan het lijkt te zijn, een beetje te veel ( )