Death of an Effendi

May 1, 2004
Set in Cairo in 1909, Michael Pearce's Death of an Effendi: A Mamur Zapt Mystery, the 12th in this well-received historical series, finds Gareth Owen, the head of the secret police force tasked with maintaining political calm, entering the murky world of the Egyptian Russian community after the seemingly accidental fatal shooting of a Russian financier. Though the whodunit's resolution doesn't measure up to the intriguing opening, the author's trademark wit and humor are as much in evidence as ever.

Starred review from June 1, 2004
Fans of Pearce's delightful Mamur Zapt series will find this latest entry among the best of the bunch and clearly deserving of its shortlisting for the Ellis Peters Award. Captain Gareth Owen, Chief of Cairo's Secret Police (called Mamur Zapt), is asked to guard Russian financier Tvardovsky during a shooting party for potential Egyptian investors. But Owen fails. Tvardovsy, along with hundreds of birds, is shot dead, apparently by another member of the hunting party. Before Owen can set the investigatory wheels turning, Tvardovsky's body is spirited away, and another Russian is imprisoned for murdering him. Owen and his colleague Mahmoud are furious that the foreign effendi's death has not been properly investigated, and they're positive the wrong man has been jailed. But when the pair attempt to unearth the truth, they are thwarted at every turn. Their tenacity eventually pays off, and they crack the case, but even these two experienced investigators are shocked by the bizarre story that emerges. Witty and beguiling, with an amusing cast of characters, this story also offers a charming glimpse of turn of the century Cairo. The Mamur Zapt series has been underappreciated for too long; let's hope this one brings Pearce the wider audience he has long deserved.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)