Synopses & Reviews
Masterfully blending speculative fiction and hard-boiled mystery, Jon Courtenay Grimwood' s acclaimed "Arabesk" series plunges readers into a world eerily familiar and shockingly unpredictable. Here a troubled detective follows a trail of clues through a city where innocence itself may be a thing of the past.
It's the twenty-first century and El Iskandryia an alluring metropolis built on seduction, corruption, and lies is the double-dealing heart of an Ottoman Empire that still rules the world. But these days a sense of dread hangs over El Isk and over Ashraf Bey, the city's new Chief of Detectives. A trial is set to take place, and it's up to Raf to decide the case. There's only one problem: the suspect is the billionaire father of the woman Raf should have married.
Industrialist Hamzah Effendi is accused of crimes so horrible that even El Iskandryia wants him eliminated. But Raf finds that protecting the sensual and impetuous Zara Quitrimala from the secrets of her father's past may be even more dangerous. For Raf must now solve a series of brutal murders that are somehow connected to the case and to Zara. And the closer Raf gets to the truth, the more elusive the answers become and the closer he comes to his own demise.
Review
"Filled with Middle Eastern atmosphere, in terms of both its danger and its beauty, this addition to the 'Arabesk' trilogy belongs in most sf collections." Library Journal
Review
"All brilliant light and scorching heat...Grimwood has successfully mingled fantasy with reality to make an unusual, believable, and absorbing mystery." Sunday Telegraph (London)
About the Author
Jon Courtenay Grimwood lives in England. The first book in his acclaimed "Arabesk" series, Pashazade, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Effendi, the second book in the series, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Science Fiction Association Award.