Mamur Zapt and the Night of the Dog, The - Hardcover

Pearce, Michael

3.96

157 ratings by Goodreads

9780385415217: Mamur Zapt and the Night of the Dog, The

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385415214 ISBN 13: 9780385415217

Publisher: Doubleday, 1991

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The Mamur Zapt, the head of Cairo's political C.I.D. during British rule, fears violence in the streets after an MP's niece witnesses the stabbing death of a dervish

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About the Author:

Michael Pearce grew up in the (then) Anglo-Egyptian Sudan among the political and other tensions he draws on for his books. He returned there later to teach and retains a human rights interest in the area. In between whiles his career has followed the standard academic rake's progress from teaching to writing to administration. He finds international politics a pallid imitation of academic ones.

From Publishers Weekly:

First met in The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet , Captain Gareth Owen is a colonial police officer in British-controlled Cairo. As Mamur Zapt, his job is to keep the uneasy peace between the Coptic and Muslim factions of the city. One night a dead dog is left at a Coptic gravesite. Smarting over the insult, the Copts retaliate and a Zikr , a Muslim dancer, is murdered during a dervish-style ceremony. These incidents land smack on Owen's plate, and lead to increasing violence in the city. That Jane Posthelthwaite, the attractive niece of an influential British politician, was witness to the murder--and, worse yet, in Owen's less-than-protective company--makes for lots of pressure on Owen to find the guilty parties and calm the city down. In a slyly witty and altogether logical manner, Pearce's self-effacing sleuth discovers (through bribes, conversations, stakeouts and deduction) that the strife is due to high-level government sneakiness and abuse of power. Each scene is sharply rendered with local color, and Pearce explains often complex social and political behavior through believable dialogue.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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