|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
This is another of the Mamur Zapt series taking place in British-controlled Egypt in 1908. Please see my review of THE SPOILS OF EGYPT for some background on this series. How can you not like a book that begins, "Once upon a time there was a woman called Rice Pudding --"? And then on page 2 we get this helpful advice, "'What really happened' was always a relative matter in Cairo." The Mamur Zapt, Captain Gareth Owen, is the head of Egypt's Secret Police, charged with protecting the Turkish viceroy, but always taking his orders from the British Consul General. As the story begins we find him conducting two types of meetings. The first is to investigate a brutal beating suffered by Mustapha, a café owner, who had not played ball with a protection racket gang. The second is a committee meeting headed by his civilian government friend, Paul, and attended by several British army officers who have all the experience they need to take the necessary actions to control Egypt, even though one of them admits he has been in Egypt only a week. "We need to take a tougher line," says one, in this case to stop crime. Later it appears that these British officials have to get concerned in another matter, the state visit to Egypt by a Russian Grand Duke. Russia is not well liked in Egypt, especially by the many Moslem and other religious refugees of various ethnic origin who left their Russian-occupied lands. One such group consists of the Mingrelians, Christians from the Caucasus. I confess, I've never heard of Mingrelians before, nor could I find anything about them in my reference books. I suspect it is a made-up name, although I don't know why the author would feel any need to disguise the sect. Aside from British army officers, protection racket gangs, and religious zealots making it difficult for the Mamur Zapt, the chief Russian diplomat in Cairo is exerting his influence for tighter control of the groups who might want to assassinate his Grand Duke. In his investigation of the the incidents surrounding the beating of Mustapha, the Mamur Zapt finds himself involved with a Mingrelian family where the father is abroad, the grandfather seems a bit over the hill, and the granddaughter, Katarina, seems active in some kind of mysterious business. One scene gave me nostalgia for Athens, where I once lived. "Owen motioned him to a chair and began the usual prolonged courteous enquiries as to health, fatigue and general condition which were the essential preliminary to any Arabic discussion of business. Another indispensable preliminary was the offer of hospitality. A suffragi brought in two little cups of Turkish coffee. Mr. Nicodemus sipped his coffee and praised God and Owen for the flavour; and then business could begin." I have been in similar situations so many times, only in Greece not Egypt, that I have similar scenes in a novel I just wrote. Oh, how many small cups of thick Turkish coffee have I consumed! One character is named Djugashvili, the original surname of Joseph Stalin, and I couldn't help but wonder, could Stalin have been intended here? -- what was he doing in 1908, some nine years before the Soviet revolution? Like THE SPOILS OF EGYPT, this book is also one of these highly entertaining stories of the way things were in Victorian/Edwardian Egypt. They are delightful tales that gives us a bit of history and international culture at the same time they captivate. Another excellent read if only for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, September 2003
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
