The Mamur Zapt and the Spoils of Egypt

The Mamur Zapt and the Spoils of Egypt
Michael Pearce

Winner of the CWA Last Laugh Award, an irresistible historical mystery in which the Mamur Zapt investigates the illegal trade of antiquities in the Cairo of the 1900s.Cairo, 1908. Captain Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt or head of Cairo’s Secret Police, turns his attention to the illegal trade of antiquities when Miss Skinner arrives. She’s a woman with the habit of asking awkward questions. But what is she doing looking for crocodiles? And mummified ones at that?Owen’s new brief is to see that Egypt’s priceless treasures stay in Egypt. But when Miss Skinner narrowly escapes falling under a conveyance, Owen must labour to thwart killers and face an even graver problem: whether to ask the pasha's lovely daughter to marry him….

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1992

Copyright © Michael Pearce 1992

Michael Pearce asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780008259402

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2017 ISBN: 9780007485031

Version: 2017-08-31

CONTENTS

Cover (#ubc46e339-2437-540c-a61b-911847f23cd2)

Title Page (#ud49cc9b3-95e1-5e4b-a506-86468c83a634)

Copyright (#ub90dee16-389d-558b-8437-5ce2cda3ce82)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_cc743376-2748-559f-b098-701d42b640db)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_5338ace8-ba29-5146-a6ae-f2430bf1ee1c)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_46e59128-8f9a-503f-9916-f9736d51e031)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Michael Pearce (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_461f1429-71a5-5e5e-b3ec-ed0d331604b0)

A tall, thin, angular woman came through the door of the hotel.

Immediately a hand was thrust up at her. It was holding something grey, crumbly and rubbery—rather like old fish—from which a faint aroma arose.

‘What is this?’ she said, sniffing suspiciously.

‘Real mummy!’ said the voice behind the hand. ‘Genuine mummy flesh! Only ten piastres!’

‘Thank you, no!’ said the woman firmly.

Her initial hesitation, however, proved fatal. In a moment they were all round her. Other hands pushed out brandishing bits of bandage (mummy linen), bits of wood (mummy coffin), bright blue saucers straight from the tombs (well, near them, at any rate), genuine old scarab beetles (and some of them were), little wooden images of the gods, little clay images of scribes (such is our fate), little plaques of rough clay engraved with religious images and little coloured wooden Ships of the Dead.

She tried to brush past.

Something was held up in front of her to block her way. It was a mummified arm, complete with fingers.

As she recoiled, a voice said: ‘For you, Madame, for you!’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘For you especially!’ the man insisted.

‘Thank you, no.’