The Mamur Zapt and the Camel of Destruction

The Mamur Zapt and the Camel of Destruction
Michael Pearce

In this classic mystery from the award-winning Michael Pearce, a powerful politician is murdered in Cairo in the 1900s and the Mamur Zapt is called in to investigateCairo, 1910. The end of the boom and everyone seems to have money troubles. Then one day a civil servant dies at his desk. Was it pressure of work or something nastier? The whiff of corruption is in the air, with even Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt, under suspicion…Owen’s investigation takes him to the heart of a sinister organization. But will he be up to taking them on? And will he be in time to stop the Camel of Destruction running through the city?

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1993

Copyright © Michael Pearce 1993

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

A catalogue record of 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

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Source ISBN: 9780008259327

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2017 ISBN: 9780007484980

Version: 2017-09-05

Contents

Cover (#u344fa7ca-c3a3-5a2c-b5fd-d2ffe1a1f63f)

Title Page (#u4491ac3c-9d01-52c4-b226-8ea39b624ff9)

Copyright (#u6edf26c7-e154-5528-a2fc-94622a918d52)

Praise (#ulink_28efcce1-fe52-5d5b-865c-6b75b8908393)

Chapter 1 (#ucf9bf103-30d6-5954-a447-a3370959ab78)

Chapter 2 (#ua1de408a-f45f-55e4-90dd-af5cc76fd972)

Chapter 3 (#u846c8d66-d268-5299-8f7a-c75797d3b413)

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)

Praise (#ulink_3f1eba49-d3db-5729-b89f-5dcd5e223bcb)

‘Pearce summons up his vanished world with a finesse that’s dab, fond and droll. Impeccably done’

Literary Review

‘The Mamur Zapt’s sly, irreverent humour continues to refresh the parts others seldom reach’

Observer

‘Pearce’s secret policeman is implausibly likeable’

TLS

CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_f947a58d-2e0e-5c97-8b09-a8720a57406a)

It was, alas, not uncommon for senior members of the Department to nod off in their offices, overcome by their exertions and the heat, so when Abdul Latif stuck his head through the door and observed Osman Fingari he thought nothing of it.

It was, however, decidedly unusual for them to be at their posts after two o’clock, when the city as a whole closed down for its siesta; so when, going round to make sure the shutters were closed, Abdul Latif found him still there at three, he was taken aback.

‘It’s not like him,’ he said in the Orderly Room. ‘He’s usually away by two.’

‘He’s usually away by half past eleven,’ said one of the other orderlies.

Abdul Latif felt called on to defend his master.

‘It’s these lunches,’ he said.