The Mamur Zapt and the Donkey-Vous

The Mamur Zapt and the Donkey-Vous
Michael Pearce

A classic murder mystery from the award-winning Michael Pearce, which sees the Mamur Zapt investigate a series of suspicious kidnappings in the Cairo of the 1900s.Cairo in the 1900s. ‘Tourists are quite safe provided they don’t do anything stupidly reckless,’ Owen, the Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo’s secret police, assures the press. But what of Monsieur Moulin and Mr Colthorpe, kidnapped from the terrace at Shepheard’s Hotel?Were these kidnappings intended as deliberately symbolic blows at the British? Owen had better unravel it quickly, or else… And where better to start from than the donkey-vous, Cairo’s enterprising youths who hire out their donkeys for rides…

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1990

Copyright © Michael Pearce 1990

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: 9780008259389

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2017 ISBN: 9780008257231

Version: 2017-08-30

Contents

Cover (#u8d56301c-9ceb-5f46-a87b-db328b813acf)

Title Page (#ubbc3b97d-f619-5b21-b141-ea6f8e245297)

Copyright (#u3e6f2004-a1f8-57ee-9479-788746184fff)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_acedf23a-4880-5caf-856a-0aa18046747e)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_8bd75c04-da58-5b0f-9fec-afe4ee34d638)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_bd313248-38f2-500c-a424-c6124bc5f3cf)

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 (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_daa0022f-eab1-5451-a9c7-016f38db380e)

Owen arrived at the hotel shortly afterwards.

McPhee came down the steps of the terrace to meet him.

‘Thank goodness you’re here!’ he said.

A cobra stretched lazily in the dirt at the foot of the steps stirred slightly. McPhee paused in his descent for a second and in that second its charmer thrust out a bowl at him. McPhee, flustered, dropped in a few milliemes.

‘For heaven’s sake!’ protested Owen. ‘You’ll have them all on to us!’

The crowd surged over them. Hands reached out at McPhee from all sides. Owen found his own hand taken in soft, confiding fingers and looked down to see who his new friend was. It was a large, dog-faced baboon with grey chinchilla-like fur.

‘Imshi! Imshi! Get off!’ shouted McPhee, recovering. One of his constables came down from the terrace and beat back the crowd with his baton. In the yard or two of space so gained a street acrobat in red tights suddenly turned a cartwheel. He cannoned heavily, however, into the snake-charmer and ricocheted off into a row of donkeys tethered to the railings, where he was chased off by indignant donkey-boys. Taking advantage of the confusion, Owen joined McPhee on the steps.

‘What’s it all about?’

‘You got my message?’

‘You’d better tell me.’

McPhee had sent a bearer. The man had run all the way and arrived in such a state of incoherence that all Owen had been able to get out of him was that the Bimbashi was at Shepheard’s and needed Owen urgently.

‘A kidnapping,’ said McPhee.