The Mamur Zapt and the Girl in Nile

The Mamur Zapt and the Girl in Nile
Michael Pearce

A classic historical mystery from award-winning Michael Pearce, in which the body of a young woman washes up in the Nile and the Mamur Zapt is drawn into the seedy world of Egyptian politics.Egypt, 1908. A young woman has drowned in the Nile, her body washed up on a sandbar. Apparently she had fallen off a boat. Owen, as Mamur Zapt, Britsh head of Cairo’s secret police, deems it a potential crime.But when the poor girl’s body suddenly vanishes from its resting place, Owen begins a puzzling search for the truth that will take him from Cairo’s sophisticated cafes through its dingiest slums – and into the seething waters of Egyptian politics.

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1991

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: 9780008259396

Ebook Edition © JULY 2017 ISBN: 9780008257248

Version: 2017-09-04

CONTENTS

Cover (#ufa4498ba-3c6c-5871-aa0a-72334aa3878c)

Title Page (#uacb12b81-1cfe-59c0-9f8d-4dfd3ec213c2)

Copyright (#ud69d0e99-2963-5208-bd26-bd20927e518a)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_2f966e3b-8829-5b0e-b6f2-fce65e9303ed)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_9c36545f-fc97-5e41-ae8e-a3e869918166)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_68d111de-3626-5114-8357-8e31d70950e8)

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)

Footnote (#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_6501e8b2-074b-5f27-840e-f0637796a56c)

‘But,’ said Owen, ‘where is the body?’

‘Ah yes,’ said the watchman, rubbing one horny foot up and down his shin.

‘Ah yes,’ said the corporal, shuffling uneasily:

Owen waited.

‘Well,’ said the corporal at last, looking out over the river to where a low mud shoal raised its back above the water, grey and wrinkled like a hippopotamus, ‘it was there.’

‘Well,’ said Owen, ‘it’s not there now.’

It had been a long, hot, fruitless morning. And now this!

He boiled over.

‘If this is some joke—’

The watchman looked as if he was about to burst into tears.

‘But, effendi, it was there, I saw it.’