The Snake-Catcher’s Daughter

The Snake-Catcher’s Daughter
Michael Pearce

In this engrossing murder mystery set in the Egypt of the 1900s, the Mamur Zapt finds himself under threat from a campaign to discredit Cairo’s senior policemen.Cairo in the 1900s. The Mamur Zapt, Head of Cairo's secret police, finds himself in a compromising position. The city’s senior policemen are the subject of a smear campaign, a stinging attack which raises uncomfortable questions about their integrity.The Mamur Zapt himself is suspected, but is he above suspicion? Owen’s investigation takes him into hitherto uncharted territory: the underworld of Cairo and the dangerous profession of snake-catching…

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First published in Great Britain in 1994

Copyright © Michael Pearce 1994

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: 9780008259433

Ebook Edition © JULY 2017 ISBN: 9780007485055

Version: 2017-08-30

Contents

Cover (#u38f87721-fab4-570e-9976-6fcab7e9d600)

Title Page (#ue0212de0-1d30-546d-9007-53ff29c079d4)

Copyright (#u759817bd-92e5-56be-9fad-c516aa63a4b3)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_867bff46-10c2-55fd-acff-9371478cfcf8)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_002f2e11-6056-5ead-9c05-a0c121490791)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_62627741-bcef-566a-a859-0a371ff86dc2)

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)

1 (#ulink_c09c2238-7874-560a-ad33-5f5a1120b801)

One evening when Owen got home he found a girl in his bed.

‘Hello!’ he said. ‘What’s this?’

‘I’m a present,’ she said.

‘Who from?’

‘We can go into details later.’

‘A member of the British Administration is not allowed to accept presents,’ he said, stuffily.

And not altogether honestly. For the Mamur Zapt, Head of Cairo’s Secret Police, was not, strictly speaking, a member of the British Administration but a member of the Egyptian Administration; and whereas the British, under Cromer’s strait-laced regime had not been allowed to accept bribes, the Khedive’s servants had always taken a more relaxed view.

‘All the world knows about your Zeinab,’ said the girl, pouting.

Owen rather hoped that all the world did not know about Zeinab and was more than a little surprised that the girl did.

‘Ah, yes, but she is not a present.’

‘I don’t need to stay a present,’ said the girl.

‘Off you go!’