The Ghost Runner: A Makana Investigation

(Paperback)

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It is 2002 and as tanks roll into the West Bank and the reverberations of 9/11 echo across the globe, tensions are running high on Cairos streets. Private Investigator Makana, in exile from his native Sudan and increasingly haunted by memories of the wife and daughter he lost, is shaken out of his grief when a routine surveillance job leads him to the horrific murder of a teenage girl. In a country where honour killings are commonplace and the authorities seem all too eager to turn a blind eye, Makana determines to track down the perpetrator. He finds unexpected assistance in the shape of Zahra, a woman who seems to share Makanas hunger for justice. Seeking answers in the dead girls past he travels to Siwa, an oasis town on the edge of the great Sahara desert, where the law seems disturbingly far away and old grievances simmer just below the surface. As violence follows him through the twisting, sand-blown streets and an old enemy lurks in the shadows, Makana discovers that the truth can be as deadly and as changeable as the desert beneath his feet.

Reviews

The third in this fine series ... Not for the first time, a literary novelist uses the crime genre to terrific effect, exposing official complicity in historic crimes against women * Sunday Times *
Murder mystery that expertly probes the dark side of Cairo This atmospheric crime fiction probes deep issues * Independent *
Cairo detective Makana investigates an honour crime * Sunday Times, Summer Reading *
A novel that is both celebration and indictment of modern Egypt * Daily Telegraph Summer Reading *
A gripping mystery set in the Egypt tourists dont see, where women are still considered property and the rule of law is a distant fantasy * Literary Review, Books of the Year *
The third in this fine series Not for the first time, a literary novelist uses the crime genre to terrific effect, exposing official complicity in historic crimes against women * Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub has published seven critically acclaimed literary novels, which have been widely translated. He has written four Makana Investigations, titled The Golden Scales, Dogstar Rising, The Ghost Runner and The Burning Gates. Born in London, Mahjoub has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo and Denmark. He currently lives in Barcelona.