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...

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....

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 investigate.Cairo in the 1900s. As the long period of indirect British rule draws to an end, tensions mount. The attempted assassination of a politician raises the possibility of a terrorist outrage at the city’s religious festival, the Return of the Holy Carpet from Mecca.When the Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo’s secret police, begins to...

A classic historical mystery from the award-winning Michael Pearce, set in the Egypt of the 1900s. When gang violence strikes the city, the inimitable Mamur Zapt is called in to investigate.In 1908, the city of Cairo lives – and dies – by its cafe culture. But for restaurant businesses, the protection rackets pose a problem. And the city’s cafes are experiencing a sudden upsurge in threats from various gangs.When one cafe proprietor is attacked, his legs broken for noncompliance, everyone is...

In this classic mystery from Michael Pearce’s award-winning series, set in the Egypt of the 1900s, the Mamur Zapt investigates the discovery of a young woman’s body at the site of a dam.Cairo, 1908. When an attempt is made to blow up a key regulator in the Cairo Barrage, the Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo’s secret police, is called in to investigate.To make matters worse, the ceremonial cutting of a dam always requires careful policing, especially on this occasion as it is going to be the...

Winner of the CWA Last Laugh Award, an irresistible historical mystery in which the Mamur Zapt investigates the illegal trade of antiquities in the Cairo of the 1900s.Cairo, 1908. Captain Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt or head of Cairo’s Secret Police, turns his attention to the illegal trade of antiquities when Miss Skinner arrives. She’s a woman with the habit of asking awkward questions. But what is she doing looking for crocodiles? And mummified ones at that?Owen’s new brief is to see that...

From the award-winning Michael Pearce, comes a delightful murder mystery set in Egypt in 1908. A body is found on the tracks of a new electric railway and the Mamur Zapt is called in to investigate.Cairo, 1908. It’s called the Tree of the Virgin, a site of religious interest, perilously close to the construction site of the new electric railway. Sinister power groups are jostling for position, but who dumped the body of the humble villager on the track?When the Mamur Zapt begins to pick his way...

A classic murder mystery from the award-winning Michael Pearce, in which The Mamur Zapt races to prevent an explosion of religious violence in the Cairo of the 1900s.Cairo in the 1900s. When the body of a dog is discovered in a Coptic tomb – a Muslim insult that could spark an explosion among the Christian community – the Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo’s secret police, is called in to investigate.Equally volatile is a command from an English Member of Parliament that the Mamur Zapt, Gareth...

A classic murder mystery from Michael Pearce’s award-winning series, set in Egypt in the 1900s, in which the Mamur Zapt confronts the secrets of his past.It is the beginning of the war and the Mamur Zapt, Gareth Owen, British head of Cairo’s secret police, is called in to investigate a human corpse abandoned in a cat cemetery. Is the villagers’ talk of a mysterious Cat Woman mere superstitious nonsense, or something rather sinister?The Mamur Zapt is preoccupied with missing guns and dubious...

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...

Witty and irreverent, this is the first in an irresistible crime series set in Tsarist Russia in the 1890s from the award-winning Michael Pearce.Tsarist Russia in the 1890s. Dmitri Kameron, a young lawyer, must deal with the disappearance of a well-connected young woman. She has been shipped off to Siberia, in one of the prison wagons outside the Court House. But is this a bureaucratic bungle or something more calculated?On a journey to the furthest outposts of Russia, Dimitri’s search becomes...

From the award-winning Michael Pearce comes an engrossing murder mystery set in the Cairo of the 1900s. After a series of attacks on public officials, the Mamur Zapt is called in to investigate.Cairo in the 1900s. While riding home, Fairclough of Customs is shot at from behind. It is the first of many similar attacks – all seemingly aimed at public officials. The Mamur Zapt, British head of Cairo’s secret police, is told to catch the killer – and quickly.His efforts to do so take him into...

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 second in the delightfully witty and diverting new crime series set in Tsarist Russia from the award-winning Michael Pearce.A dreamy province of Tsarist Russia in the 1980s. An ambitious young lawyer. And the One-Legged Lady, one of the most important ikons in the district, goes missing. Exactly how important she is, the sceptical Dmitri, whose task it is to track her down, will soon find out.Who has taken her and for why? The sinister Volkov, from the Tsar’s Corps of Gendarmes, suspects the...

In this classic murder mystery from Michael Pearce’s award-winning series, set in the Egypt of the 1900s, the Mamur Zapt investigates the murder of an Italian man in the backstreets of Cairo.Cairo, 1908. When an Italian man is murdered in the city’s back streets, there is concern that this could be some kind of ethnic cleansing. Were the guns in his warehouse anything to do with it? Gareth Owen – the Mamur Zapt – has to find out fast.And then there are other difficult questions. What are Trudi...

Shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Award for best historical crime novel, this is an engrossing murder mystery set in the Egypt of the 1900s, featuring the inimitable Mamur Zapt.It’s 1909, and Cairo is the murder capital of the world. But the death of an effendi is something different. Effendis – the Egyptian elite – are important. Especially if they happen to be foreign.When effendi Tvardovsky is shot in Crocodilopolis, the ancient City of the Crocodiles, Mamur Zapt – Chief of Cairo’s Secret...