Set in the steampunk Cairo of Clark’s Dead Djinn universe, in which hapless ministry officials try to regulate supernatural occurrences given shoestring budgets and an unsupportive bureaucracy, Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi investigate a haunted tram car. I loved Hamed’s weary competence in tackling the case, set against Onsi’s exuberance; I also liked the suffragettes and other women in the story who insisted that Hamed make room for their competence and independence, and how it all managed to tie together at the end. Really tight, well-written novella.
Tag: genre-mystery
A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark
This was adorable. It’s a standard setup: a tough, experienced detective has a murder mystery to solve, except in this case the tough detective is the youngest woman working at the Ministry of Alchemy in a magical version of historic Cairo; the murder is of an entire secretive brotherhood; oh, and the repercussions of her investigation threaten to tear down the thin barrier protecting the physical world from the magical realm. Great cast of characters, great progression of plot, really enjoyable read.