Customer Reviews

The Mamur Zapt and the Girl in the Nile

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I had to post after reading the one negative review of this book. My husband and I read the entire series and loved every selection. It's a fascinating era of history and setting. One can easily see the groundwork for today's convoluted Middle Eastern situation in the politics of the early 20th century. The characters are compelling and the author writes with great humor and wit.

Book Club Review:

The Mamur Zapt and the Girl in the Nile
by Michael Pearce

Our book club's pick for January was THE MAMUR ZAPT AND THE GIRL IN THE NILE. For December of last year, we had aread a historical novel (SILVER LIES, by Ann Parker) that we greatly enjoyed, and we were hoping to replicate the experience. One of our members had read a couple of books from this series a while ago and recommended them, so we chose this title because it seemed to have some interesting plot lines about women's rights in a Muslim country, which we thought could be interesting.

Sadly, this was not a good way to start the year!

The "Mamur Zapt" is Gareth Owen, head of the secret police in 1910 Cairo, where the British have a large and much-resented presence. The dead body of a woman appears and then mysteriously disappears, and during his investigation the Mamur Zapt has to go underground and deal with the seamy underbelly of Cairo, while also managing "up" to the Egyptian royal family, which has worked out a deal with the English to stay in power.

It all sounds like a good set-up, but there are some real problems. You would think that the Mamur Zapt, essentially the head of a CIA-type operation, would be a really interesting character. He is not. He's boring and has no personality to speak of. He certainly can't carry the book, which is written with a lot of straightforward declarative sentences at almost a grammar school level. The pace is slow and the story not very interesting. As a mystery, it's subpar.

There is an interesting character named Zeinab, a free thinking Egyptian woman who is also the Mamur Zapt's lover. She's passionate and fiery, but the women in the reading group (myself included) found her unbelievable, really more of a man's view of what a fiery woman is than a real flesh-and-blood woman. So, while she's fun to read about and adds some much-needed spice to the book, ultimately she's a caricature.

What WAS somewhat interesting was a look at colonial politics of the time, including the underground movement of Egyptian artists and locals. We were reminded of the plight of women in Muslim countries -- throughout the book, everyone asks Owen why he is bothering to investigate the death of someone who was "just a woman" -- as well as the volatility of the area. The book was written before 9/11, and it was interesting to see the author's perception of Cairo as a Muslim powder keg, where the smallest religious infraction could create a riot. Of course this is fiction, so there may be other views.

All told, we did not enjoy the book and would not recommend it. Even the gentleman who recommended it said, "I can't believe I recommended these books. What was I thinking?" But we forgave him! :)

There are many better mysteries, with better characters, to spend your time with.