Fantasy. Set in Cairo in 1912. A bit steampunk, a bit noir mystery, and lots of magic drawn from folk traditions of Egyptian and other Islamic cultures. The premise is that in the late 19th century, djinn and other magical beings returned openly to the world in a way that was centred on Cairo. This enabled Egypt and much of the rest of the Global South to throw off colonialism, and made Cairo one of the most powerful cities in the world. The novel follows Agent Fatma, one of the few women working at the Egyptian government ministry responsible for looking after things magical, as she tries to solve the mass murder of a prominent English industrialist and two dozen of his cronies who belonged to a secret cult. The worldbuilding is great, both in terms of the magical side of things but also the author’s sense of history and politics. The storytelling captivated me. I enjoyed the characters. I guessed the key reveal of the whodunnit side of the story within the first 50 or 100 pages, but that didn’t make it any less a pleasure to read. Really liked this one.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.