For some time now, Parker Bilal has been writing superb crime novels set in Egypt … this fourth Makana book is a sardonic commentary on Mubarak's Egypt at its most corrupt

Sunday Times

Makana's become one of crime fiction's most interesting and sympathetic detectives. Bilal's Cairo is a Los Angeles of yesteryear, Makana a wonderful Marlowe. That's a compliment to an author who gets better and better

The Times

Government ministers mingle with gangsters in a superb crime novel set in corrupt Cairo

Sunday Times Must Reads

Lovable ex-policeman Makana … The Mcguffin at the centre of the plot is a missing painting smuggled into Egypt by an Iraqi war criminal, enabling Bilal to make sly commentary on the state of the Middle East. This beautifully written series just gets better and better

Sunday Express