Saturday 15 February 2014

Grey Doll & Criminal Reading: Parker Bilal's "The Ghost Runner"

I have become a fan of Parker Bilal's crime fiction series featuring his Sudanese refugee private eye Makana. Set in Mubarak's Egypt before the Arab Spring they feature Makana setting out to solve crimes and hang on to his own skin as he builds a circle of friends and contacts and attempts to remake a life in Egypt after his escape from Sudan and the loss of his family.
The third and latest episode is "The Ghost Runner", in which Makana agrees to take on an "honour-killing" case of a young woman whose family comes from an oasis town in the Western Desert. Naturally he has to go there... and walks into a murder case that the local police chief insists Makana helps him with. Things grow darker and more complicated.
I enjoy these books not only for the plot and suspense but for the dry-witted portraits of Makana and his friends and for the sense of place.
Read a full review over on the Euro Crime Blogspot.

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