The Fig Tree Murder

By Michael Pearce

From the award-winning Michael Pearce, comes a delightful murder mystery set in Egypt in 1908. A body is found on the tracks of a new electric railway and the Mamur Zapt is called in to investigate.

Cairo, 1908. It’s called the Tree of the Virgin, a site of religious interest, perilously close to the construction site of the new electric railway. Sinister power groups are jostling for position, but who dumped the body of the humble villager on the track?

When the Mamur Zapt begins to pick his way through the local and national power structures, he has to ask, what is the significance of the Fig Tree? Does it matter that the caravans for Mecca gather only a mile or so away? And what of the ostrich that passed in the night?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9780007485451

Michael Pearce

Michael Pearce was raised in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, where his fascination for language began. He later trained as a Russian interpreter but moved away from languages to follow an academic career, first as a lecturer in English and the History of Ideas, and then as an administrator. Michael Pearce now lives in London and is best known as the author of the award-winning Mamur Zapt books.

Reviews for The Fig Tree Murder

[theoclarke · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Despite a witty style and skilled characterisations, this mystery failed to capture me and I abandoned it unfinished. I particularly liked the use of internal counterpoint as a comic form and I greatly enjoyed the depiction of the deceit of Egyptian courtesy. There was a strong sense of place and time as the political and religious nuances of early twentieth century Egypt are explored but I simply did not care about the murder victim, the superstitious legends of the tree, or even the puzzle of the cime.

[nhlsecord · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a nice, entertaining character story about life in Egypt under British administration, concerning an interesting mixture of nationalities and religions and murder.