A detective mystery set in the heart of Cairo. The detective, a Sudanese immigrant named Makana, is a former policeman hired by one of Cairo's wealthiest real estate moguls to hunt for the missing superstar of the mogul's soccer team. Makana uncovers extreme wealth and poverty, corruption at the highest levels, and street people making a go of it in the busy, dusty bazaars of the sprawling city. Eventually he finds his missing soccer star. To Makana's credit he is a nice guy, albeit melancholy. He smokes too many cigarettes, but doesn't drink or abuse anything or anyone. To the author's credit, Parker Bilal's book is breezy; it clips along at a reasonable pace. Only it skims the Nile's wave tops. In the end you don't feel like you have the deeper understanding of life in Cairo you were hoping for.
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