The Golden Scales

Apr 15, 2013 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, fiction, mysteries, mideast, series

One cannot help but be curious about the author of this politically astute, perceptive, and atmospheric ~~thriller~~ ~~police procedural~~ mystery set in Cairo. One actually wants to shade one’s eyes from the sun, and spit the sand from one’s tongue. Parker Bilal, pseudonym for Britain-born Jamal Mahjoub, has written several novels before this popular series, among them Travelling with Djinns ( Viajando con djinns) and The Drift Latitudes as well as historical novels about major moments in political or...more One cannot help but be curious about the author of this politically astute, perceptive, and atmospheric ~~thriller~~ ~~police procedural~~ mystery set in Cairo. One actually wants to shade one’s eyes from the sun, and spit the sand from one’s tongue. Parker Bilal, pseudonym for Britain-born Jamal Mahjoub, has written several novels before this popular series, among them Travelling with Djinns ( Viajando con djinns) and The Drift Latitudes as well as historical novels about major moments in political or scientific upheaval. He is not a lightweight. There is depth in his portrayal of a Sudanese national in Egypt as the key character for this series.

"The light sand swirled across the bare tarmac like smoke, as if the wind were intent on swallowing up the road, wiping away man’s futile endeavors to tame nature and return this place to the wilderness it was meant to be.”

This quote comes in Chapter 33, but in some way it carries with it the sense of the whole novel. “Off to their right was evidence of what the future held in store for the city as it expanded, growing like some unsightly tumor into the unblemished desert. Clusters of buildings scattered along the roadside provided housing for workers employed in the isolated industrial complexes build by the government to relieve pressure on the capital. Eventually all these dots would be joined up into one big sprawl…the warm desert air blew through the open windows, bringing with it the scent of lost kingdoms…”

A luxury housing complex was being built in the desert, meant to be self-sufficient with golf courses, and swimming pools, surrounded by perimeter fences and security guards, but “The wind had picked up and sand had built into drifts that covered the road almost completely in places...the ochre landscape featured windblown and withered palms with fronds snapping in the air like switches, and the barbed wire hummed in the air as if charged with electricity.” Sounds a little like the uncompleted basement tombs that crater previously undeveloped Irish seaside vistas described by Tana French in Broken Harbor. Overbuilding and underthinking: two common characteristics of unreasonably optimistic real estate financiers around the world in the last decades, even in Cairo.

The not-improbable mystery is two-fold and appears connected. A British woman is tortured and murdered, and a famous soccer star goes missing. Various moneyed factions are warring for turf, the Islamists are seeking control over the more secular police force, and the foreigner is the daughter of a member of Britain’s House of Lords. Bilal uses a big canvas and paints Cairo as the international city it is. Asking around yields tiny clues that finally add up.

If I had any complaint, it would be that there were too many words. But I liked the view we get of modern Egypt and its stressors, the food, the desert. I look forward to more of Parker Bilal. He writes with sophistication, assurance, and deep sense about living on earth.
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Nov 19, 2012 Vivek Tejuja rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love reading thrillers. They have this promise about them which most thriller and action writers live up to. Parker Bilal was a new name to me when it came to the thriller genre. Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub who has written six literary novels prior to the “Makana” mysteries. “The Golden Scales” is the first Makana mystery, which takes place in Cairo.

The ancient city of Cairo is the perfect backdrop for this story. Cairo is stepping into the new, with the old left behind. The...more I love reading thrillers. They have this promise about them which most thriller and action writers live up to. Parker Bilal was a new name to me when it came to the thriller genre. Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub who has written six literary novels prior to the “Makana” mysteries. “The Golden Scales” is the first Makana mystery, which takes place in Cairo.

The ancient city of Cairo is the perfect backdrop for this story. Cairo is stepping into the new, with the old left behind. The rich and the poor co-exist. The corrupt and the honest are seen in its alleys and by-lanes. Cairo is a place, where secrets fester and are hidden and people disappear in the blink of an eye.

A lot is happening in this book. Makana, a former Sudanese policeman, forced to flee to Cairo is at the heart of this novel. He is now struggling to make his ends meet as a private detective. He is desperate enough to take on a case from Saad Hanafi, the mogul and filthy rich mobster and the owner of the Cairo Soccer Team. The case is that of finding one of the players of his Soccer Team that has been kidnapped. As Makana delves further into the case, things start spiraling out of control for him. He enters the treacherous underbelly of the city – encountering actresses, Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters, vengeful women, and a woman searching for a daughter after years – and the last incident is somehow linked to him and his past. This aspect was just to show that we can never leave the past behind. No matter how hard we try.

Bilal’s writing is sharp and funny in most places. It is structured the way a thriller should be – revealing the layers one at a time and not giving away the entire plot. The juxtaposition of a thriller with the Islamic world and the political volatility of a country and a city are done with great finesse and intelligence.

Makana’s character has various shades to it – he is not like the regular detective that we have been used to. That is what drew me to the book and made me kept turning the pages. The characterization is done with a lot of thought and effort by Bilal.

Cairo as a city is one of the central characters of the city. A reader can almost taste and smell the food and the aromas. The dark alleys can be conjured in a minute as you read the parts. This is the first Makana mystery that Bilal has written and I am sure after the second one (which will be out soon), there will be more to come. I am hoping that they are, because it will be a great series. (less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Ms.pegasus rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in mysteries set in foreign locales

Shelves: mystery, fiction

Although it adheres to the conventions of a mystery, THE GOLDEN SCALES is also an exploration of Egyptian social and political collapse. The mystery intertwines three stories. First, there is the mysterious disappearance of soccer star Adil Romario. His spectacular rise from a childhood of obscure poverty to national celebrity is due to the attentive grooming of DreemTeem owner and wealthy developer, Saad Hanafi. Second, there is the abduction seventeen years ago of Alice Markham, the 4 year old...more Although it adheres to the conventions of a mystery, THE GOLDEN SCALES is also an exploration of Egyptian social and political collapse. The mystery intertwines three stories. First, there is the mysterious disappearance of soccer star Adil Romario. His spectacular rise from a childhood of obscure poverty to national celebrity is due to the attentive grooming of DreemTeem owner and wealthy developer, Saad Hanafi. Second, there is the abduction seventeen years ago of Alice Markham, the 4 year old daughter of an English recovering drug addict visiting Cairo. Finally, there is the story of the private detective and occasional consultant to the Egyptian police, Makana. Makana's story is told gradually. He lives on a dilapidated houseboat, and is an expatriot from Khartoum. Of the 3 stories, his past is the most interesting, and it is his understated wit that holds the reader's interest.

The terrorist attack at Luxor is referenced – an event that occurs two months prior to the present-day story. The event helps define a background of past and present contradictions. The British private investigator of the Markham abduction complained that he received no cooperation from the authorities because of anti-Western sentiment. “The Egyptians were making him suffer because they were embarrassed by the case and resented being questioned about it by their former colonial rulers.” Makana focuses on political motives rather than xenophobia. Yet, his own experience counters this attempt at rational explanation. His wife Muna once fiercely declared: “People like you and me, they hate us...because we can see through them. Because we choose not to live our lives according to the norms of the seventh century.”

A social context is laid out with similar care. El Gouna is the fading fishing village where Adil grew up. A luxury resort development in the area has stalled due to the economic depression. The result is a vacuum of disappointed expectations and ugly rubble.

Parker Bilal is a pseudonym for Jamal Mahjoub. I have not read any of his other works, but will certainly add his name to my list of authors to be explored. THE GOLDEN SCALES is an intriguing introduction to a complicated culture undergoing disturbing changes.(less)

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Jul 22, 2012 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

THE GOLDEN SCALES. (2012). Parker Bilal. ***.
Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub, an author who has written several mainstream novels. This is his first mystery/thriller, and features Makana, an ex-policeman from Sudan, now living in exile in Cairo. Makana was driven from Sudan as a political undesireable, after he watched his wife and daughter die in their attempt to escape over the border. He makes his living by doing odd jobs in Cairo – mostly in finding missing persons. He lives on the...more

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May 05, 2012 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-or-evil

This book is both an excellent crime novel and a vivid portrait of the Cairo of a decade ago, with all the economic, political and religious complications that still exist in that ancient city.

The geopolitics of the region play a leading role as blood feuds, the rise of militant Islamism and personal and business rivalries move from Egypt to Sudan and back.

Makana is a most appealing character, a cop from Sudan, in exile in Egypt following the deaths of his wife and their daughter.

The story moves...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Felice rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the fun things about mysteries is the wealth of peculiar characters they always have---without any of that cases of cutes crap you can find so easily in general fiction. There are the savory and unsavory, heroes and villains and then the Damon Runyon-esque populace. You’d be hard pressed to find a mystery that doesn’t follow that pattern no matter where that book hails from. These broad types are one of the delights of The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal.

Cairo is the setting for this new m...more One of the fun things about mysteries is the wealth of peculiar characters they always have---without any of that cases of cutes crap you can find so easily in general fiction. There are the savory and unsavory, heroes and villains and then the Damon Runyon-esque populace. You’d be hard pressed to find a mystery that doesn’t follow that pattern no matter where that book hails from. These broad types are one of the delights of The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal.

Cairo is the setting for this new mystery, The Golden Scales, with a gallery of interesting characters. So great setting, great people we are half way to reading happiness right? To finish this book off on the plus side there is also a detective who is outside of the ordinary and a plot that twists and turns. We have a winner.

Our detective is Makana a former Sudanese policeman. Forced to leave Sudan under a cloud, Makana squeezes out a hand to mouth living as a private detective in Cairo. As much as he would like to he doesn’t have the luxury of only taking cases from the righteous and innocent. That is how he ends up employed by the corrupt and underhanded entrepreneur Saad Hanafi. Makana is hired to find the sleazy Hanafi’s missing star soccer player. During his investigation Makana is quickly rubbing elbows with hucksters, failed starlets, icky film directors, Russian gangsters, Muslim extremists, a fraught mother searching for a long missing child, an old enemy from his past and a murderer. Despite increasing danger, threats and painful memories Makana is dogged in his pursuit of a killer.

Bilal packs his plot with details and loads on the crime novel picturesque. One of my favorites is Hanafi’s soccer stadium decorated with statues of gods who all look remarkably like Hanafi. Bilal creates a mood of barely contained chaos that suits his underbelly picture of Cairo. There is more to The Golden Scales than a reader usually finds in gumshoe fiction. Bilal by way the charismatic Makana and his adventures amid the shady and desperate has plenty to say about Cairo, politics and the economics of survival.

P.S. Bilal is the pseudonym of author Jamal Mahjoub author of seven books including The Drift Latitudes. (less)

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Feb 12, 2012 Lakis Fourouklas rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book could be read as a melancholy song for Cairo. The author, using a simple case of a disappearance, or maybe abduction, for his starting point, he travels the reader back in time and he show-lights to him the everyday life of the Egyptian capital. He does that in a somewhat light way, using a sense of humor that borders to irony, but that’s not enough to hide the reality; a reality that’s as bleak as the lives of the poor people in the country.
So, he talks about dirty cops and corrupted...more This book could be read as a melancholy song for Cairo. The author, using a simple case of a disappearance, or maybe abduction, for his starting point, he travels the reader back in time and he show-lights to him the everyday life of the Egyptian capital. He does that in a somewhat light way, using a sense of humor that borders to irony, but that’s not enough to hide the reality; a reality that’s as bleak as the lives of the poor people in the country.
So, he talks about dirty cops and corrupted state officials, who have a lot of close ties with the rich the powerful, about the new dirty money that has been laundered in the country for the sake of some questionable characters from the former Soviet Union, and which allows certain people to make or to follow their own rules, about the city poor whose lives get from bad to worse, about the rich that reside in huge fortress-like houses, choosing to ignore all the suffering in the streets, and about the fear and the darkness that surrounds the local show biz, the sex and the drugs trade.
This novel reminds me of a crime story and a social commentary at the same time, and it’s just as well that it does, if I may add. The epicenter of the plot is not so much the crime, as is the society in which it took place. A society, that back then, in 1998, was just as divided as it is now.
It all begins when some bodyguards of sorts, arrive at the boat where Makana, an ex-cop from the Sudan and now refugee lives. The men simply state to him that he has to follow them because their boss wants to meet him, and he just obeys, since he knows too well that he has no word in the matter anyway. As he’ll soon come to find out, the boss is none other than Saad Hanafi, a man rumored to be so rich as to own the biggest part of the aristocratic suburb of Heliopolis. Makana knows Hanafi is one of those men that “sell dreams”, one of which is his football team, the most popular in Egypt. Now he wants him, of all people, to discover the whereabouts of Adil Romario, the biggest star of the team, who’s gone missing ten days ago. Makana, though reluctantly, accepts the mission, since he could really use some money right now, and of that his new employer has aplenty.
Thus he starts his investigation; an investigation that will bring him time and again face to face with danger, but which will also lead him into some of the most infamous streets of the city, into dens and into luxurious establishments, and that will also make him realize that the people who really cared about Romario were but a few; most of the ones who knew him actually were not that hurt that he was gone. As the case will start getting more and more complicated and the good detective will find himself moving from one dead end to the next, something else will happen that will complicate things even more; he’ll meet a woman from England, who’s been searching for the last seventeen years for her missing daughter and who’ll soon end up dead, murdered perhaps by the very same man who took her child. But who would that be? That’s the big question that Makana sets himself to find the answer to.
This is a very good crime novel, written in a nice straightforward manner, and which travels the reader to some places that look familiar and strange at the same time. The author seems not only to pen the psychological profiles of his characters, but of a whole city as well. And he talks about that city’s essence, the one which as foreigners to its culture, we are by ourselves unable to see. A job well done.
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Dec 23, 2011 Cameling rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: murder-mystery

A child goes missing during her mother's drug induced blackout, and her mother spends years coming back to Cairo trying to find her. Adil Romario, national soccer hero in Egypt is missing and Makana, an ex-police inspector from Sudan who had lost his family and forced to seek refuge in Cairo, is engaged by an elderly Egyptian tycoon to find him.

What are his investigations bringing to the surface? Whose feathers are being ruffled, who has the most to lose and who has the most to gain? Everyone ha...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, ebook, middle-east, review-books

Being a bit of a sucker for a strong sense of place, and culture I was intrigued by the Makana series, and lucky enough to get the second book - DOGSTAR RISING for review. But this seemed to me to be a series that should begin at the very beginning, so I shouted myself the first book, THE GOLDEN SCALES.

In terms of sense of place, and the society in which the book is set, it was extremely well done. The ancient city of Cairo is not just the backdrop for the story, it inhabits the action. There's...more Being a bit of a sucker for a strong sense of place, and culture I was intrigued by the Makana series, and lucky enough to get the second book - DOGSTAR RISING for review. But this seemed to me to be a series that should begin at the very beginning, so I shouted myself the first book, THE GOLDEN SCALES.

In terms of sense of place, and the society in which the book is set, it was extremely well done. The ancient city of Cairo is not just the backdrop for the story, it inhabits the action. There's a physical feeling of the souks, and alleys, the dark corners in which the unknown lurks. Part fascinating and compelling, part frightening and threatening, THE GOLDEN SCALES paints Cairo as a place in which people could disappear. Some willingly, some not. It also paints Cairo as a place that provides some refuge for Makana, a former Sudanese policeman, who lives physically and emotionally on the outskirts of the society to which he fled when things in his homeland got very dangerous.

That idea of Makana, a refugee from violence, ex-policeman now living and working on the fringes, as the person that one of the most powerful, wealthy and dodgy men in Cairo would turn to when a player from his team goes missing sort of makes sense, just as the fact that the missing player is treated as a son of Saad Hanafi, gangster, developer, father, and man with a very chequered past, means that the choice of investigator doesn't make sense. There's obviously a reason buried deep in the mire of those who work for and against Hanafi, and somewhere in the middle of a corrupt and compromised political and policing system. In the middle of all of this an Englishwoman returns to Cairo, still searching for the daughter that has been missing now for many years.

Needless to say this is a complex plot, with Makana at the centre of the swirling current day events, dealing with his own past and an overriding sense of loss and guilt that he battles on a daily basis. His personal story is slowly revealed as is the truth about a missing Football Player who is more than he seems, an ageing Gangster who is both more and less than he seems, a daughter with secrets, and close colleagues of all who aren't as straightforward as they seem.

THE GOLDEN SCALES is a beautiful balancing act. The bleakness of the place, the society, the state of the world in which Makana operates is matched sometimes by the bleakness of his mood, and lightened frequently by a dry, acerbic observational wit which is quiet, subdued and often cutting. A thriller set in an Islamic world, the story touches on the volatility of power, religion, influence and corruption with restraint, intelligence and expertise.

What really works in THE GOLDEN SCALES is the balance between plot, character, events and place. The plot is persuasive and believable, incorporating the reality of current day scenarios where conflicts cause personal disruption and refugees who must find a way in a new world, whilst dealing with the demons from their past. The characters are compelling, human, brave, damaged, thoughtful, introspective, forceful, good, bad and the whole thing. One of the particular aspects of the characterisations that I appreciated was the idea that everyone, both the good and the bad, was nuanced. Everyone has their good and bad sides, and you could see the reasons why they took the path that they chose. The events and the place are inextricably linked, although the sense of place was all pervading. Needless to say, THE GOLDEN SCALES bodes very well for anyone who wants their thriller / crime fiction layered, thoughtful, instructive and clever, whilst not letting up on the thrills and chills.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
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Apr 24, 2012 Bree T rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, crime, mystery, literary

In modern day Cairo, Makana is a private investigator. A former Sudanese police officer who was forced to flee his home country, the devastating loss he suffered as he did so making his situation all the more terrible. He ekes out a meagre existence in his new home, living on an old Nile houseboat barely able to make ends meet. When the city’s most notorious man, Saad Hanafi, hires him to track down his missing soccer superstar, Makana can’t say no. Hanafi can afford to pay very well.

Hanafi owns...more In modern day Cairo, Makana is a private investigator. A former Sudanese police officer who was forced to flee his home country, the devastating loss he suffered as he did so making his situation all the more terrible. He ekes out a meagre existence in his new home, living on an old Nile houseboat barely able to make ends meet. When the city’s most notorious man, Saad Hanafi, hires him to track down his missing soccer superstar, Makana can’t say no. Hanafi can afford to pay very well.

Hanafi owns Cairo’s star football (soccer) team and his most valuable player, the glittering Adil Romario has vanished into thin air. Hanafi and Romario’s relationship is famous – Hanafi was rumoured to have spotted Romario playing in a street as a young child and has nurtured him ever since. Makana knows that there’s obviously a lot more going on here than he’s privy to – after all why would the country’s most powerful man, someone whom apparently the government consults on decisions, hire the city’s most lowly detective?

Makana is racing against the clock to discover what happened to Romario. Hanafi has shown him a figure and for every week it takes Makana to find him, the figure goes down. Makana also needs money to buy information, to grease the hands of the underbelly of Cairo. He’s lucky in that he has contacts in the press, contacts in the police and contacts on the street and what he doesn’t have, he soon finds.

The more time he spends on this case, the deeper and darker it becomes. He encounters strange filmmakers, Russian gangsters who are untouchable, protected by the police force and the government for the money they pour in to the country and a woman who returns to Cairo year after year to the spot her daughter disappeared 17 years ago. He will uncover the truth about who Romario really is and his real connection to Hanafi. The investigation will put his life in danger as he digs around in things that people don’t want made public, threatening his safety in his adopted country and also bringing back the tragic memories of his lost wife and daughter.

The Golden Scales is the first novel of a new detective series by Parker Bilal, pen name for acclaimed author Jamal Mahjoub. I’ve never read any of Mahjoub’s work so Makana was my introduction to him. I love reading books set in places I’m not very familiar with so I have to admit I was pretty excited when this copy lobbed up onto my doorstep from the lovely people at Bloomsbury ANZ. A modern day Egyptian setting with a Sudanese protagonist? That’ll do it! I started reading it as soon as I’d finished the books I had already started and got through it in an afternoon.

Bilal has lived in Cairo and Sudan, lending an authenticity to the descriptions and the character. From the wealthy high-rises of Hanafi and the half finished luxury communities down to the street stalls and seedy hotels, a picture of Cairo in all its glory and glaring contrasts emerges. Makana himself is a deeply interesting character – a former police officer from Sudan, forced to flee amid regime changes and the fact that he was no longer free to do his role, his personal safety under threat and also that of his wife, a scientist suddenly in a place that didn’t appreciate women working, nor scientific fact itself. He suffered a tragedy and now lives in relative isolation, alone on a decrepit houseboat with intermittent electricity depending on how much he owes his landlady and very few possessions. What you learn about him as a man is left mostly up to the reader themselves and how they interpret the way that Bilal has portrayed him. It’s obvious he was deeply committed to his job back in Sudan and he carries with him strong moral convictions into his new role in Cairo, be they slightly offbeat. He is willing to do this job for money but you get the feeling he doesn’t particularly fear saying no to Hanafi. He isn’t afraid to enter dangerous situations and does so several times throughout the book with relatively little in the way of protection. Perhaps he is a man with nothing else left to lose and doesn’t place self-preservation high on his list of priorities anymore.

The Golden Scales is a highly enjoyable and very promising start to what could be a fantastic new crime series. The writing is fantastically subtle – Bilal paints an outline and the reader colours it in with their own imagination. It’s a decent sized book at nearly 500 pages, but it never ever felt that long – there was never a bog of information, there weren’t too many characters and nor was there too much going on. It was all kept very simple but the story itself is rich and complete with many layers and strands that ultimately all weave in together. And it has me adding to my TBR shelf because I now feel the need to read the books written under the author’s real name!

Really looking forward to hopefully another Makana novel appearing in the future.(less)

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Jun 07, 2013 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Set in an unsettled Cairo, shortly after the 1997 terrorist attacks in Luxor, this is the story of a private detective hired to find a missing football star by the team's millionaire owner. Makana is a terrific character: brave, damaged and cynical, a former policeman who fled Sudan when civil unrest made it too dangerous. The story is interwoven with a cold case about an English woman trying to find her daughter who was abducted in Cairo 16 years earlier. When the woman is murdered, Makana take...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Corey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is quite an unassuming book, if that makes sense as an adjective. Maybe it's because I've been reading a lot of books with quite poor, self-aware writing (50 Shades of Grey, Twilight, A Discovery of Witches - wait, those aren't the same book?) lately, so to read something that was stylistically .... well, easy, was a relief and a pleasant surprise. The writing isn't poetic, either, which was also relaxing. But it's an excellent detective story, and even if I did have the relationships betwe...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Bettina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Zunächst nimmt uns Bilal mit in das Jahr 1981, in dem ein kleines britisches Mädchen auf einem Kairoer Basar verschwindet. Nach diesem Prolog geht es weiter im Jahr 1998, ein Jahr nach den Anschlägen in Luxor, als der prominente Fußballspieler Adil Romario verschwindet. Der Clubeigner Saad Hanafi engagiert Makana, um den Spieler wieder aufzutreiben.

Mit diesem Einstieg bot Bilal gleich zwei Rätsel, von denen sich das eine fast das ganze Buch über hält, während das andere üble Ahnungen aufkeimen l...more Zunächst nimmt uns Bilal mit in das Jahr 1981, in dem ein kleines britisches Mädchen auf einem Kairoer Basar verschwindet. Nach diesem Prolog geht es weiter im Jahr 1998, ein Jahr nach den Anschlägen in Luxor, als der prominente Fußballspieler Adil Romario verschwindet. Der Clubeigner Saad Hanafi engagiert Makana, um den Spieler wieder aufzutreiben.

Mit diesem Einstieg bot Bilal gleich zwei Rätsel, von denen sich das eine fast das ganze Buch über hält, während das andere üble Ahnungen aufkeimen lässt: Lange bleibt offen, ob sich die beiden Fälle verschwundener Menschen überhaupt zur Deckung bringen lassen. Sehr spannend zudem die Frage, warum Privatdetektiv Makana, ein mittelloser sudanesischer Flüchtling, mit der Suche nach dem Fußballspieler betraut wurde. Hanafi ist einer der reichsten Männer des Landes, der gewiss ein ganz anderes Portfolio an Geschäftspartnern hat und bei der Suche viel besser renommierte und viel besser ausgestattete Männer wählen könnte. Warum also Makana? Die Vorahnung kann eigentlich nur lauten, dass ihm andere Detektive zu schade sind. Käme einer wie Makana während der Recherchen zu Schaden, wäre es egal und würde kein Aufsehen erregen. Mit solch einem Rucksack zur Arbeit zu gehen, schmeckt Makana verständlicherweise nicht, aber er ist nun mal einer, der sich der Wahrheit verpflichtet fühlt und notfalls Prügel einsteckt, um alles zu erfahren.

Die düstere Geschichte ist in eine dichte Atmosphäre verpackt. Makana bietet über seine Arbeit und sein Leben Einblick in den Alltag der meisten Menschen in Kairo: Arme Leute, die sich gegenseitig oft über Wasser halten. Makana beispielsweise wird von anderen unterstützt, bis er wieder einmal Geld verdienen und zurückzahlen kann. Umgekehrt erledigt Makana den einen oder anderen Gefallen. Der Kontrast zu den Reichen fällt in dieser Stadt geradezu monströs aus. Parallel erzählen kleine Episoden aus Makanas Zeit als Kommissar im Sudan. Makana und seine Frau Muna, eine Biologin, geraten in die Phase, als konservative Islamisten langsam aber sicher das Ruder übernehmen. Plötzlich ist Makanas Arbeit nicht mehr gefragt, Menschen verschwinden, Nachforschungen sind unwichtig und Menschen wie Muna werden bedroht. Die Episoden geraten beklemmend ob des Spagats, den die Menschen schaffen mussten: Die einen ahnen etwas, haben aber nicht die Kraft oder die Möglichkeit, sich herauszunehmen, die anderen glauben, dass alles wieder in Ordnung kommen könnte und das sie selbst schon nicht zur Zielscheibe werden können (oder wollen die Realität aus Furcht nicht wahrhaben). Und alles rutscht einfach weiter ab und reisst die Menschen mit.

Ein ägyptischer Gönner Makanas, Kommissar Okasha, der ihm hin und wieder Aufträge verschafft, sagt: "Dass Sie entschieden haben, aus wer weiß welchem Jahrhundert, in dem man bei Ihnen da unten lebt, zu uns in die Moderne zu wechseln, nehme ich als Zeichen Ihres guten Willens, was bedeutet, dass ich Sie in jeder Hinsicht unterstützen werde." Okasha wird immer wieder zur helfenden Hand im Fall Romario, indem er wichtige Informationen weitergibt oder Makana zu warnen versucht. Einige Spuren könnten für Makana lebensgefährlich werden und doch bleibt Makana ungesund oft stur. Jedenfalls überlebt er die Geschichte, was bei diesem Krimi auch so betont werden muss. Er löst den Fall nicht nur (wobei freilich nicht alles offen als Ermittlungsergebnis kommuniziert werden wird), er überlebt ihn auch. Der Auftrag lässt sich aus verschiedenen Gründen nicht von Makanas Vergangenheit trennen. Zwar denkt Makana sicher laufend an die Vergangenheit (verständlicherweise), und diese wäre in jedem anderen ersten Buch um ihn auch zur Sprache gekommen, doch hier gibt es einen gezielt gewählten Verknüpfungspunkt.

Das Buch hat nicht nur durch die Vorgeschichte von Makana eine traurige Note. Das Ende der aktuellen Geschichte ist ein komplexes Geflecht aus Emotionen, die Makana entwirren kann; auf einiges habe ich getippt, auf anderes nicht. Und obwohl ich mit meinen Tipps manchmal durchaus richtig lag, habe ich mich gefragt, wie Makana dahinter gekommen ist. Der muss berufsbedingt richtig liegen, ich habe als Leser meine Freiheiten beim Danebenliegen... Für mich sind die dunklen Straßen ganz klar eine Leseempfehlung.(less)

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Mar 10, 2013 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

New writer and series to me. Makana is a Sudanese ex-cop who got chased out of Khartoum when Islamists took over. He ekes out a living as a P.I. of sorts in Cairo and this super-rich guy hires him to find his adopted son, a soccer star.

Meanwhile a crazy English woman is trying to find her daughter, who disappeared 20-odd years earlier.

This complex plot is well-managed until the end, when Bilal seems to be stretching the old credulity a bit in an effort to get everything tied up. Some echoes of R...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Amanda Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Makana is a former homicide detective in Khartoum now living as a refugee at the bottom of society in Cairo. One day one of Egypt's richest men hires him to find a missing person and so Makana is plunged into a world of gangsters, shady businessmen, wannabe film stars and all manner of social, political and personal corruption. It is not written in a hardboiled style at all (there is quite a bit of humour) but the story has definite modern noir overtones, kind of "'Chinatown' in Cairo." Makana h...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Krista (CubicleBlindness Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Makana, a broken man who is just trying to make ends meet, now living on a broken down old houseboat. He was once a detective on the police force but after losing his wife and child he was forced to flee his homeland. Makana accepts a job with pay too high to refuse and discovers that it will lead him on a path to face his own past.

Adil Romario may be the reasoning behind Makana's delving into the past of several characters in the story. Yet the answers he discovers are far from Adil himself. Th...more Makana, a broken man who is just trying to make ends meet, now living on a broken down old houseboat. He was once a detective on the police force but after losing his wife and child he was forced to flee his homeland. Makana accepts a job with pay too high to refuse and discovers that it will lead him on a path to face his own past.

Adil Romario may be the reasoning behind Makana's delving into the past of several characters in the story. Yet the answers he discovers are far from Adil himself. The answers go back years, in a time of Cairo's recent past and the corrupted leaders and gangsters of the city. Saad Hanafi, a very wealthy and powerful man who's deeds now are both idolize and terrorize the civilians of the city. He is getting old in age and the immense projects he's involved in are the least of his worries now that Adil has gone missing. The real question behind the basis of this story is why, with all the connections Mr Hanafi has in the city, does he choose to hire Makana?

An atmosphere that is heavy with the past crashing into the future and Makana wading his way through. In a modern day Cairo where the slums are smashed right up against the pillars of mansions and expansive tourist sites. The past of this city turns out to be as commonplace as yesterday. The people living and running businesses here go back a long time. Makana just has to know where to look. His queries and friendship with the local police force get him in the path of a recent murder of an English woman. A woman who's story ends up playing into the interweaving lives of the players involved in Adil's disappearance.

Religion, politics and money all play important roles in this story. As the setting itself is one of the oldest civilizations in history and involving current day topics, I found the story to be informative as well as entertaining. Makana is a character who's determination is at times awe inspiring, yet still he acts on instinct without rationalizing his actions. Both characteristics play out well in the story to add suspense and character growth. He is a very hardened man, but humane at heart.

The Golden Scales is a detective novel that encompasses several story lines that diverge and cross eventually collide into a well played out mystery of revenge, family, and power.(less)

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Jun 16, 2013 Kate McVaugh rated it 5 of 5 stars

I stumbled upon a review of The Golden Scales and knew I had to read it, having lived in Egypt for a year. What a wonderful mystery! Mr. Bilal captures the sights and sounds of 1998 Cairo, and other places in Egypt, with perfection.
Makana, former Sudanese police inspector/now Cairo private investigator, is a compelling, believable character. He navigates through his adopted country with both the insight and the difficulties that an outsider encounters.
It was a lovely return to the Cairo I knew...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Lian Tanner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, thriller

A detective novel set in Egypt, with a Sudanese protagonist, an ex-cop who left/was thrown out of Sudan after the death of his wife and child. The backstory of what happened in Sudan gradually unfolds as the mystery in Egypt progresses. It sounds very like the rise of Nazi Germany - I guess the collapse of rule of law, the rise of the most brutal elements of society and the targeting of anyone who disagrees is much the same wherever it happens and within whatever ideology, whether Nazism, commun...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Amodini rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Golden Scales is not just a mystery novel; it is much more. The book’s basic plot stems from the two mysterious disappearances, but the author develops this into a full-fledged almost literary novel touching upon subjects from personal upheaval to public politics to Islamic philosophy. Bilal builds up Makana’s character beautifully; we know Makana as he is now and we delve into his past. We understand why he is what he is, and the events that have shaped him. Makana is a strong protagonist,...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Rob Kitchin rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Golden Scales has all the ingredients of a good crime thriller - colourful, engaging characters, a strong sense of place, social context and politics, a tangled knot of competing interests and intrigue, and well written prose. For the most part it’s a very good read. Makana is a wonderful character with an interesting back story, and the sense of place is excellent, dropping the reader into modern day Cairo and the Red Sea resorts. Where the story is slightly let down is with some elements o...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Susan May rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal ★ ★ ★ ★

A mystery set in Cairo is not my traditional fair. Throw in a plot involving football and you’ve almost lost me. However, as I read this first paragraph, I realised my visit to Cairo via The Golden Scales was to be thrilling, led by a writer who knows how to open with a punch.
“The bright light struck her full in the eyes and for an instant she was blinded, as if struck by some ancient curse. Liz Markham reared back, completely stalled by the human mass t...more The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal ★ ★ ★ ★

A mystery set in Cairo is not my traditional fair. Throw in a plot involving football and you’ve almost lost me. However, as I read this first paragraph, I realised my visit to Cairo via The Golden Scales was to be thrilling, led by a writer who knows how to open with a punch.
“The bright light struck her full in the eyes and for an instant she was blinded, as if struck by some ancient curse. Liz Markham reared back, completely stalled by the human mass that confronted her. Her heart racing, she began to run. Her child was somewhere out there, lost in this madness.”
By the time I’d turned the first page, I knew another thing, London born author Parker Bilal (pen-name of Jamal Mahjoub) could write and pace with the best mystery thriller authors. This from an writer classified as a literary novelist—which I usually take to mean ‘can turn a beautiful praise but the pace is slow.’
The Golden Scales introduces us to Makana, an exiled Sudanese private investigator, living on a run-down Nile houseboat. Hired by wealthy Hanafi, owner of Cairo’s star football team, he finds himself investigating the team’s star player Adil Romario.
Everything is a closely held mystery until the last few pages: What happened to Makana’s wife and daughter years before? Why did the powerful Hanafi hire the lowly Makana? What does a twenty-year-old case of a missing child and her English mother Liz have to do with his investigation?
As layers of sub-plots and colourful characters are paved, you are drawn into a fascinating world of the wealthy and glamorous of Cairo and just as quickly plunged into the dark and cutthroat life of the criminal underworld. The links between the two revealing themselves the deeper Makana pursues his leads.
This is Egypt without the pyramids but peopled with dark characters, intriguing back stories and a stoic, intelligent lead character, who carries himself with credible assurance.
Bilal has created a character and setting thriller lovers will be eager to visit again and again. The Golden Scales is the first of a detective series featuring Makana and this is one reader who looks forward to my next visit to Egypt, with our without pyramids.

Visit http://anadventureinreading.blogspot.... for more reviews & author interviews.

(less)

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May 26, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-thriller-spy-stuff, africa, middle-east

A Sudanese police inspector searches for missing people in Cairo. 3.5 stars really.

The characters are interesting but familiar. The mystery is so-so, and the violence not too gory. The new-to-me parts were the flashbacks to life in Sudan as it was taken over by religious zealots. I also liked the little slices of life at Cairo cafes, etc. Smooth writing, good pace.

I'd read another in the series, but I'm more curious about the author's books under his real name, Jamal Mahjoub.

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Apr 06, 2012 Mysterytribune rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-tribune-must-reads

This is a notable literary mystery which goes beyond the boundaries of the typical plots in the genre and introduces us to the hidden aspects of a Middle Eastern country in which we can never discover as an outsider. Read my full review here: http://www.mysterytribune.com/2012/04...

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Feb 23, 2012 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read

Shelves: ebook-available, contemporary-fiction, crime, egypt

KOBOBOOKS

Reviewed by The Independent

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Mar 09, 2012 Marilyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Egypt/Cairo - politically, socially, economically, ecologically - does not come off in this book as a place I'd like to spend time visiting. The characters are well developed, the story line quite convoluted, with intersecting histories and motives.

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May 15, 2013 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: family, favourites, thriller, world

I love being transported to exotic places, lives, societies.
This is a cracking story with plenty of strands shining a light for me into not just Cairo but also Khartoum.
Bilal was the "I'm reading now" choice of Shamini Flint on First Book Club and I thought to take her lead - happy I did and will follow on with the next Makana mystery.

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Apr 24, 2012 Coki rated it 3 of 5 stars

I like reading mysteries set in exotic locales to get a feel of a place without having to "learn." This did not disappoint. Plus the Sudan flashbacks. Not the most profound mystery I've ever read but the setting and characters were intriguing.

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Apr 28, 2013 Munerahahmed rated it 4 of 5 stars

Picked it up Thursday afternoon and had to finish it today so I can find out what happened!! A mystery that symbolizes today's globalized world and ensuing conflicts.

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Mar 24, 2012 William rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting location (Cairo) and characters. A little weak on plot. The main character (detective?) seems to go to the correct places without much logical detection!

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Jun 02, 2013 Paul French rated it 3 of 5 stars

Met the author at the Adelaide Writers' Week this year and enjoyed his descriptions of contemporary (or 1990s at least) Cairo

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The Golden Scales: A Makana Mystery (A Makana Mystery #1)

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