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The Golden Scales (Makana, #1)

Parker Bilal

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Mar 23, 2021 Tony rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: setting-middle-east, crime, novels

This first in the six-book "Makana" detective series starts with a prologue in Cairo, circa 1981 in which a drugged out young Englishwoman loses her 4-year-old daughter. Fast-forward to Cairo 1998, a few months after the Luxor terrorist attacks, and we meet Makana, a down-on-his-heels private detective behind on the rent for the rickety barge he lives on. Once a proud police detective in Sudan, he is now a refugee in Cairo, having fled his homeland following the rise of Islamists to power and th This first in the six-book "Makana" detective series starts with a prologue in Cairo, circa 1981 in which a drugged out young Englishwoman loses her 4-year-old daughter. Fast-forward to Cairo 1998, a few months after the Luxor terrorist attacks, and we meet Makana, a down-on-his-heels private detective behind on the rent for the rickety barge he lives on. Once a proud police detective in Sudan, he is now a refugee in Cairo, having fled his homeland following the rise of Islamists to power and the death of his wife and daughter.

Makana is hired by an Egyptian tycoon with a murky past to track down the missing star of the soccer team he owns. This leads him into deep waters, and a colorful cast of characters, including a sleazy film producer, and less sleazy actress, a Russian ex-paratrooper looking to build a luxury resort, a sinister member of the intelligence services, an intrepid journalist, an Italian soccer manager, an enigmatic bazaar shopkeeper, and his old friend on the police force. He also runs into the Englishwoman, who has been returning to Cairo for years trying to find out what happened to her daughter.

Naturally, everything is connected -- but the book suffers in that there's no real reason for Makana to believe them to be connected, other than a gut feeling. Unfortunately, a bigger flaw is that most readers will have figured out quite quickly what happened to the missing girl and will be waiting for the bulk of the book for Makana to get there. Fortunately, the plot around the missing soccer player does get quite complicated and interesting, and has a solid surprise ending.

The sights and sounds of the Cairo of two decades ago come alive quite nicely, especially whenever food is introduced. While some of the supporting characters are too broadly sketched, most are convincing, from Makana's sly landlady to the actress's overhearing cousin. Overall, the book's flaws are those of a first-time mystery writer, but the atmosphere is excellent and I'll definitely track down the next in the series. ...more

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