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The Mamur Zapt, Head of Cairo's Secret Police under British Rule, did not concern himself with routine police matters. His are the intrigues, the shadowy and sinister events aimed at creating political instability - an event such as the discovery of the body of a dog in a Coptic tomb. This supreme Moslem insult could touch off an explosion among the Christian community. Equally volatile is the visit from an English Member of Parliament intent upon inspecting the Cromer administration's accounts. It is not a welcome time for a command that Captain Owen, the Mamur Zapt, show the MP's niece the sights. Worse, the sights include a dancing dervish stabbed before the lady's very eyes. Is this all part of a pattern that could lead to blood on the streets and set Cairo's ethnic communities at each other's throats?

Michael Pearce grew up in the (then) Anglo-Egyptian Sudan among the political and other tensions he draws on for his books. He returned there later to teach and retains a human rights interest in the area. His career has followed the standard academic rake's progress from teaching to writing to administration. He finds international politics a pallid imitation of academic ones.