The Golden Scales: A Makana Mystery [Paperback]

`Bilal expertly delivers a wonderfully rich thriller, at once multi-layered and intriguing. His character, Makana, is a thoroughly self-assured and fascinating character, and it was a joy to have been so effortlessly engaged. A rare and special treat'
----R.J. Ellory

A subtle and politically observant thriller. Makana is a highly original investigator who immediately engages our sympathies and whose future exploits I am keen to follow. Parker Bilal's character-driven storytelling is reminiscent of Simenon at his restrained best Conor Fitzgerald Bilal expertly delivers a wonderfully rich thriller, at once multi-layered and intriguing. His character, Makana, is a thoroughly self-assured and fascinating character, and it was a joy to have been so effortlessly engaged. A rare and special treat R.J. Ellory The Golden Scales shows modern Cairo as a superbly exciting, edgy and dangerous setting for crime fiction. Parker Bilal has delivered an absorbing, complex lively novel to match The Times Richly evocative ... It delivers much more than efficient intrigue ... We see and feel all the drama of Egypt on the brink of change Independent His prose has a subtlety that is rarely found in crime novels Economist Bilal deftly weaves past and present in this complex and compelling mystery set in 1998 Cairo ... Wonderfully detailed, the narrative reveals Cairo as a teaming, chaotic, and ungovernable. One looks forward to the sequel Publisher's Weekly Bilal's powers of description and his sensible, wryly compassionate leading man make this an enthralling read Guardian Parker Bilal ... paints a vivid picture of an effervescent Cairo, a city that could have been tailor-made as a crime-fiction backdrop. In Makana, Bilal has created a private detective who ticks all the usual boxes of doggedness, valour and ragged nobility, but it's his backstory, and the political ferment in neighbouring Sudan, that mark him out as a fascinating protagonist ... The tale itself follows the conventions of the genre, as Makana uncovers the links that tie Cairo's criminal element to the power-brokers at the apex of polite society, but the setting and characterisation are sufficient to make The Golden Scales an auspicious debut Irish Times A vivid, energetic work ... Set in 1998, the novel shows the extremes of wealth and poverty in Egypt before the Arab spring, while Makana's personal history offers heartbreaking insights into loss and exile Sunday Times

A lost child. A missing hero. A bitter rivalry. In Cairo the ghosts of the past are stirring...Makana is a former police inspector who fled for his life to Cairo from his native Sudan seven years ago. Down on his luck and haunted by the past, he lives on a rickety Nile houseboat. When the notorious and powerful Saad Hanafi hires him to track down a missing person Makana is in no position to refuse him. Hanafi, whose past is as shady as his fortune is glittering, is the owner of Cairo's star-studded football team. His most valuable player has just vanished and Adil Romario's disappearance threatens to bring down not only Hanafi's private empire but the entire country. But why should the city's most powerful man hire its lowliest private detective? Thrust into a dangerous and glittering world, Makana's investigation leads him into the treacherous underbelly of his adopted country - where he encounters Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters and a desperate mother hunting for her missing daughter. It becomes a trail that stirs up painful memories, leading him back into the sights of an old and dangerous enemy...

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub has published seven critically acclaimed literary novels, which have been widely translated. Born in London, he has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo and Denmark. He currently lives in Barcelona.