The Golden Scales: A Makana Mystery [Kindle Edition]

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.

This novel is a rare treat. I read a great deal, and this is one of the few mysteries I have encountered that would figure on my shortlist of books to take to a desert island. It features an engaging hero, a fully-realised background, well-drawn secondary characters, and a narrative that progresses steadily but not too slowly towards its conclusion. 'The Golden Scales' is indeed well titled because the author has succeeded in balancing the requirements of a well-written novel against those of a puzzle/ crime in which he must involve the reader. It is possible to imagine the characters continuing to live their lives after the end of the novel - I would like to hope that Makana was able to buy himself some decent coffee, pay off his rent arrears to Umm Ali, and replace his bloodstained clothes. I look forward with impatience to his next appearance.

I have just finished reading The Golden Scales and enjoyed it very much. The dusty, gritty, chaotic, crowded city of Cairo, where life is a struggle for so many, is realistically described and is a character in its own right in the storyline.
The central character, Makana, is a refugee, or escapee, from the Sudan and his Sudanese backstory itself adds other layers of realism to the harsh realities of life in the region.
The detective storyline of solving abductions[s] present and past is absorbing and moves along: you can follow the twists and turns without becoming confused. As the story developes, so do the characters' histories; at the end, one has a very good idea of why each has become how or what he or she is. Many of the protagonists are not particularly likeable, but when day-to-day living is hard, and one dreams of escape (and tries any means to make the dream a reality), perhaps this is understandable.
Except for the wealthy few, life in Cairo is exhausting; life in Cairo is hard. Life in modern day Cairo can seem like 'every man for himself'.In Makana, however, we see that life does not have to be so - we can exercise choice whether to do right or wrong, whether to do good or bad, whether to be human and humane, or not. We may not become rich and/or famous through such choices but we can feel that we are living life in the right way.
Escape is a recurring theme, and is attempted by various means: drugs, football, religion, TV and films, or, simply, hopes and dreams. Disillusionment and sadness seem to be the end results of such escape routes: not many of the characters are truly happy as they attempt to improve their lot in life.
Why not five stars? I felt the story flagged in the last few chapters and was not wholly convinced by the resolution of the footballer's adbuction.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and the storylines; I recognised the backdrop; I felt the sense of time and place. I don't know if Parker Bilal will write another Makana Mystery, but if he does, I will not hesitate to buy it.