A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Long story or novelette, depending on your terminology, but above all a
squashbuckling detective thriller of a steampunk story. It is available online.
The author has
created a fantastic world, set in an alternative early 1900s Cairo which
has been opened up to magic and djinns and possibly angelic beings from
another world. The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural
Entities now investigates disturbances between the mortal and the
divine.
Our adventure is led by special investigator Fatma
el-Sha'arawi, a dashing precence with her black bowler hat, light gray
Englishman's suit, matching vest, chartreuse tie, red-on-white
pinstriped shirt and black steel walking cane capped by a lion's head
silver pommel. The call out of this night's work for her is to a dead
djinn found dead in his home, apparently a suicide. But that cannot be.
So begins a tour of the world the author has begun to create, to the old
Khedive’s summer palace, to the fortune teller at the House of the Lady
of the Stars, to the murky underworld where the beings meet, hints at
the backstory of al-Jahiz who 40 yrs earlier had opened the hole to the
Kaf, the realm of the djinn.
This is the second piece in two days that I have
read by this P Djèlí Clark and I will be reading more. I listened to
Audible's version, very well narrated by actress Suehyla El-Attar who I hope continues to be the voice of Fatma if Clark writes more about this world, which I sincerely hope he does.
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