" A lovingly detailed portrait of Egypt during the Great War. The result is a bit like a police procedural reimagined by Douglas Adams Kirkus Reviews on The Bride Box "
Atbara, Sudan, 1913. A dead man is fished out of the River Nile. An accident or something more sinister? A visiting Pasha from the Royal Household believes it was murder and that he himself was the intended target. He insists that the Mamur Zapt, Head of the Khedive s Secret Police, escorts him on his return train journey to Cairo, for protection. It s to be an eventful voyage. Matters take an unexpected turn when the train is stranded in the desert following a sandstorm. With the help of English schoolboy Jamie Nicholson, the Mamur Zapt pursues his investigations, convinced that at least one of his fellow passengers has a secret to hide. And what was the Pasha really doing in that remote corner of the Sudan? Could the Mamur Zapt s deepest fears be true? Could he really be about to uncover a conspiracy against the British?"