The Mamur Zapt and the spoils of Egypt - Michael Pearce

Winner of the CWA Last Laugh Award, an irresistible historical mystery in which the Mamur Zapt investigates the illegal trade of antiquities in the Cairo of the 1900s.

Cairo, 1908. The Mamur Zapt, Captain Gareth Owen, British head of Cairo's secret police, turns his attention to the illegal trade of antiquities when Miss Skinner arrives. She's a woman with the habit of asking awkward questions. But what is she doing looking for crocodiles? And mummified ones at that?

Owen's new brief is to see that Egypt's priceless treasures stay in Egypt. But when Miss Skinner narrowly escapes falling under a conveyance, Owen must labour to thwart killers and face an even graver problem: whether to ask the Pasha's lovely daughter to marry him..