This book has been on my list to read for a long time. I finally got to reading it because it was selected by my book club to read in June when we read LGBTQ+ fiction or history.

The setting is Egypt in 1912. But this is not exactly the Egypt of our history. In this Egypt, a rift was opened between the world of the djinn and our world. Now djinn live and work side by side with humans. The main character Fatma is a detective in the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. And she is assigned to investigate a quite unusual murder. An Englishmen and the members of his cult were all killed by a fire that burned only their flesh and not their clothes. On top of this murder, Fatma is assigned a new partner despite the fact that she likes to work alone. And a recent girlfriend shows up unexpectedly, adding to the mix.

The storytelling is immersive. The world comes to life. Unfortunately, the author uses a lot of new (to me) words without defining any of them. These are mostly terms for clothing and foods that were unfamiliar to me. I could tell the type of thing from the context, but the details weren’t there. I found this inhibited my ability to bring the world to mind as vividly as I like. Despite this shortcoming, the story drew me in as did the characters and their relationships. They felt plausible and deeply human. The plot itself was a bit on the simplistic side. Easy to follow but just the right amount of mystery to keep me wanting to find out what happens next. An enjoyable read that would have been made better by a glossary or better descriptions in context.

My rating: 3.5/5