Michael Pearce

Page Updated: 05/03/03

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Michael Pearce - Page 2

Dmitri and the Milk Drinkers

The Fig Tree Murder

The Mingrelian Conspiracy

The Snake-Catcher’s Daughter

The Camel of Destruction

First British Edition HarperCollins (1997)

Dmitri and the Milk Drinkers
See Review by John Boyles
Russia in the 1890s, and a window of reform opens up in the oppressive Tsarist legal regime. Dmitri Kameron, a young lawyer of Scottish-Russian descent, is just the man to jump through it - but not before he has dealt with the tiresome business of Anna Semeonova, a beautiful and well-connected young woman who has mysteriously disappeared from the regional Court House. Amazingly it looks as if she has been shipped off by mistake to Siberia, in one of the prison wagons. Is this a bureaucratic bungle of enormous proportions or something more calculated?
Dmitri is the one elected to find out. He reluctantly embarks on a journey to the furthest outposts of Russia only to find his search for Anna becoming horribly complicated. Where he would have expected support he is met with obstructiveness, and he begins to suspect a sinister cover-up but of what? To unearth the truth in the labyrinthine world of Russian officialdom is a tough task for even the most resourceful of men and Dmitri is forced to make some strange allies, not least among them the redoubtable Milk-Drinkers.
This witty, colourful novel marks the start of a new series by the award-winning Michael Pearce, who, in Dmitri Kameron, has created a wily protagonist, well equipped to take on the oppressive Tsarist legal regime.
'A wily protagonist and racing narrative combine for perfect entertainment' Maxim Jakubowski, Time Out
'Ingeniously imagined and zestfully written, with a plot that would rouse Oblomov from his bed… brisks along smelling of birch trees and vodka' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'Diverting, droll and original… Positively oxygenated with charm' Literary Review

First British Edition HarperCollins (1997)

Paperback - HarperCollins (1998)

The Fig Tree Murder
See Review by John Boyles
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Why was the body put on the line? Chance? Or did someone want to halt the progress of the new electric railway out fom Cairo to the City of Pleasure being built in the suburbs?
Was it another of Egypt's traditional revenge killings? Or had the murdered man somehow got caught up in the manoeuvrings of the sinister power groups jostling for position around the new railway? In this, the tenth novel in Michael Pearce's award-winning series, Old Egypt is pitted against New and in the middle is the Mamur Zapt. To answer these questions he has to look both in the luxurious quarters of the dazzling New Heliopolis and in the more humble houses of the dead man's village, and in neither place are things as straightforward as they seem. What is the significance of the tree of the Virgin? Does it matter that the gathering place for the Mecca caravan is only a mile or two away? And what of the ostrich that passed in the night?
'Sheer fun' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'Michael Pearse's light touch and witty dialogue make this series a continuing delight' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'Effortlessly funny and engaging. Packed, as ever, with fact, flavour and the kind of insouciance which makes history lighter than air' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'This series continues to be the most delightful in current detective fiction' Gerald Kaufman, Scotsman

Paperback - HarperCollins

The Mingrelian Conspiracy
Cairo of 1908 lives by and in its cafes. But suddenly the café culture is being threatened by gangs in the protection racket, and no one seems to know who is behind them. Is it the usual political clubs, or is it something more sinister - a conspiracy of Cairo’s Mingrelians? Who exactly are these Mingrelians, and what is their connection with the Der of Babylon? And what is the real tale the storytellers are telling?
It falls to Gareth Owen, Mamur Zapt and Head of Cairo’s Secret Police, to find the answers to these arcane and pressing questions - and quickly, for the conspiracy is aimed at a Russian Grand Duke, coming to Egypt in an attempt to replicate his royal uncle’s visit at the time of the original opening of the Suez Canal.
"Pearce takes apart ancient history and reassembles it with wit and beguiling colour" Sunday Times
"As ever, Owen is worldly wise, droll, and eminently at home in his adopted city" Donna Leon, Sunday Times
"..as beguiling, amusing and painlessly informative as its predecessors" James Melville, Ham & High

The Snake-Catcher’s Daughter
Gareth Owen, aka the Mamur Zapt, Head of Cairo’s Secret Police, finds himself ins a compromising position, and not by accident, either. It gradually emerges that Cairo’s senior policemen are the subject of a smear campaign: a campaign which raises uncomfortable questions about the integrity of Garvin, Commandant of the Cairo Police, and his puritanical deputy, McPhee.
The Mamur Zapt himself is suspected, but is he above suspicion? His girlfriend, Zeinab, is not the only one who’d like to know. Owen’s attempts to answer these questions take him into hitherto uncharted territory; the underworld of Cairo’s female rites; the arcane profession of one of Egypt’s traditional crafts - snake-catching. How do you milk a cobra? Do snakes have ears?
'Diverting, droll and original' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
Praise for The Mamur Zapt And The Donkey-Vous
'Pearce imparts information with a wonderfully light touch, and the puzzle is skilfully integrated into the atmosphere of place and period.' Marcel Berlins, The Times
`Pearce's cultivated pen re-creates a long-gone era with engaging wit, tracing colourful arabesques of greed, history and mystery.' John Coleman, Sunday Times
'Mr Pearce's fine and original series is strong on plot, but even more compelling on the atmosphere on the teeming city.' George Duthie, Scotsman
'This is Pearce's best book so far, because it conjures up most vividly the atmosphere of old Cairo.' Anthony Lejeune, Tablet
`Time and place are Michael Pearce's speciality.' Stephen Walsh, Oxford Times

Paperback - HarperCollins

The Camel of Destruction
Cairo, 1910: the end of the boom and everyone seems to have money troubles. Then one day a civil servant dies at his desk. Was it pressure of work or something nastier? The whiff of corruption is in the air, with even the Mamur Zapt seen to live beyond his means - and he's the one who's supposed to be investigating the affair. Owen's attempts to do so, aided by such unlikely allies as the Grand Mufti and the monstrous Ali, take him to the heart of such sinister organisations as the Khedival Agricultural Society. But he soon realises that money speaks louder than words in Edwardian Cairo, and that the rich are notoriously tricky. Will the Mamur Zapt be up to taking them on? And will he be in time to stop the Camel of Destruction running through the city?
`Another sparkling recreation in which Pearce's heart and art are drily in the right place' Sunday Times