An excellent beginning to a fine series. These mysteries are set in Egypt, mostly before World War I, and do a good job of depicting the complex relationships between Egyptians at all levels of society, and the British, rulers in all but name. The main character is Welsh, so he has somewhat of an outsider's perspective on it all; his comments are so subtly funny that I was reading the books for the second time before I started laughing. Now they're my book version of comfort food - when i've read just too many highly touted dud mysteries and am quite disgusted with the publishing trade, I pick up a Mamur Zapt novel and am immediately and happily elsewhere.

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