Parker Bilal is het pseudoniem van Jamal Mahjoub, een auteur van zeven veelgeprezen literaire romans die breed zijn vertaald. Zijn werken verkennen vaak thema's als identiteit, migratie en culturele ontmoetingen, wat zijn eigen levenservaringen in het VK, Sudan, Caïro en Denemarken weerspiegelt. Bilal schrijft met een boeiende en scherpzinnige stijl die lezers meesleept in complexe menselijke verhalen. Zijn proza duikt met elegantie en empathie in de diepgaande vragen van onze onderling verbonden wereld.
In Caïro wordt het dode lichaam van een meisje gevonden. Hoewel de autoriteiten denken dat het om zelfmoord gaat, wordt inspecteur Makana ingeschakeld door een welgestelde advocaat om de zaak te onderzoeken. Samen met vrouwenactiviste Zahra volgt hij het spoor naar het woestijnstadje Siwa. Daar aangekomen stuiten Makana en Zahra op nog eens twee lijken …
When it comes to family, loyalty is everything... It's not easy being the head of a feared crime dynasty. Donny Apostolis and his family are at war with the powerful Ziyades, determined to stop them muscling in on the Apostolis empire. Fortunately, Donny has Brodie. Brodie is loyal. He's also Donny's hitman. He does what he's told, which is why he's agreed to take Donny's young nephew with him on his next job. But when Brodie finds his target, he gets a call that changes everything - and his mission takes a startling turn. Brodie is suddenly one half of an unlikely couple on the run, dragged into a brutal game of survival alongside Karima, the woman he was sent to kill. But can Karima trust him... and can Brodie trust her?
Makana is a breath of fresh air, filled with humanity and empathy . . . An electrifying, psychological thriller, one that will keep you guessing right to the very last page New York Journal of Books
A city divided. A killer on the streets. A past that refuses to be forgotten.
FINDING REFUGE CAN BE DEADLY. More trouble on the streets of Cairo in a gripping new investigation for 'one of crime fiction's most interesting and sympathetic detectives' (The Times) A severed head washes up on the banks of the Nile. The police turn a blind eye. It is just another victim in a series of ritual killings of refugees. Distracted from his hunt for a missing boy, Makana feels the pull of his Sudanese past and is impelled to seek justice for the murdered emigrants. In the dark heart of Cairo, Makana soon discovers the two cases may be connected in dangerous and unexpected ways.
A war criminal on the run. A mercenary hunting him down. A man caught in the crossfire. Private Investigator Makana has a new client: the powerful art dealer Aram Kasabian. Kasabian wants him to track down a priceless painting that went missing from Baghdad during the US invasion. All the dealer can tell Makana is that the piece was smuggled into Egypt by an Iraqi war criminal who doesn't want to be found. The art world is a far cry from the shady streets and dirty alleyways of the Cairo that Makana knows, but he discovers that this side of the city has its own dark underbelly. Before long, he finds himself caught between dangerous enemies on a trail that leads him into the darkness of war and which threatens to send the new life he has built for himself up in flames.
The Crime Books of the YearIn London, private investigator Dr Rayhana Crane is contacted by a woman who has received an unexpected letter from her estranged son Jason, not seen since he left to become a fighter for Islamic State. When his steps are traced back to the old stamping ground of her partner, Cal Drake, the former policeman goes undercover to infiltrate the sinister network which took Jason abroad.Meanwhile, Crane pursues a woman whose seemingly unconnected disappearance off the English coast is soon found to reveal a deadlier connection. As the two investigators delve deeper, they find themselves mired in a violent world where terror and organised crime intersect.
Makana is a former police inspector who fled for his life to Cairo from his native Sudan seven years ago. Down on his luck and haunted by the past, he lives on a rickety Nile houseboat. When the notorious and powerful Saad Hanafi hires him to track down a missing person, Makana is in no position to refuse him.
The gripping second book in the Crane and Drake series from crime writer Parker Bilal