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. Captain Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt or 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. Gold title * Reissued with fifteen classic Michael Pearce murder mysteries * Winner of the CWA's Last Laugh Award for Funniest Crime Novel of the Year. * Witty, droll and intelligent, his books have atmosphere all of their own.

* Pearce always receives rapturous - and extensive - review coverage. Competition: Crime At Christmas; The Missing One; The Missing Ones; The Missing; Crime At Christmas. Jeffrey Archer;Agatha Christie; Alexander McCall Smith; Andrew Taylor; M. C. Beaton; Raymond Chandler; Agatha Christie;.