Ghost Runner

It is 2002 and as tanks roll into the West Bank and the reverberations of 9/11 echo across the globe, tensions are running high on Cairo’s streets. Private Investigator Makana, in exile from his native Sudan and increasingly haunted by memories of the wife and daughter he lost, is shaken out of his grief when a routine surveillance job leads him to the horrific murder of a teenage girl.Seeking answers, he travels to Siwa, an oasis town on the edge of the great Sahara desert, where the law seems disturbingly far away. As violence follows him through the twisting, sand-blown streets and an old enemy lurks in the shadows, Makana discovers that the truth can be as deadly and as changeable as the desert beneath his feet

The third in this fine series ... Not for the first time, a literary novelist uses the crime genre to terrific effect, exposing official complicity in historic crimes against women, Murder mystery that expertly probes the dark side of Cairo … This atmospheric crime fiction probes deep issues, Cairo detective Makana investigates an “honour” crime, A novel that is both celebration and indictment of modern Egypt

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. The Burning Gates is his fourth MakanaInvestigation. Born in London, Mahjoub has passed through Sudan, Egypt, Denmark and Britain, before settling in Barcelona.