Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Welcome to our discussion about The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal, which is part of our Fall/Winter Collection Group Reads. Your discussion leader is Lisa.
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Summary

The ancient city of Cairo is a feverish tangle of the old and the new, of the superrich and the desperately poor, with inequality and corruption everywhere. It's a place where grudges and long-buried secrets can fester, and where people can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Makana, a former Sudanese police inspector forced to flee to Cairo, is now struggling to make ends meet as a private detective. In need of money, he takes a case from the notoriously corrupt mogul Saad Hanafi, owner of a Cairo soccer team, whose star player, Adil Romario, has gone missing. Soon, Makana is caught up in a mystery that takes him into the treacherous underbelly of his adopted city, encountering Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters, vengeful women, and a desperate mother hunting for her missing daughter-a trail that leads him back into his own story, stirring up painful personal memories and bringing him face-to-face with an old enemy from his past …

Published on the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt, The Golden Scales is an elegantly written, thrilling story set in a city of upheaval, chaos, and corruption.

I just got this one on Libby, my library app. Going to start tonight or tomorrow. Anyone else in for this one?

I’m enjoying this a lot, and I like Makana, the main character. I don’t know much at all about Egypt, its history, its politics, so I’m finding those elements particularly interesting.

I do have this book. but I an start a little later. maybe next week. I'll be following your thoughts.

Leena wrote: "I do have this book. but I an start a little later. maybe next week. I'll be following your thoughts."

Great, Leena! It’s a good read so far, and I like the atmosphere that the depiction of the setting adds to the story.

Looking forward to reading it.

Hello, I have finished this one, really enjoyed it and glad it was suggested. I too didn't know much about contemporary Egypt & Sudan and the book gives what feels a real sense of the regions people and culture. It is a great background to a complex mystery story.

I'm a little late but I think by tomorrow night I can start. I'm just finishing off another BOTM.

Leena wrote: "I'm a little late but I think by tomorrow night I can start. I'm just finishing off another BOTM."

Great. I'm not terribly far myself, yet.

I've just started and it sounds great.

I’m still working on this one before I start our January read. I really like the character of Makana, and I’m just loving the look at history and politics presented here.

late jumping in here but I loved this book - I have been trying to explore mysteries from different countries and this was a success. Makana was a complex man - and I'm a sucker for detectives with a past that haunts them.

David wrote: "late jumping in here but I loved this book - I have been trying to explore mysteries from different countries and this was a success. Makana was a complex man - and I'm a sucker for detectives with..."

I loved it too, and especially enjoyed his character. I felt like the author did the "detective with a past" thing in a way that felt different and fresh. I also enjoyed the setting and cultural/political elements that I learned about in this story. I will definitely read more in this series.