Shelf Life: Death on The Nile

Publication: Bloomsbury

Pages: 440 

Price: Rs 399

If Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian detective inspector Salvo Montalbano has his house on the shores of the Mediterranean, a few hundred miles southwards lies the house-boat of former inspector of the Sudanese police-turned-private-detective, Makana, on the banks of the Nile in Cairo. Makana begins his latest (fifth) case in an Italian restaurant, investigating the disappearance of its owner’s son.

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A head of a Sudanese man turns up near his floating domicile, causing him to have the dubious pleasure of having two cases to work on. He is aided and abetted by his few friends and the various women in his life who both bully and buoy him (another tip of the hat to Salvo, perhaps).

Indeed, one can’t help but notice the similarities between Camilleri and Bilal, including a distinctly wry writing style, not to mention a similar frustration with bureaucracy and its complementary corruption. We might just find ourselves falling in love with a new detective.