The Burning Gates
A Makana Mystery
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In Cairo, private investigator Makana is called into the office of his new client, a powerful art dealer known as Kasabian. Kasabian wants him to track down a famous 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 world of art is a far cry from the shady streets and alleyways of the Cairo that Makana knows, but he soon finds out that this side of the city has its own dark underbelly. As he sets out to find the lost work of art -- and those involved in the case begin to die in horrific ways -- Makana finds himself entangled in a mystery that many have attempted to keep hidden.
The trail will lead him back into the dark days of the war and threaten to send the new life he has built for himself up in flames.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Cairo in 2004, Bilal's riveting fourth Makana mystery (after 2014's The Ghost Runner) plunges the intrepid investigator into the world of art dealers and high-stakes art theft. Fellow exile and artist/automobile restorer Ali Shibaker introduces Makana to Aram Kasabian, a rich and well-connected art dealer who, it appears, is on the lookout for certain modern masterworks that disappeared during the Nazi regime but have somehow resurfaced in connection with the notorious Col. Khadim al-Samari of the Iraqi armed forces. Kasabian employs Makana to locate al-Samari, a fugitive on America's most-wanted list, who may be secretly in Egypt thanks to his cronies in the army. Makana's quest takes him to shabby bars, discreet nightclubs, and even to mosques. More than one gruesome death helps propel the twisty plot to a Pyrrhic conclusion.
