In 1912 Cairo, Fatma el-Sha'arawi serves as an agent for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities and has recently been recognized for thwarting a malevolent scheme—a story recounted in the prequel novelette A Dead Djinn in Cairo. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Al-Jahiz, mainly composed of Englishmen who admire Al-Jahiz—a Sudanese mystic who reintroduced magic to the world around forty years ago—suffers a brutal attack when a man donning a golden mask murders its members during a meeting. Fatma is tasked with finding the murderer and resolving the case. With assistance from her new Ministry partner, Hadia Abdel Hafez, and her lover, Siti—a Sekhmet devotee and informant linked to the clandestine followers of the Egyptian pantheon—Fatma follows a trail of clues and leads throughout Cairo and its environs pursuing the gold-masked assailant who proclaims to be Al-Jahiz himself supposedly returned to the world.
Reception
Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, calling it "stunning" and a "fantastic feat of postcolonial imagination", lauding Clark's "colorful prose," "thorough worldbuilding," and "keen, critical eye toward gender, class, and imperialism."[12]
Kristi Chadwick at Library Journal gave the novel a starred review, calling it "a richly detailed, action-packed novel" and praising Clark's "fantastical worldbuilding [that] highlights thematic issues of colonialism, spirituality, and race relations" as well as "issues of gender and class".[13]
Booklist gave the book a starred review, and described it as a "delightful combination of mystery, fantasy, and romance."[14]
Marisa Mercurio of Strange Horizons called the novel "smart", "enormously fun", "an adventure that grapples with a history of imperialism", and praised Clark's rendering of a diverse cast of women from a variety of backgrounds.[15]
