Arabesk
3 primary works
Book 1
El Iskandria is the most famous and cosmopolitan city of Ottoman Egypt in the 21st century. Ashraf Bey travels there to escape an American prison, but ends up the main suspect in a murder, hated by the woman he is supposed to marry and responsible for the welfare of a nine-year-old cousin... In a world where Germany won the First World War, in a world where the Ottoman Empire still dominates the Middle East, in a world where Zeppelins drone overhead...Ashraf Bey has to survive and discover answers to questions about himself and the city he has come to live in. The answers may be factually accurate, but are they true?
Book 2
The brilliant sequel to the critically acclaimed PASHAZADE Among many other things, Ashraf Bey is a fugitive from the US justice system (definitely); son of the Emir of Tunis (possibly); and chief of detectives in the El Iskandryian police force (apparently). Small wonder that he's a little confused. Raf's ex-fiance Zara still doesn't want to see him, so she says. His nine-year-old niece is busy doing things with computers that are strictly illegal. And when the city suddenly starts to fall apart and Zara's father is accused of mass-murder, Raf begins to learn the true cost of loyalty. As the US, France and Germany try to dominate both the present and future of the Middle East in this alternate 21st century - as they have the past - Ashraf Bey must become both saviour and avenger. It's not an easy trick, but someone has to do it...
Book 3
The third instalment in Jon Courtenay Grimwood's critically acclaimed series of Ashraf Bey mysteries Detective. Diplomat. Uncle. Killer. Ashraf Bey has been many things since arriving in El Iskandryia from Seattle. One thing he hasn't been, as yet, is a son to Moncef, Emir of Tunis - the father Raf has still to meet. Of course, Raf doesn't believe the Emir is his father anyway. (Given his mother's insistence that he's the son of a Swedish hitch hiker). And now it may be too late, since the rumours that don't have Emir Moncef escaping assassination have him hovering on the edge of death. Despite refusing a plea for help from the Emir's chief of security, Raf still finds himself being drawn towards Tunis. It seems he has his own part in an unfolding political crisis that began decades earlier with US anti-globalisation riots and the Emir's refusal to ratify the 2005 UN Accord on Biotechnology.