A wonderfully written, compelling thriller that gives an exhilarating depiction of contemporary Egypt' Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent

When Marcus Winslow appears at Private Investigator Makana's door one April morning, Makana does not realize that soon he will risk losing everything he has built for himself in Cairo.

A representative of the British government, Winslow has come with a mission, one impossible to turn down: Ayman Nizari, an Iraqi scientist specialising in biochemical nerve agents, a man whose work could kill thousands, is on the run and asking for asylum. He trusts only one man to bring him to safety: Makana.

The scientist has gone to ground in Istanbul, and Makana quickly discovers that in this place nothing is as it appears, in a case that will see his past and present collide with fatal consequences.