Captain Gareth Owen is the Mamur Zapt, responsible for political investigations. Normally those wouldn't include a woman falling overboard into the Nile. But the pleasure boat she fell from was hired by a pro-British potential heir to the Khedivate at a time when negotiations with the ruling Khedive make the British shadow government particularly value such support. The Prince wants someone to 'manage' the incident to his least embarrassment and the British Consul instructs Owen to oblige. However, after being discovered on a sandbar, the woman's body has disappeared before the cause of death could be established, much less investigated. Zeinab -Owen's Egyptian lover- has pulled a Lysistrata, rejecting any romantic overtures over her belief that Owen isn't doing enough about the girl's death (and therefore, through some mental gymnastics, doesn't really care about her). Nothing is ever easy or straightforward for the Mamur Zapt.

For me, this series' appeal has always lain with the unique setting, sparkling with interactions of human comedy as viewed through the appreciative eyes of the tolerant Owen. The comedy is a bit more subdued here, with less emphasis on the average street and village people. Instead, you touch the fringes of society at either end, and there's more emphasis on straightforward investigation. In much of the series the investigation seems little more than an excuse to display the comedy of manners that is the real story. Not that I'm objecting myself, since that's what I love, but I can see this book appealing to readers who have found others in the series a bit too light and frivolous and meandering. Not my favorite, but a worthy entry in one of my favorite series. Recommended.