Not having read the first Arabesk I wondered how I would get along with the second, but I was quickly drawn into this strange offbeat crime story set in the 21st century. The hero, Ashraf Bey, silk suits and Armani shades, is Chief of Detectives set to explore the possibility that his girlfriend's father maybe a mass murderer. Not as free wheeling or off the planet as the Stainless Steel Rat; more Simon Temple with attitude.
He wore dark glasses from habit, a leather coat lined with spider's silk and boots with toecaps and black metal heels. Behind the Armani shades his eyes had four colour receptors, as they had done from birth, one more than strictly human. His fourth was ultraviolet,though he could recalibrate across the entire spectrum. Sound he could adjust by opening and closing his ears. So far, so predictable, if somewhat simplified. Unpredictability started with fox, which now spat static, swore and raged inside his head.
