Effendi:  The Second Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Effendi: The Second Arabesk

Jon Courtenay Grimwood

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.

Extract
The girl at the window was unmistakeable as the restaurant car trundled by. Her desolation was so real that Raf could almost taste through the glass. Been there, felt that.

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.

Parallels
  • Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
  • Blood Rain by Michael Dibdin
Borrow this book
Violence
Explicit sexual Content