TITLE: A Master of Djinn
AUTHOR: P. Djèlí Clark
500 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250267689 (hardcover, e-book, audiobook)
DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.
So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.
Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city - or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems....
MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5
MY THOUGHTS: In his first full-length novel, P. Djèlí Clark expands the alternate-history, steampunk-flavored Cairo he introduced us to in the short story “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” and the novella The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Characters from both “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 appear in the novel in various lead and supporting roles, but one does not have to have read those previous stories to understand what’s going on in A Master of Djinn. (Although I will say that reading the short story and novella will enhance your enjoyment of the world and understanding of the characters’ personalities and inter-relationships.)
Clark has crafted a multi-layered murder mystery that the formidable Agent Fatma, along with her mysterious lover Siti and newly assigned work partner Hadia, must solve before the city of Cairo, and perhaps the entire world, fall into chaos. Thanks to an opening chapter that presents the mass-murder from the perspective of one of the victims, the reader heads into the story knowing more than the investigative team – but that’s not the same as knowing everything. The clues necessary for the reader to solve the mystery are there to be found, as are the requisite number of false clues and moments that seem to mean more than they really do. The case takes several interesting twists before the ultimate reveal. I had my suspicions early-on about who this person claiming to be al-Jahiz really was, but there were also moments where I thought I could be very wrong. This delighted the mystery fan in me: I love having my guesses turn out to be wrong as much as I love being correct, because being wrong means I can re-read the book to see where the correct clues were. Of course, I am not a fan of mysteries where all the clues are red herrings and the answer is something the reader could never have guessed. But that’s not a trap Clark falls into, thankfully.
I’d have been happy enough with A Master of Djinn being a straightforward mystery set in this alternate world. But the book provides so much more. There’s a rich history to be explored, with Egypt becoming a world power based on the revival of magic into the world and Colonialism being overthrown in some parts of the world earlier than in our own timeline. It’s 1912, and the international conclave hosted in the middle of the book gives us interesting looks at what a “World War One” would look like in this setting. There’s a magic system that I think we’ve only scratched the surface of in the tales told so far: not just various types of djinns and other Middle Eastern magical beings, but goblins in Germany and hints at other types of beings al-Jahiz’s actions released into the rest of the world as well. These magical beings have been involved in some of the fights for regional freedom mentioned, so you know these world powers will put such beings to use when full-scale international war does break out (with the possible exception of America, where Puritanical beliefs seem to have essentially outlawed magic use). The Colonialist mind-set of the era, the European fascination with “adopting” local culture while disdaining the actual people, is on full display throughout the book and Clark does not let his characters leave it unremarked (at least among themselves, even if politics prevents them from saying anything to the actual perpetrators).
The character relationships are also beautifully established. Fatma is essentially a loner. She has eschewed being assigned a partner for this long mostly on strength of personality and successful cases, but department policy can’t be pushed off forever. Hadia’s arrival at the crime scene the day before she’s supposed to officially meet Fatma creates a wonderful level of friction between the two women that plays out as one of the sub-plots. First impressions give way to shared experiences, and Clark charts that growth subtly through dialogue and body language. Fatma at the same time is learning more about Siti, their sexual relationship moving into the romantic – but Siti has secrets of her own that influence both the relationship and the main plot of the novel, which I will not spoil here. We also learn a lot more about Fatma’s past thanks to her interactions with both Siti and Hadia, but there’s plenty we still don’t know about all three women that I look forward to seeing revealed in future books set in this universe.
Clark further develops the Ministry beyond the vague structure and mission established in the previous short story and novella, giving us more intimate looks at Fatma’s immediate superior, the Ministry’s support staff (including a delightfully surly Djinn librarian), and fellow investigators (including the stars of The Haunting of Tram Car 015, Hamed Nasr and Onsi Youssef). Hamed and Onsi are supporting characters here but I hope we’ll get more of their own adventures in the future. Likewise, Fatma’s main contacts outside of the Ministry, bookie/underworld contact Khalid and Cairo police Inspector Aasim Sharif (who reminds me, perhaps intentionally, of Holmes’ Inspector LeStrade), are further developed from their previous appearances, although they play smaller supporting roles than Hamed and Onsi. I was also intrigued by the details revealed about an all-female criminal organization, the Forty Leopards, and the hierarchies and interactions of various temples dedicated to Egypt’s earlier, pre-Mohammedan, gods.
Excellent alternate-history fantasy world-building, multi-dimensional characters, on-point political commentary, and a top-notch murder mystery combine to make P Djèlí Clark’s debut novel a must-read. Go get it!
NOTE: Although I’m posting this review after the release date, it is based off an electronic advance reading copy I received from NetGalley.