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This debut novel is by P. Djeli Clark, which is the pen name of Dexter Gabriel (born 1971), an American speculative fiction writer and historian at the University of Connecticut. I liked it alot and really thought for a long time it was written by a female author, actually.

Because the story is about a female investigator of magical crimes in an Egypt that is a world power due to the discovery of Djinn and other magical beings a couple of years before. The year is 1912, and the representatives of Europe and the world are meeting in Cairo to prevent an impending global conflict at a peace conference.

Just at this moment, a charlatan appears and pretends to be the late discoverer of the djinns and magic and all, who died at the time after discovering and opening the portal to the Djinn world. And our female protagonist Fatma investigates a case where twenty people were burnt to death from their inside, leaving their clothes intact.

The whole thing is reminiscent in language and style and time of Arthur Conan Dale and Sherlock Holmes, only set in Egypt and with many women instead of only men: our female inspector has an inofficial affair with someone who also helps in the investigation, and later is reluctantly given a female partner to work with.

Just like in Sherlock Holmes, we often met rich, white, often old, and always judgmental men of the british (and sometimes European) nobility. But there is also surprising magic, many mythical creatures from big, old, badly tempered djinn to ghuls and ifrits. Djinns, for instance, follow very precise interpretation of the terms of any contracts they enter, which they do alot. We also have truely evil, powerful enemies and creatures, a relatively square-jawed police inspector (similar to Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard). The plot is good and drives the action, and it twists here and there in unforeseen ways.

The orient emerges in front of our eyes, and it is not ruled by Westerners, or even men. It is emancipated from the West, and women get to feel the first effects of their own emancipation.

I like the book alot and will surely hope the author continues this (the book itself came to existence because of a few critically acclaimed short stories).

@wowo101 We had this discussion recently where we tried to nail down what art is. One argument was that it is timeless, so it's able to impress even when its own time is long gone. You say you recommend this book as a historical document, but not as a work of art. And I think that is what the other person was saying: it's no art if it's not translating across time.

Yet I think there is some art that is very specific for its own time and that might not translate as well across other times. But still it is art. I don't mean to say you judge Egan and Diaspora wrongly: you might be right in this instance. Yet I don't think all art needs to be able to be understood across time, some art might just work for its own era (and don't open up on performance art which might be very specific to the exact moment only).

@wowo101 We had this discussion recently where we tried to nail down what art is. One argument was that it is timeless, so it's able to impress even when its own time is long gone. You say you recommend this book as a historical document, but not as a work of art. And I think that is what the other person was saying: it's no art if it's not translating across time.

Yet I think there is some art that is very specific for its own time and that might not translate as well across other times. But still it is art. I don't mean to say you judge Egan and Diaspora wrongly: you might be right in this instance. Yet I don't think all art needs to be able to be understood across time, some art might just work for its own era (and don't open up on performance art which might be very specific to the exact moment only).