I really enjoyed Berlin Duet, the author’s historical thriller set in pre-WW2 Europe. British Intelligence Officer Harry Taverner returns in this book having been ordered back from his posting in Berlin to assist (without revealing his real role) Primrose ‘Prim’ Nevendon’s search for her father who has gone missing in Cairo. ‘He had apparently vanished off the face of the Earth like desert mist at sunrise.’ Archie works in the oil industry and with the world seemingly on the path to war the British government fear he may possess information that would be valuable to Britain’s enemies.

Despite the fact he abandoned her and her mother fifteen years ago and that her only contact with him in the meantime has been via the occasional letter and postcard, Prim seems to hold a romanticised view of her father: intrepid adventurer rather than errant husband and absent father. She clings to childhood memories of digging for ‘treasures’ hidden for her to find in the grounds of the house. Although understandable she should worry for his safety, it seemed to me it was just as much the prospect of adventure that motivated her decision to travel to Egypt to try to find him, a chance to get away from her rather uninspiring life in England.

Arriving in Cairo she finds a turbulent political situation with the sixteen-year-old King Farouk on the throne. Although Egypt has gained its independence, the British still retain a presence in the country in order to defend the Suez Canal. In a chilling echo of current conflicts, there is increasing violence between Arabs and Jew in Palestine, at that time under British control. Add to this the prospect of a European war and it’s perhaps understandable that the priorities of the authorities in Cairo and the British Embassy are elsewhere, and they are unwilling to commit resources to help Prim in her search.

The only help she has is from Harry Taverner, whom she met on the flight to Cairo and who purports to be a representative of the British Council. The reader knows their meeting was no accident. Actually, it’s not the only information we’re privy to that Prim isn’t, thanks to some dream-like interludes that hint at deeply felt loss and guilt.

Prim soon finds herself way out of her depth as it becomes apparent Archie has got himself involved with some very unpleasant people. They’re just as keen to find him as she is, but for entirely different reasons. As Prim and Harry slowly uncover clues – a faded photograph, a theatre programme, flight plans – it becomes clear the mystery of Archie’s disappearance can only be solved by venturing beyond Cairo and into the unforgiving deserts and mountains of the Sinai Peninsula. Both settings are vividly brought to life.

Those who’ve read Berlin Duet know they need not fear for the life of one of the characters but there is plenty of jeopardy for others. The author manages to keep the tension high with some dramatic scenes. As for Prim, well, let’s just say what she learns about Archie puts a whole different slant on things.

Cairo Gambit is a compelling historical thriller that oozes atmosphere and will keep you turning the pages.

When her estranged father disappears, Prim Nevendon travels to Egypt to try and find him. The whole area is in turmoil as the British are slowly withdrawing and the Balfour partition of Palestine is causing violence between Arabs and Jews. Archibald Nevendon has been caught up in all of this and has gone into hiding. Prim is accompanied by a representative of the British Government but finds help (and betrayal) from other sources.
I really liked the setting of this novel as it is very pertinent to the events of modern times, the land grab in Palestine, the emergence of the Jewish Nation of Israel and the looming shadow of the Second World War. So far so good. However I did find it difficult to engage with the story which seems a little amorphous at times and populated by a series of characters that I did not really engage with. Perry is a good writer and I found this one of his weakest in terms of story but the setting more than makes up for it!

The year is 1938 and Prim Nevenden hasn’t seen her father in fifteen years, but she has never lost faith in him.
So when she and her mother are visited by government officials to say he is missing and a suspect in espionage, Prim decides enough is enough and goes on the hunt for her father.
Archie Nevenden her father lives in Cairo. He is a budding archaeologist and has a major interest in a local theatre, but is he a defector?
On her journey, Prim meets a man named Harry Taverner, a British Council official who is also on the trail of the elusive Archie Nevenden, but he has a hunch on what is actually going on.
Harry and Prim decide to work together, and it’s not long before they are involved in a dangerous situation, one that has uncovered a conspiracy that could be life changing for them and the elusive Archie Nevenden.
Cairo Gambit is a stunning piece of work. A story that is so powerfully written and incredibly sensitive. I loved this book and found it a pure joy to read.
S.W. Perry is a very fine writer and one I highly recommend.

An interesting novel, the story covers the historic battles over land in Pakistan, between the Arabs and the Jews, during the 1930s. Hitler is coming into power and Jewish families are fleeing tyranny and seeking out what they see as their original homeland in Pakistan.
Into Egypt comes Prim Nevendon, on a desperate search to find her missing father, but she is not the only person looking for Archie Nevendon and it soon becomes a fight for who will find him first.
I really enjoyed the history depicted in this story, the author gives a very clear portrayal of what was happening in Egypt and the surrounding area during this period, highlighting the feelings and beliefs of both sides in the ongoing conflict. This feels especially pertinent today when considered alongside the situation in Gaza today. An interesting read.

A really gripping story based in Egypt just before the start of World War 2.. Very descriptive narrative, made you feel as though you were there. Some great characters that brought the story to life and a lovely conclusion.

*S.W. Perry's* **Cairo Gambit** offers a sun-drenched mix of espionage, archaeology, and pre-war intrigue in a setting ripe with political tension and historical complexity. Set in 1938 Cairo and Mandate Palestine, it’s a spirited adventure with a whiff of nostalgia—almost like Enid Blyton for adults, complete with secret codes, desert chases, and mysterious disappearances.

The plot centers on Prim Nevenden, a minor upper-class Englishwoman who heads to Egypt to search for her long-lost father, Archie—a man of many hats, including archaeologist, theatrical dabbler, and possible traitor. Along the way, Prim is swept into a tangled web of intelligence work and shifting allegiances, joined by the enigmatic Harry Taverner, whose official role as a British Council agent masks more dubious activities.

The story shines brightest in its rendering of 1930s Cairo, with Perry clearly comfortable evoking the complex politics of the time. The colonial dynamics, rising tensions in the Middle East, and the looming threat of global war all add meaningful texture. However, while the historical detail is solid, the narrative doesn’t quite achieve the same depth or intensity found in Perry’s Elizabethan series.

Prim is a likable protagonist—plucky, curious, and determined—but the tone stays light, sometimes veering into cozy territory that undercuts the tension. The ending, however, delivers a satisfying twist that lifts the book from merely enjoyable to pleasantly surprising.

In all, **Cairo Gambit** is readable and entertaining, but not spellbinding. A decent diversion for fans of historical espionage, though it lacks the complexity and literary heft of Perry’s best work.

Cairo Gambit by S W Perry
Having read all of the Nicholas Shelby novels and Berlin Duet I was very interested to see what the author made of life in Egypt just before the Second World War. I very much liked the principal character, Prim Nevendon. She is in her early twenties and although she is intelligent and independent she feels life is passing her by. Then her father, whom she has not seen since her childhood, is reported as missing in Cairo so she sets off to track him down.
There are others who are also interested in locating her father and when she is joined by Harry Taverner as she flies into Cairo she immediately suspects that it is not just a chance meeting. As they begin to investigate further dangers emerge and then there is a deadly attack upon her father’s theatre.
This is a well written thriller and the descriptions of the complicated situation in the Middle East and Egypt have repercussions for us now. I was a little unsure about how far Prim would have gone searching for a father who paid her such scant attention but the story was engaging and I will be recommending to novel to those of my various book groups.
Many thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

I found this book to be an unexpected pleasure to read. I was drawn into the story immediately and found I could engage with the main character Prim as she sets off to unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance in pre ww2 Egypt. What I particularly liked about the book was that I learned something about the history of the tension between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel. It gives some useful historical perspective to the current conflict we have witnessed in the last year. The book is not preachy nor does it encourage you to take sides. Neither does it feel like a history lesson as the story was at the forefront at all times. It was well written and well researched. I’d recommend it.

The author takes us on a thriller of a journey into Egypt when Primrose embarks on a journey from the UK in the quest to find her father Archie Nevenden who has been missing’ from Cairo for several weeks. Alongside Prim is Harry Tavener following orders from his superiors in London. Part fiction and part fact, this makes for an excellent and enjoyable read. Cairo 1938 on the cusp of War. I loved the way the author pulled this novel together, interweaving the various elements and historical facts but always keeping something up his sleeve to maintain the intrigue and excitement. Excellent.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Atlantic Books for this pre-publication copy for review.

this was a really clever book with a story that had me totally immersed. the whole thing felt thought out and that Perry new exactly where she wanted to take us readers and how. and it played out beautifully.
the book brings us to Europe in 1938. Primrose is living with her mother after her father left them both years ago. but then she gets news that her dad has gone missing in Egypt and there is more than a little concern over his whereabouts or what he might have been doing before he vanished.
Prim decides to act and travels to Egypt to find him herself. on the way she meets a man named Harry who might be hiding a few things of his own. Harry and Prim start digging and learning things that take them from one shock to another in terms of what her father might have been up to. this doesn't bode well.
there is a lot mixed in to this book. some i think i wasn't clever enough to absorb or understand the significance of, but this of course all on me which i feel a little ignorant and guilt for. i did try to google myself clever but im not going to say a few searches mean im where i should be on some of these topics. i do love anything that revolves around the war so it took me to some new places that had me absorbing as much as i could.
this book covers a colourful mix of a few genres and i felt like i was smarter just from reading it but also enjoyed the storytelling. the balance made it easier for me to absorb both.

I enjoyed this book greatly. Primrose Nevendon (Prim) is in her early twenties, she is intelligent and determined but feels her life is slipping her by. When she learns her father Archie, absent from her life since she was a young child, is missing in Cairo, she is determined to go out there and find him. He is a big wig in oil, and with Europe on the brink of war, there is a concern that he might have given away, whether freely or under duress, secrets about the oil pipeline. He is an amateur archaeologist and also runs/funds a small theatre in Cairo, which he promised his dead younger brother, Nim, he’d keep going no matter what.

Prim embarks on her quest and almost immediately runs into the handsome (of course) charming Harry Tavener. He is, he says, an employee of the British Council. This does not sit well with Prim who doubts he is telling the truth, but together as they gradually peel back the layers of Archie’s life they uncover conspiracy after conspiracy and put themselves in the path of danger. Nobody seems to be who they say they are. Everyone has secrets. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Prim finds her father but the scene in which she does is devastating and desolate in ways which Prim was not prepared for. Nor the reader come to that.

This is an intelligent well-written political thriller set in the complicated Middle East Arab/Jewish conflict in 1938 with such sharp place descriptions the reader can smell the diesel fumes, hear the cacophony of Cairo, and taste the sandy grit of the desert. If you like plots that twist and turn and well developed characters this book is for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for sending me a copy of the book. This is an honest review after a full reading of the novel.

Much of this book follows the well proven formula of having a plucky young woman travelling abroad and engaging in dashing and dangerous adventures without much in the way of forward planning. Here we have Prim travelling to Cairo in the 1930's to look for her estranged father who has gone missing in mysterious circumstances. With the middle east a hotbed of conflict between the British , the Arabs and the Jews it is hard to know who to trust.
She is helped by Harry who is rather vague about which part of the British Government he works for.
The whole plot was fairly straightforward and a bit unrealistic but what raised the book above average for me was the excellent depiction of Egypt and the Middle East in these times. It also failed to have too sugar coated an ending with fairly dramatic emotional twists near the end. The characters were a bit one dimensional but this fitted in with easy reading nature of the book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic books for the ARC

Its 1938, Europe is on the brink of war. Primrose Nevendon lives a rather Bohemian lifestyle as a freelance stage designer with her Italian mother and a collection of artists and philospohers that call themselves (rather grandly) the Bevern Fraternity. Her father Archie left them when she was small and she has barely seen or heard from him since. He is now a director of Anglo-Levantine Oil in Cairo whilst also running his late brother Nim's theatre.

Then two Special Branch police officers come calling, Archie has gone missing in Egypt and they are concerned that he might have sold secrets about British oil pipelines and the like to the Germans and/or Italians, especially since Prim herself was briefly a member of the British Union of Fascists until she realised that they were just as bad as the Communists and didn't really want change for the masses - just for the leaders.

Prim decides to travel to Egypt to find her father. On the long air journey she meets Harry Taverner, ostensibly with the British Council to bring British arts and science to Egypt, but in reality to babysit Prim and see whether they can find Archie (or if she knows where he is). Also on board is Mike Luzzatto, an American Jew who deals in real estate, although his real motive is buying land for Jewish settlement.

When she gets to Cairo, Prim discovers that there are a lot of people looking for Archie, some of them not at all nice. The theatre manager was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered to find some clues as to where he might be - but no-one knows.

In their attempts to find Archie, Prim and Harry are drawn into the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews, and both sides' antipathy towards the British. It seems as though Archie may have been trying to play both sides and it spectacularly backfired.

The author had clearly done a lot of historical research but honestly most of the time it felt like a bewildering hotchpotch of politics and all I really got out of it was that all sides were pretty unpleasant, prepared to sanction absolutely anything to the cause as collateral damage - that may also have been a product of the times where extremism was rampant across the world. The story itself got subsumed in the politics and felt like a bit of a damp squib, I was left with the feeling of 'so what?'.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

A follow up to Berlin Duet where we met Harry Taverner for the first time. Here he is again in Cairo helping Prim find her missing father. This is more than a spy story, it’s a thriller and excellent recounting of historical facts of a pre-war Egypt. You can feel the heat, the smells and atmosphere pounding at you through the pages. It builds to an interesting climax, nobody is who they seem, trust no one! An excellent story and I look forward to any follow ups of Harry’s war!

Thank you to Netgalley the author and publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review

In Cairo Gambit, author S.W.Perry manages to evoke the heat and heady atmosphere of 1938 Cairo in his completely immersive writing. I loved Berlin Duet, also by Perry, and this is another absorbing and brilliant book about love, secrets, compassion and single mindedness. Intrigue, spies, British colonialism and the seething tensions between the Arabs and Jews forms a tense backdrop to one woman’s quest to find her lost father. Lovely Harry Taverner reappears (in an earlier incarnation than Berlin Duet), adding charm and loyalty to the plot. This is more than a spy thriller- characters have depth and motive, the political is explained and the arrogant disdain and sense of entitlement of the British exquisitely described and shown. I liked Prim’s courage and sense of self as she searches for her father, knowing that she might not like what she finds. I can’t wait for Perry’s next book and hope I meet Prim or Harry again.

Pre WW2 Egypt never looked better.

"Cairo Gambit" opens in Egypt, in April 1938, where a shooting in a small theatre causes the local police to wonder if war has broken out between rival political groups. When news of the shooting reaches young Primrose Nevendon, residing in Britain, and she learns the theatre was run by her estranged father, who has subsequently disappeared, she decides on a whim to visit Cairo and search for him.

Upon arriving in Cairo, Prim finds herself way out of her depth, and only with the assistance of a young man she met on the flight over, does she start to find her feet. The young man is Harry Taverner, known to readers of the previous book "Berlin Duet", as an officer of the British Intelligence service. Very quickly, Prim and Harry are drawn into a complex and confusing situation, where neither the Police or the British Embassy are willing to help in her search. As the pair slowly uncover clues and follow leads missed by the authorities, it becomes clear her father was involved in some dubious dealing. The story moves along at a brisk pace, slowing only to savour some excellent scenes between Prim and Harry, Prim and her father's employer, and her father's housekeeper. We also learn a little more about Harry Taverner, too.

"Cairo Gambit" is everything fans of Harry Taverner's previous adventure will love. The backdrop of pre-war Cairo is presented in full bloom - the sights and smells, the noise and bustle, the hotels, the clubs, and the wheelers and the dealers. The reader learns much about the state of Egypt in the years leading up to WW2, when Britain, the Arab nations, and the Jewish people were all vying for their right to settle or govern. We also witness the last vestiges of the British Empire- the boozy Club lunches, the garden parties, and the Victorian values. Prim is everything they find offensive, and revels in it.

This book is part thriller, part spy story, and part historical adventure, bringing to life the years leading up to WW2 in North Africa. Fans will love it, and like me, will be hoping top see more of Harry Taverner. Thoroughly recommended.