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.

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.

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.