Parker Bilal

Working as a private detective after he is forced to flee Cairo, Makana, a former Sudanese police inspector, takes a case from a notoriously corrupt owner of a Cairo soccer team whose star player has gone missing, a case that pits Makana against Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters and a desperate mother.

A Makana Mystery

The Golden Scales

When two bodies are found brutally murdered on a building site in Battersea, Detective Sergeant Calil Drake is first on the scene. He sees an opportunity: to solve a high-profile case, and to repair his reputation after a botched undercover operation almost ended his promising career in the Violent Crimes Unit. Assigned to work with the enigmatic forensic psychologist Dr Rayhana Crane, and on the hunt for an elusive killer, Drake's investigations lead down the dark corridors of the past--to their military service in Iraq and the destruction they witnessed there. With a community poised on the brink of violence and their lives on the line, Crane and Drake must work together to stop the killer before vengeance is unleashed.

A Drake and Crane Novel

The Divinities

Summer, 2001. The mutilated bodies of young boys are turning up in the backstreets of Cairo, and the finger of suspicion is pointing at the city's Coptic community. As Makana, a private investigator who fled his native Sudan a decade ago, watches the embers of religious hatred begin to glow, he has a premonition that history may be about to repeat itself. But for now, Makana has another case to solve, involving a disgruntled travel agent, stolen money, and threatening letters-an assignment that appears to point to nothing more than a family feud. That is, until Makana meets Meera, a woman with a dangerous secret who asks for his help- and stumbles upon an unlikely link to the murdered boys. When the travel agent's office becomes the backdrop to a brutal killing Makana is the sole witness, and he attracts the unwanted attention of not only the state security services and the police but also a disreputable Sudanese businessman-who claims to hold the key to Makana's past. His search for answers takes him from the labyrinth of Cairo to the city of Luxor and an abandoned monastery near the tombs of the pharaohs, where he uncovers a web of intrigue, violence, and secrecy that reaches deep into Egypt's political heart...

Dogstar Rising

When Marcus Winslow appears at Private Investigator Makana's door one April morning, Makana does not realize that soon he will risk losing everything he has built for himself in Cairo. A representative of the British government, Winslow has come with a mission, one impossible to turn down: Ayman Nizari, an Iraqi scientist specialising in biochemical nerve agents, a man whose work could kill thousands, is on the run and asking for asylum. He trusts only one man to bring him to safety: Makana. The scientist has gone to ground in Istanbul, and Makana quickly discovers that in this place nothing is as it appears, in a case that will see his past and present collide with fatal consequences.

Dark Water

Michael Harvey

Conor Fitzgerald

Thomas Mogford

Anne Zouroudi

From Obsession and Payback to Secrets and Lies, Deception and Bad Judgement, these thrilling tales will shock and surprise you with their cunning. Short Sentence was launched in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing, in association with the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. Following a short story written by one of Bloomsbury's brilliant crime authors, competitors were challenged to take up the same theme and write of a dastardly deed using 1000 words or less. This is Bloomsbury Australia's collection of the winning entries in parallel with the five brilliant authors, Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and Michael Harvey.

10 stories of dastardly deeds (Australian edition)

Short Sentence

Sudanese investigator Makana travels into the desert heart of Egypt to solve a series of brutal murders and explore the shifting sands of the past, in this third installment of the acclaimed Makana Mystery series

The Ghost Runner

A scientist specialising in chemical warfare is on the run in Istanbul in a gripping new investigation for 'one of crime fiction's most interesting and sympathetic detectives' (The Times) When Marcus Winslow appears at Private Investigator Makana's door one April morning, Makana does not realize that soon he will risk losing everything he has built for himself in Cairo. A representative of the British government, Winslow has come with a mission, one impossible to turn down: Ayman Nizari, an Iraqi scientist specialising in biochemical nerve agents, a man whose work could kill thousands, is on the run and asking for asylum. But he insists that he trusts only one man to bring him to safety: Makana. But why is Ayman demanding that only Makana can help him? And what part does Winslow have to play in this? The scientist has gone to ground in Istanbul, and Makana quickly discovers that in this place nothing is as it appears, in a case that will see his past and present collide with fatal consequences.

A city divided. A killer on the streets. A past that refuses to be forgotten.

The discovery of a severed head on a London Tube leads private investigators Crane and Drake on a dark journey into the past – and a personal quest for retribution. In this second title in the London-based Crane and Drake mystery series, Cal Drake has left the police force and is now working as a private detective, having teamed up with the motorcycle-riding Dr Rayhana Crane. The chilling discovery of a severed head on the Tube draws Calil Drake back to the case he failed to solve four years ago which left his police career in tatters. Crane and Drake investigate while also searching for Howeida Almanara – a young international student from the Gulf and the missing girlfriend of a Crane family friend. Could her disappearance be linked to Cal’s past and the gruesome discovery on the Tube? Crane and Drake are plunged into the dark underworld of London and international crime, and must risk their lives to uncover the truth.

Parker Bilal

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