“The Haunting of Tram Car 015” Review

“The Haunting of Tram Car 015” (a Dead Djinn Universe story) by P. Djèlí Clark

Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities — handling a possessed tram car.

Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane.

Review

This story takes place prior to “A Master of Djinn” which I read first. Anyway I really enjoyed this one – it’s a short story but one that felt complete as the agents were dealing with a someone easier case than the larger story. I like the way it worked out and the addition of the suffragettes sub-plot ended up feeling like it fit in. I liked seeing a couple of the side characters from the later story in here as main characters. Overall it’s a fun read.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Haunting of Tram Car 015”.

Book Details

View of a city square with multiple buildings and people in view and a green tram car moving overhead

Author’s Website
P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher / Date
Tor Books, February 2019
Genre
Alternate History, Fantasy
Page Count
96
Completion Date
September 7, 2023