Tag: Mystery

“A Master of Djinn” Review

Posted on by Jen

“A Master of Djinn” by P. Djèlí Clark

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world forty years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city—or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…

Review

This was such a great read. The characters are fun to read about and the world building was fantastic. I had a lot of fun reading this book. It’s set in 1912 so there’s a bit of history to think about with the time period but it’s also a rather different world because of the changes that have happened. The world building explains enough to keep the story going but doesn’t answer everything. Which I actually appreciated. Since the story is set over 40 years after the changes it would have required a lot of information dumping which the story never did. Some things are explained others are left for the reader to figure out. I really enjoyed how everything worked out and the crisis was solved. If P. Djèlí Clark writes another novel in this series I will definitely read it. There are several short stories also set in the same universe that I’m going to see if I can find and read as well.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “A Master of Djinn”.

Book Details

A person stands at the bottom of a set of stairs in a palace of gold. At the top of the cover are the inner workings of a machine with gears and pipes and other bits of technology.

Author’s Website
P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher / Date
Tordotcom Publishing, May 2021
Genre
Alternate History, Fantasy, Mystery
Page Count
400

Completion Date
May 14, 2023

“Elena Knows” Review

Posted on by Jen

“Elena Knows” by Claudia Piñeiro (Translated by Frances Riddle)

After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.

Review

One more book for the Disability Readathon, which fits the last of the reading prompts – “Read a translation”.

This book is one of those complicated ones because as it turns out the characters aren’t very likable and that’s the point. Both Elena and Rita are rather mean spirited people who judge others and the whole book centers around Elena’s assumptions about her daughter. The book explores mother-daughter relationships, abortion rights, religion and disability – and it’s not nice about any of them. There are several disturbing things that happen in this book that have everything to do with how women’s bodies are treated.

The formatting was a bit difficult as the book is entirely Elena’s thoughts as she goes about her day and flashbacks to past conversations but it’s almost walls of text with the dialogue not evenly spaced out. I’m not sure if that’s a translator choice or the original author.

There’s an afterward at the end of the book that gives a bit more context about the author and the themes of the book. I’m glad that was there to get a deeper understanding of the author and the intent of the book. I’m probably going to check out the author’s other works as a result.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Elena Knows”.

Book Details

The cover is yellow with the profile of a woman in blue looking to the left. There's what looks like a chair over the profile - the seat and back of the chair are in red and then the legs are in blue and end up being part of the profile. The title, author's name and translator's name are the top left corner of the cover.

Publisher / Website / Date
Published in English by Church Press, July 2021
Originally published in 2007 in Argentina
Genre
Mystery
Page Count
158
Completion Date
April 30, 2023