Cairo Gambit: The most enthralling, propulsive and entertaining historical thriller for 2025
Aug 2025 · Atlantic Books
3.0star
1 reviewreport
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400
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About this ebook
'An enthralling thriller ... hypnotically readable' ANDREW TAYLOR
'A compelling tale of a world on the brink of war' THE TIMES
'Ceaselessly entertaining' OBSERVER
In the heat of the desert, will the trail go cold?
Cairo, 1938
Archie Nevenden is many things: amateur archaeologist; theatre impresario; absent father; potential defector. And now, he's a missing person.
His daughter, Prim, hasn't seen him for nearly fifteen years. But she's never given up on him, and now she's on her way to Cairo to assist in the search.
Harry Taverner claims to work for the British Council, but Prim knows there's more to it. He clearly has a theory about what happened to Archie, one she's not going to like.
As Prim and Harry uncover the layers of Archie's existence in Cairo, they find themselves drawn in to more than one conspiracy. And soon they'll discover that Archie may not be the only one in danger...
Praise for S W Perry:
'Powerful, panoramic' Sunday Times
'Beautifully written, entirely convincing' Leonora Nattrass
'Gripping and heartfelt' Elisabeth Gifford
'Sweeping' Daily Mail
'A compelling tale of a world on the brink of war' THE TIMES
'Ceaselessly entertaining' OBSERVER
In the heat of the desert, will the trail go cold?
Cairo, 1938
Archie Nevenden is many things: amateur archaeologist; theatre impresario; absent father; potential defector. And now, he's a missing person.
His daughter, Prim, hasn't seen him for nearly fifteen years. But she's never given up on him, and now she's on her way to Cairo to assist in the search.
Harry Taverner claims to work for the British Council, but Prim knows there's more to it. He clearly has a theory about what happened to Archie, one she's not going to like.
As Prim and Harry uncover the layers of Archie's existence in Cairo, they find themselves drawn in to more than one conspiracy. And soon they'll discover that Archie may not be the only one in danger...
Praise for S W Perry:
'Powerful, panoramic' Sunday Times
'Beautifully written, entirely convincing' Leonora Nattrass
'Gripping and heartfelt' Elisabeth Gifford
'Sweeping' Daily Mail
Ratings and reviews
3.0
1 review
Alison Robinson
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August 10, 2025
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. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
About the author
S W Perry worked as a broadcast journalist with several radio stations, including Independent Radio News and LBC, before retraining as an airline pilot. He then spent almost three decades flying holidaymakers to sunny climes before turning to writing novels. He is the author of six books in the highly acclaimed Jackdaw Mysteries series. His debut novel, The Angel's Mark, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger and was a Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommended Read 2019.
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