Who else might have suspected that all those years ago her husband had been unfaithful? Even more, that he had maintained the outcome of that brief liaison secret all these years? Wouldn’t that be enough to provide a fit of jealous rage? Somebody started that fire with the deliberate intention of trying to kill, regardless of who else was in the house.” The victim is Karima, a young woman who “ran a small shop in the market selling foam mattresses … died a painful and unjust death” in Cairo because she “disgraced her family”. A murder, an honour-killing act (not sanctioned by Islam) engineered to near perfection by the girl’s illegitimate father. It also happens to be private investigator Makana’s adopted home, and he is entrusted with the job of unveiling the truth.
A case that Makana solves against all odds, exploring the psyche of locals, opens up to the reader a window into old Islamic Africa still chained to tradition. Makana travels far and wide and in the process recalls his own tragic past that includes the loss of his wife and daughter during a flight from Khartoum. “Ten years ago, he had stumbled off the bridge in Khartoum into the dark, deserted streets” with “the memory of his daughter Nasra’s face as the car holding her and her mother, Muna, went over the edge of the bridge and fell into the river below.”
Bilal’s incisive take on modern Egyptian society infested with corruption, hatred, violence, nepotism is evocative and passionate though not without an element of remorse and despair invariably. Though somewhat deliberately delved into, it makes for a compelling reading even if it momentarily diverts from the main storyline. Also some of the flashbacks scattered throughout the text do not necessarily fit in, making the thrilling experience somewhat dragging. Bilal reflects on the existing ground reality in the African continent and makes insightful observations on life: “The Americans have discovered a new life as the policemen of the world. This business in Palestine threatens to tip everything in the region into a crisis.” Bilal’s narrative transcends the conventional format of a crime-and-mystery novel. It goes beyond, making it a sort of “the living record book” of contemporary history.
The conclusive action brings Makana and the reader to a small town where the desert community is jostling with its own somewhat repulsive secrets. Where perversion, illegal pregnancy, assorted crimes are just passwords. In search of answers, Makana has still darker secrets leading him into further trouble. Further attempts to unearth the truth results in more deaths and greater violence. As a cop tells Makana: “You’re a long way away from home, and bad things happen to people sometimes when they are away from home.”
An interesting admixture of literary and crime fiction, The Ghost Runner is an absorbing page-turner.