Egyptian Gothic by Ahmed Khalifa is a book of short stories that take place in 
Egypt.
I actually enjoyed the first short story, where Adam works for an advertising company, but is a writer at heart. When he finds a box outside of his home with part of a manuscript inside, it sends him on a path to solve the mystery. This story actually reminded me a little of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind.
And the other stories, while I enjoyed the storyline, had some issues that I had a hard time getting past.
In one of the stories a police office, a lieutenant, says “Whatever,” and maybe it’s not meant to be in the Clueless “whatever” voice, but that’s how I imagined it.
Then in the same story, there was a glove found as evidence at a crime scene. And the lieutenant and the private investigator TOUCHED IT with their BARE HANDS! I am not the biggest crime show watcher, but even I know that if they touch it with their bare hands, that can be tampering with the evidence!
I was shocked, too, Kevin.
The story lines were good, the plot was good in each story. But the over-explaining of some aspects and the other little issues I mentioned just made it a more difficult read for me.
I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
But I’m glad that I’m working more on the short story books because that’s one of my goals as to becoming a better reader!
Thanks for reading,
OK, you love comments, I love comments too. If you are interested in short stories, you might like On Thin Ice, a novel-in-stories. Let me know if you would like a copy. Johanna van Zanten
Reminds you of The Shadow of the Wind?? WOW, I must then read it. Even if you weren’t crazy about it, I will have to go see for myself
I’m going to tweet my response.
I have such a hard time enjoying short stories. Sometimes it works for me if they’re all connected in some way, but usually I just feel disconnected, like I never got the chance to grow attached to any of the characters. It’s a shame b/c so many covers have caught my eye lately, but then I see that it’s short stories and I end up putting it back on the shelf.
I have read some fabulous short story books and some not-so-fabulous. While depressing, my FAVORITE short stories are Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan. They are all about children in dire need in Africa, and they are fully understandable, not to mention fabulous.
Eek, yes, tampering with evidence, that wouldn’t happen nowadays, surely. Good that it was a good book overall, though, and that you’re finding success with you goal
In my last semester of college, we had to do a semester-long constitutional simulation where we remade the Egyptian constitution and so this sounds really good!
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