Booklife Review

Harrison (author of Alone With Myself) infuses this high-speed thriller with street-smart characters and exotic locales. As London-based linguist Seb Mackie preps his return home from an archeological assignment in Anatolia, Turkey, his good friend and landlord, Oz, is unexpectedly cursed by an old widow—a curse that terrifies Oz, who recognizes it as the hex of a djinn on him and his family. When his business is destroyed, his family’s farm animals mutilated, and his niece in the hospital in a coma, Oz turns to Seb for help to destroy the djinn, “a being with all the corrupt power of the fallen at its fingertips.”

With steady pacing, lean writing, and escalating tension, Harrison leads the action across deserts and crowded cities as Seb and Oz frantically chase clues to undo the curse before Oz’s time runs out. The race pulls in ancient artifacts, cultural excursions, and extremists left over from the Arab Spring, all set against the increasingly dangerous—and scorching—plains of the Middle East and North Africa. Along the way, the pair enlist the help of antiquities and religion Professor Deniz Yilmaz, who promises an inside track on the expertise needed to quell the djinn’s powers.

Harrison immerses readers in this sprawling, suspenseful adventure, transporting them into a cacophony of dusty, overpopulated streets, timeless architecture, and mouth-watering, aromatic meals enjoyed with friends. No stone is left unturned, and desperate efforts lead Seb, Oz, and Deniz into a literal chase around the world, including a Tunisian mosque and a Mamluk monk in Cairo, who’s rumored to know, from personal experience, how to kill a djinn: “He invited the djinn in. Offered himself to it. His body, mind, spirit.” If that doesn’t put readers on high alert, it should, as the trio soon discover that Oz’s freedom may cost them more than they ever imagined.

Takeaway: An immersive race to destroy a deadly curse.

Comparable Titles: Saad Z. Hossain’s Djinn City, Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne’s The Antiquity Affair.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A