Seven Dials (Charlotte and Thomas Pitt)
London detectiveThomas Pittis investigating the murder of a junior diplomat by a  notorious Egyptian woman and her lover, a senior Cabinet minister involved in  negotiating the conflict between Egypt's cotton growers and England's textile  industry. Lovat, the diplomat, once served in Egypt, and to unravel the mystery  of his death, Pitt travels to Alexandria, where he finds that the beautiful  Ayesha Zakhari is not who she appears to be--and that Lovat's murder may be tied  to an old crime which, if exposed, could set the Middle East aflame. While Pitt  is in Egypt, his wife, Charlotte, occupies herself with a more mundane  matter--the disappearance of a valet whose sister is a friend of the Pitt's  housemaid. It's not long before the reader realizes the connection between the  two crimes; meanwhile, Perry layers this smoothly plotted mystery with a  fascinating history of Egypt in the days of the British Empire and the religious  and economic tensions whose repercussions still resonate more than a century  later. Perry, the author of two Victorian-era series (the other stars  investigatorWilliam  Monk), does her usual fine job of bringing the colorful time period alive,  helped along by the details of domestic life provided by her protagonists'  wives, interesting and accomplished women who have lately played all but equal  roles in solving their husbands' cases.--Jane Adams