First of all, if anyone thinks setting a cyberpunk/noir in the Arab/Islamic world is a brand new idea, I would refer them to the late George Alex Effinger's '80s Marid Audran series (When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, and The Exile Kiss) and short story collection (Budayeen Nights). That series featured a down and out 22nd-century Arab gumshoe in grimy Cairo who is unexpectedly elevated into a powerful position and makes heavy use of brain implants in order to track down a few murderers, exact vengeance, and try and figure out just who his parents actually were. Hmmm... sounds an awful lot like this book, doesn't it?

Grimwood's story is a fairly off-the-rack "reluctant hero" tale about Ashraf, a small time hoodlum unexpectedly sprung from jail in the U.S. and brought to Alexandria/Iskandriya - with the help of a ponytailed ex-American Chief of Police. At the same time, Ashraf's past -- from lonely boarding school upbringing, to working for Seattle Chinese gangster Mu San -- is measured out in italicized flashbacks.

Actually, the entire first third of the book is rather confusingly arranged, with chapters in reverse chronological sequence and shifting points of view. It's an unnecessary and messy structure which only makes the story that much harder to get into. Eventually, things settle down and Grimwood sticks with telling the story from Ashraf's perspective -- albeit, still continually interrupted year-old cousin adores him and sticks to him like glue. And as in so many cliche films, the kid will prove to have world-class computer hacking skills that will become pivotal in solving the mystery. His other ally is the woman he is supposed to get married to, the rebellious daughter of a mega-billionaire industrialist. Also as in so many cliche films, they get off on the wrong foot, bicker, and then predictably fall into bed together -- and of course, she's got a comic-book body. In the end, the villain is perfectly predictable, although the motive comes out of nowhere and seems quite ridiculous. The ending comes rather suddenly, and many readers will leave feeling rather frustrated -- there's a lot left to be answered in the second and third books.

Having grown up in the Middle East, and being a moderate sci-fi fan and a big mystery fan, I was looking forward to this book. I was especially curious to see how the alternate history elements were going to be portrayed and used. And while on the one hand, it's nice that he didn't make the alternate history too intrusive, there didn't really seem to be a whole lot of point to it either. Perhaps the geopolitical differences will have a greater impact on the second and third books in the series, but in this one they don't enter into it that much. Also, many reviewers seem to be misunderstanding the alternate history. In this series, the Ottoman Empire is intact, but it is essentially just a regional power, not a world power. That's why a German is in charge and the Khedive is just a figurehead locked in a gilded palace. Also, if you're going to set up an alternate history setting, why are all the designer brand names the same as in our own world. Since in this setting Germany dominates Europe, wouldn't there be a lot more German designer brand names instead of Japanese and Italian?

In addition to the above weaknesses, the "cyberpunk" elements lack any originality. I'm not a big fan of the genre, but everything seemed familiar: hacking, genetic modifications, pet robots, implants, drugs, viral music, even a ridiculous underground club. And in a nutshell, that's kind of the problem with the whole book -- it all feels recycled. The setting's been done before, the main character is a classic archetype, the relationships are all cliche, the plot is classic "must clear my name" material, I'm just not seeing any original ideas. That said, there are bits and peices of nice writing here (generally the flashbacks), and there are intriguing hints here and there, enough so that I probably will read the next in the series to see if it gets any better.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood does do one thing very well: he does make you care for his characters.

But other than that, Pashazade's overly ambitious, impossibly complicated--it wants to be too many things: alt-history, cyberpunk, a whodunit, a hardboiled noir escapade, and a coming of age story.

Nobody could accomplish all that in 360 pages, and while Mr. Grimwood comes closer than you'd ever expect, he doesn't entirely succeed.

The alt-hist (the Ottoman Empire survived into the 21st century) is just laid out, and not developed at all (the book could have been set in Alexandria 20 years from now and it wouldn't have made much difference); the cyberpunk is faux Gibson, right down to the product placements (and it's amazing how many of the products are the same in this world, despite the radical changes a brokered WWI, leaving the Kaiser and the Austro-Hungarian intact, would have been); there aren't enough good clues for a good whodunit, so in the end the mystery is solved because the author says it is, not on account of any internal logic; the noir is acceptable, but no more (i.e., about what you'd expect); and the coming of age might have been handled better if the book weren't so danged flashbacky (one of the flashbacks, which ought to have been the book's prologue) actually interrupts the grand finale.

Still in all, the book never bores; it just frustrates.

Abetted Mansur comes to the Mediterranean port city of El Iskandryia having escaped from an American prison. Lady Nafisa explains to her nephew that her brother married American Sally Welham and though divorced five days later, he is a legitimate offspring of an Emir.

Aunt Nafisa introduces Ashraf to her niece nine year old Hani and his future wife Zara daughter of wealth; both hate him because the fuss made over him interferes with their respective lives. However, before his aunt can complete arrangements for his entrance into the elite of Ottoman society, she is killed. As a newcomer and the sole heir to her fortune, the police suspect Ashraf murdered his aunt. Based on his American experience with Chinese employers, Ashraf knows he must prove his innocence or be railroaded into prison or worse. His only help comes from two females who loath him.

PASHAZADE is a fabulous futuristic amateur sleuth tale built on an alternate historical foundation to include Germany winning World War I and the Ottoman Empire thriving in the early twenty-first century. The who-done-it is cleverly handled so that mystery buffs have a solid investigative tale with some intriguing police procedural elements. The cast is terrific. Ashraf also known as ZeeZee struggles with what he has learned about his patriarchal ancestry (his mother could not provide two consistent responses as her version of the truth kept wavering) and with his aunt's death. Hani and Zara add depth to Ashraf's character. However, the star is the city of El Iskandryia where fundamentalist Islamic and western hedonists share a troubled past and shop at Wal-Mart.

Harriet Klausner