Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for Egypt’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. She dresses in sharp English suits, carries a cane, and investigates supernatural disturbances across an alternate Cairo that runs on both steam power and magic.
In A Dead Djinn in Cairo (2016), her first appearance, Fatma investigates what looks like a routine suicide but leads her through Cairo’s underworld of ghouls, assassins, and clockwork angels. By A Master of Djinn (2021), someone has murdered a secret brotherhood and is claiming to be al-Jahiz returned from the dead. Fatma, now with a new partner, has to stop a plot that could tear apart the fragile balance between humans and djinn.
P. Djeli Clark created Fatma as a sharp, confident investigator in a world where the supernatural is an everyday fact of life. Cairo’s streets are full of djinn, mechanical constructs, and creatures from Arabian mythology, and the Ministry exists to keep it all from going wrong. Fatma is good at her job and knows it, which sometimes puts her at odds with colleagues who think she’s too young or too unconventional.
The Dead Djinn Universe stories can be read in publication order or with the standalone pieces (The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, The Haunting of Tram Car 015) in any order. A Master of Djinn is the fullest expression of the world and Fatma’s character.
Reading Order
See the complete Fatma El-Sha’arawi reading order for all books in the series.