In an alternate 1912, Cairo is the beating heart of a world transformed. Decades earlier, a mysterious figure called al-Jahiz tore open the boundary between worlds, and djinn, angels, and magic returned to reshape history—turning Egypt into a great power that threw off colonial rule and now hums with clockwork wonders and supernatural intrigue.
Agent Fatma el-Sha'arawi is one of the few women in the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, a sharp, bowler-hatted investigator who handles the strange and dangerous. When a secret brotherhood devoted to al-Jahiz is slaughtered by someone claiming to be the vanished mystic himself, Fatma must determine whether a legend has truly returned or a very human impostor is stoking chaos. With her enigmatic partner Siti and a determined new recruit, she races through a Cairo of automatons, gods, and revolutionaries as the case threatens to ignite a war between realms.
A Master of Djinn is the first full-length novel in P. Djèlí Clark's Dead Djinn Universe, a richly imagined blend of historical fantasy, steampunk invention, and mystery. Vivid, propulsive, and grounded in Egyptian culture, it expands a world first glimpsed in his acclaimed novellas.