Books in brief: Cairo Gambit, King of Kings and Something Wicked

Cairo Gambit by SW Perry (Corvus, £18.99)

Over the past few years, SW Perry has been quietly emerging as one of today’s most readable storytellers, not least because of his Jackdaw Mysteries series. His latest novel, concerning the disappearance of a potential British double agent in 1930s Cairo, has all the hallmarks of his earlier work. Combining scrupulously observed period detail with beautifully drawn characters, this is a ceaselessly entertaining yarn that only needs a sweeping John Barry score to complete the sense of diving into a bygone world.

King of Kings by Scott Anderson (Hutchinson Heinemann, £25)

Scott Anderson’s painstakingly researched account of the 1979 Iranian Revolution has a topical resonance that he could scarcely have imagined when he began writing the book. Anderson focuses on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was usually known as “the Shah”, and his fall from grace when the Islamic Republic of Iran replaced the monarchy. It is a dense, complex story that is told with clarity and directness. It is unlikely that a more authoritative account of this torrid period will ever be written.

Something Wicked: The Lives, Crimes and Deaths of the Pendle Witches by Carol Ann Lee (Blink Publishing, £10.99)

In 1612, a group of women from Pendle, Lancashire, were accused of witchcraft, and nearly all of them were executed by hanging. The repercussions from this mixture of superstition, misogyny and judicial overreach resonated for decades afterwards, even as it tore the community, and families, apart. Carol Ann Lee retells this horrifying story with authority and indignation. Those who have read widely about the subject will find little new material here, but for newcomers, this is as good an introduction to the grim events as you will find.

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