author : Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Pope Joan has just spent all the Vatican's money on the poor, then got herself assassinated. Lots of people are very unhappy with this. Cardinal Santo Ducque needs the money back before the Vatican is audited, so gets ex-reality TV assassin Axl Borja and his gun-with-attitude to investigate, rather than execute him for the murder he's just committed. Kate Mercarderes wants her sister Joan back, and knows kinderwhore Mai is the key, and so hides them away on the Dalai Lama's prayerwheel of a space station. Axl just wants his life's soundtack back.

This is fast and furious mayhem, in the brilliantly imagined near future of a subtley Alternate History. It's violent, funny, gritty, hilarious, tragic, and seriously warped by turns, as all these very damaged people eventually collide.

• Paragon panel discussion of the BSFA and Arthur C Clarke Awards shortlists

In an alternate history where America never joined the First World War (known here as the Third Balkan Conflict), genetically enhanced Ashraf Bey is confused in the North African city of El Iskandryia. He has just been sprung from jail and brought there by Lady Nafisa, who claims to be his aunt, to marry Zara, the daughter of a wealthy businessman-cum-gangster, to restore the family fortune. But almost immediately someone tries to kill him, and then he finds himself a suspect in a murder, and must discover what is really going on, with or without the help of the fox in his head and his computer-savvy niece, Hani.

Most of the SFnal content is backgrounded -- some genetic enhancements, possibly some AI, and some high tech comms devices -- but most of the content is in the alternate history. This sets up an interestingly different (if rather unpleasant, especially for women) culture. The story is well-structured with flashbacks (rather than up-front info-dumping), and is a great murder mystery. What's not to like?

• Helicon 2 panel discussion of the Arthur C Clarke Award shortlist

A few months after the events of Pashazade, Ashraf Bey finds himself the new chief of police, investigating his potential father-in-law, Hamzad, for genocide and war crimes, a course not recommended to endear him to his potential bride Zara. To cap it all, El Iskandryia is in meltdown, suffering gruesome murders of tourists, and a total loss of electricity due to several EMP bombs. But, as in any mystery, even alternate history ones, not everything is as it seems.

A great sequel. We get all the characters back, learn more about them and their often traumatic backgrounds, and learn more about the complicated politics of the alternate world. There's also a continuation of the slightly cheeky and fun reuse of contemporary characters and businesses, despite the AH turning point being about 100 years in the past. The fun counterpoints some of the grim and harrowing scenes, all there for plot-relevant reasons.

It's just a few months after the events in Effendi, and Raf is called in to investigate an attempted murder, of the man many claim is his father, the Emir of Tunis, pitting him against his dissolute and sinister half-brother.

There's the same great sense of place as in the earlier books -- now mostly moved out of the city and more into the desert. You can almost feel the heat and sand in the desert, and the steam in the kitchens. And lots of questions raised in the earlier books about Raf's background get answered, yet those answers lead on to further questions about what might happen next. A great conclusion to the trilogy.