Tree of Pearls

Tree of Pearls
Louisa Young

Scintillating comic-romantic thriller, a finale to Louisa’s fab Egyptian trilogy: what life will Angeline choose?The final volume in the Angeline Gower trilogy, following ‘Baby Love’ and ‘Desiring Cairo’.Our angel is back. Angeline Gower is back home in Britain, back safe, back in her own bath. And, right on cue, that’s when trouble arrives, back for another bout with her. But this time she’s going to see it off for good….There’s trouble in the form of her nemesis, her Russian roulette – wiseguy wideboy Eddie: he’s on the loose again, and who would the police send out to Egypt to trace him if not Evangeline? Then there’s trouble of another more painful, more joyful sort altogether: the trouble she has choosing between safe, solid, sensitive Harry, and hot, haughty, harmonious Sa’id. So, out among the sensuous wonders of Luxor, on the mobile and on the hoof, our angel shimmies and swerves with all her ex-belly dancer’s supple style through a series of emotional chicanes. Now and again, in a particularly tight corner, she spins off, but she always regains control and surges forward to seize the life and future she deserves for those she loves and, triumphantly, for herself.

Copyright (#u2b878954-a756-5c11-bf13-8a7b7c8c71a2)

The Borough Press

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by The Borough Press 2015

First published by Flamingo, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2000

Copyright © Louisa Young 2000

Louisa Young asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover images © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007578009

Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780007397020

Version: 2015-09-15

Praise for The Angeline Gower Trilogy: (#u2b878954-a756-5c11-bf13-8a7b7c8c71a2)

‘Funny, sexy and tender’ ESTHER FREUD

‘Spectacularly worth reading’ The Times

‘A stylishly literate thriller’ Marie Claire

‘You will keep coming back to this book when you should be doing something else’ LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES

‘Exciting, compelling and tense’ Time Out

‘Funny and scary. In writing honestly and unsentimentally, Young celebrates the unequivocal nature of parental love with verve and style’ Mail on Sunday

‘Wry, perky, entertaining’ Observer

‘Engaging, wise-cracking, likeable, brilliantly sustained … funny, humane and utterly readable’ Good Housekeeping

Dedication (#u2b878954-a756-5c11-bf13-8a7b7c8c71a2)

For Amira Ghazalla, the friend at the surface of the water

Contents

Cover (#u799b3561-980c-522b-9e33-9597da4db3dc)

Title Page (#u901e7bc9-456c-547b-a40b-16a12a9a6401)

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One: Winning the peace

Chapter Two: Beware policemen in pubs

Chapter Three: I’m not Canute

Chapter Four: Answering the phone to Chrissie Bates

Chapter Five: Kicking

Chapter Six: Yes, I am

Chapter Seven: Making friends

Chapter Eight: Yalla, let’s go

Chapter Nine: The palaces

Chapter Ten: Ya habibi, oh my darling

Chapter Eleven: Convoy

Chapter Twelve: Abydos