I started this book last night and I have got to say it's shaping up as a book that's going to keep me awake way past my regular bedtimes for a while. Set in 1950's South Africa it's a thriller, but it's set in a social environment which I have little explored in my reading life. I'm hoping that this is going to be one of my favourite sort of books - on the one hand simply a good read, on the other hand social commentary and exploration.
From the Blurb:
In 1950's South Africa, the colour of a killer's skin matters more than justice.
When Captain Willem Pretorius, an Afrikaner police officer is brutally murdered in the tiny backwater of Jacob's Rest, Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate.
Opening Lines:
South Africa, September 1952. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper switched off the engine and looked out through the dirty windscreen. He was in deep country. To get deeper he'd have to travel back in time to the Zulu wars. Two Ford pick-up trucks, a white Mercedes and a police van parked to his right placed him in the twentieth century. Ahead of him a group of black farmworkers stood along a rise with their backs towards him. The hard line of their shoulders obscured what lay ahead.
When Captain Willem Pretorius, an Afrikaner police officer, is brutually murdered in the tiny backwater of Jacob's Rest, Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate.
The local Afrikaners and the dead man's prominent family view Cooper, an 'English', South African, with suspicion. Soon, the powerful police Security Branch take over the investigation.