Michael - Thursday
Most followers of Murder Is Everywhere probably know that I
do a monthly piece for the International Thriller Writers’ e-magazine (which
rejoices in the name of The Big Thrill) called
Africa Scene. Each article features an author with a new mystery/thriller
novel set largely somewhere in Africa, and the idea is to display the rich
variety of work that is coming out of a range of African countries. Sometimes
the books are written by authors not living in Africa, but engaged with Africa in a deep way.
Having just set up the November piece, I suddenly realized
two things about 2022 so far – one good
and one not so good. The good one is that it’s been a bumper year for South
Africa (actually southern Africa, including Botswana). We’ve had a remarkable
suite of new novels from new and established South African authors and they’ve
picked up almost all the slots this year. The bad thing, of course, is the other side of that coin - where are all
the mystery/thrillers set further north? We’ve had some stunners over the last few years, but suddenly
there’s a dearth. I’m always on the lookout for them, but either I’m doing a
bad job or this has been a rather dry year.
So let’s get back to the good news. I’ll just focus on the
themes because the spread suggests that SA crime fiction is spreading out from its focus on the Apartheid past. However, I’ve included the Africa Scene link if you’d like to find
out more about the author and the book.
February: Outside the Lines by Ameera Patel
Ameera's debut novel explores how class is replacing race as
the boundaries in South Africa, although there’s still racial stereotyping
going on, especially from older people. The novel has as diverse a collection of
characters as one could hope: a white father and daughter who live in a modest
suburban house, their domestic, Flora, who also lives in the house. A Zimbabwean,
Runyararo, who is in the country illegally and whose situation forces him “outside
the lines”, and Farhana who comes from a strict Muslim family, but whose
boyfriend (Flora's son) is a black drug dealer. This heady mixture meshes to a tense,
literary thriller.
April: The Dark
Flood by Deon Meyer
The backstory for this book is based loosely on a true story
of a company collapse in prosperous Stellenbosch in the Cape wine country and
the resulting impact on the local property market. The modern corruption and
people sailing far too close to the wind, makes a great story.
May: Serpent
Crescent by Vivian de Klerk
For something completely different, Vivian gives us a protagonist
who is a sociopath – now an elderly woman living alone in a house in Serpent
Crescent in a town based on a university city in the Eastern Cape - who tells us the story of her life. Part of the
attraction of the book is the in-depth look at how such a personality develops,
and learns to protect itself, but there are many twists and turns along the way.
June: Hammerman
by Mike Nicol
One evening in February 1986, a man assassinated the Swedish
prime minister, Olaf Palme, shooting him outside a cinema. No one has ever been
convicted of the crime, and at the time there were rumours that South Africa
was involved because of Palme’s outspoken opposition to apartheid
and his pro-sanctions stance. Mike has taken that idea, and explored how the
ripples from that event might spread to the present day. This one is solidly
rooted in the legacy of Apartheid.
July: The Milk Tart
Murders by Sally Andrew
The Milk Tart Murders
is Sally’s fourth mystery featuring the delightful Tannie Maria. Set in
Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, Maria works for the Klein Karoo Gazette writing a
love advice and recipe column. She lives outside town with her hens and her
flowers, and is a superb cook. As usual, the book is dotted with delicious
recipes, a selection of which are given in detail at the end of the book. If
you haven’t met Tannie Maria before, you should do so, and you should try out
some of those recipes. The first book is now a prime time TV series. I just can’t
work out why Tannie Maria becomes Scottish for the role...
September: A Deadly
Covenant by Michael Stanley
In the new Kubu novel we return to the Bushman theme of
Death of the Mantis. In this second Kubu
prequel, a long-past Bushman massacre is discovered, and Kubu has to discover
why that event is generating murders in the present. Kwei very kindly not only
read and gave us a quote for the book, but also took the interviewer’s seat for
Africa Scene, and threw some great
questions our way.
The book is now out as an ebook worldwide.
October: The Heist
Men by Andrew Brown
The Heist Men is a
thriller around a gang that attacks and robs cash-in-transit vehicles—a modern-day
scourge in South Africa. The tension comes from two directions—on the one hand
we follow Captain Eberard Februarie of the SA Police Service in his efforts to track down the gang, but
on the other we follow Andile Xaba, the leader of a crew of heist men who sees
his activities with the gang as a career. He leads a double life with a
suburban girlfriend and township mother.
Despite his role in the gang, he grabs our interest and wins our
sympathy.
November: The Eye
of the Beholder by Margie Orford (Next month.)
Margie has been working on other interests
since leaving South Africa so it's been a while since her last novel. Her new book revolves around the lives of three
women, and is set partly in Canada, partly in South Africa, partly in London,
and partly in Scotland. The theme is not particularly South African although
the toxic masculinity that generates the sort of abuses these women face is endemic in South Africa. Their ways of trying
to cope with it form the canvass on which these women are painted.
Returning to the bad side of the coin, please let me know if
you come across any suitable African mysteries from elsewhere on the continent
that I’ve missed. I’d love to feature them!
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This weekend you can catch up with Stan for the last three A Deadly Covenant launch events in the Twin Cities:
Friday 14, 10 am
Lake Country Booksellers event
4766 Washington Ave,
White Bear Lake, MN 55110 Phone:651-426-0918
Saturday 15, 10:00 am – 5:00
pm
Twin Cities Book Festival
Join Stan to chat about books, Botswana and Bushmen at this great annual event!
Minnesota State
Fairgrounds, Saint Paul, Minnesota
@RainTaxiReview #TCBF
Sunday 16, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Barnes and
Noble,
3230 Galleria, Edina, MN 55435 Phone:952-920-2124
