- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Picador; First UK Edition edition (6 Mar 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0230711219
- ISBN-13: 978-0230711211
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 947,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Page-turning, clever and multi-layered in its portrayal of the people and landscape of Apartheid South Africa. I loved it.' --Minette Walters
Review
'[Nunn] has written a first crime novel of considerable power.'
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
South African Detective Novel,
By
This review is from: A Beautiful Place to Die (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Malla Nunn's debut novel "A Beautiful Place To Die" cleverly blends a who-dunnit thriller with life in South Africa during the apartheid. The main strength of the book is the description of Africa in the 1950's and the relationships between all the people in Jacob's Rest at that time, as well as the description of the town itself and surrounding areas.
Although I was intrigued enough in Captain Pretorius' murder to keep reading I felt that the plot jumped around quite a bit and some of the twists were not entirely believable. However the pace quickened towards the ending and the loose ends were tied up into a satisfactory ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading books set in African history.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing ingredient,
By
This review is from: A Beautiful Place to Die (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
On the surface `A Beautiful Place To Die' is a fast moving `whodunnit' thriller with a 'good-cop hero' to be admired by readers, and with the added charm of location around a country town in the beautiful veldt of South Africa. However throughout the hero's investigations he is subject to high levels of uncontrollable influence with perhaps an over abundance of hidden secrets to be discovered and with credibility stretched for some of those he encounters. This leads to a few abrupt changes in scenarios as the narrative unfolds, with parts of the plot hardly plausible, characters not fully explained, and outcomes of relationships incomplete. Even so, as a `whodunnit' there is a compelling degree of intrigue, a steady build up of excitement, and a reasonable conclusion - but the book's added special ingredient is a forceful indictment of South Africa's insidious Apartheid system and an exposé of man's inhumanity. Malla Nunn skilfully lays bare political ideology, racism, bigotry, religious mania, injustice, violence etc. via interwoven relationships and personality conflicts. This aspect of `A Beautiful Place To Die' lifts it above the status of a normal thriller and overcomes storyline criticisms - but short of a 5-star rating.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable first novel,
By
This review is from: A Beautiful Place to Die (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
A Beautiful Place To Die and the first novel by author Malla Nunn. I won't go into too much plot detail and spoil any suprises for you. This book is set in Africa during the 1950's when aparthied was in force, and concerns the brutal murder of Captain Willem Pretorius an Afrikaner police office. Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate and discovers there are hidden secrets in Captain Willem's past - secrets that some will kill to preserve.
Malla Nunn was born in Swaziland, Southern Africa and has used her knowledge of the culture to create a facinating book with well fleshed out characters at a time when the colour of a persons skin matters more than justice. This is a very enjoyable book set in troubled times - I hope there will be more forthcoming novels from Malla Nunn.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
