Dead Before Dying (Coronet books) [Paperback]

I started this book with great reservations as I am not usually sympathetic to the South African Police, but this rings totally true The hero Mat Joubert, is believable, and the flavour of South Africa and the problems the cops face here is vividly drawn Unlike most South African stories, it is not horrific, but nevertheless, paints a vivid picture of the hero and his problems and those of his fellow cops, with great humour and sympathy

The period all seems a long time ago and the author himself is clearly finding the new South Africa tough from a personal perspective. However, if you love Cape Town the seeing the streets as background to a serial killer's capture is satisfying. Some of the black/white/coloured conflicts are a bit patronising and obvious but the author wants it to be OK.

Enjoying all of his books think they would magnificent films for the successful SA movie industry to take out into the big wide world. The fact that he is a white Afrikaans write might work against hom getting the support of the industry but the backgrounds he describes as his all too human detectives work well for the plot.

Definitely part of the "deficit detective" oeuvre. If they are not alcoholics, they are too fat or sex obsessed.

This South African crime novel was originally published in 1996 and only a decade later makes its appearance in the U.S. It's a shame, because in a sense it would have been much more interesting and exciting to read at the end of the apartheid era instead of now. The setting is Cape Town in the months after the ANC has come to power and the winds of change are blowing across the country. Police captain Mat Joubert of the Murder and Robbery Squad has been nursing a two-year depression since the death of his wife, who also worked as a cop. However, the arrival of a new black superior forces him to confront both his physical (weight, cigarettes, booze) and psychological demons if he wants to keep his job. At the same time, two new cases vie for his Joubert's attention. First, there's a master of disguise holding up banks. And then there's the murder of several apparently unconnected men in different parts of town, linked only by the unusual old handgun used in the killings. As the two cases drag on, the media frenzy and intense pressure and scrutiny from his superiors starts to mount up.

Meyer goes to great lengths to portray Joubert as a giant ball of misery and pain, and it's hard not to see his gradual healing as a metaphor for the new post-apartheid South Africa emerging at the same time. He's a moderately interesting character -- perhaps more so for readers who like their heroes deeply wounded and morose -- and the supporting cast of cops, victims, witnesses, journalists, etc. are all ably sketched. There are, however, a great deal of problems with the story. The most egregious of these is the identity of the killer, which requires one to swallow the most implausible coincidence imaginable. Not only is it a ridiculous coincidence, there's no real reason for the coincidence to exist in terms of the story. It simply comes across like the author was trying for a huge shocker. A second major flaw is that any reader paying a reasonable amount of attention will see what connects the murder victims within the first part of the book and grow increasingly bored waiting for Joubert to catch on -- meanwhile another three or four people die. Thirdly, the bank robber storyline feels tacked on and unnecessary, as if the author felt he should have a subplot with lesser stakes in order to give the reader a breather from the main story. Fourthly, there's a rather clumsy red herring presented early on, where it's stated that the killer "must" be a man because the recoil from the particular gun being used is so powerful. So, fine, we all know that means the killer is a woman. However, when the killer is revealed and has been described repeatedly as having delicate physique, it's never explained how she was able to handle the massive gun. If an author is going to set up a red herring that is so cut-and-dried, they need to explain why it didn't pan out at the end.

Finally, at the end, there is a big moment where it is revealed just why Joubert's pain over his wife's death is so large. However, again, any reader paying attention will have sussed this out very early on, so it lacks almost all its intended impact. All of this is not to say the book isn't entirely readable and reasonably enjoyable for those who like police procedurals. Just be warned that it has plenty of problems, along with some truly overwrought prose at times. I'd be interested in reading further Mat Joubert books to see if Meyer's plotting has improved and the writing is toned down at all. One final complaint that has nothing to do with the author -- the jacket is terrible and has no connection to the story. The tone of the book is very dark and bleak in most respects, and the jacket photo and type reflects none of this.