DEBUT South African police inspector Albertus Beeslaar, under a cloud, has been transferred from Johannesburg to a small town on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. In some ways the slower pace suits him, but there is not a lot of crime to occupy his time. Then a series of stock thefts turns into murder, and his boss presses him to make progress on the case. The brutal killing of a local artist and her adopted daughter is attributed to the same miscreants, but Beeslaar begins to doubt the convenient solution. He must move carefully as a white policeman in a newly black-governed country as he investigates the artist's life and her interest in the contested history of the land. The victim's indigenous Bushman farm manager is not being cooperative and obviously knows more of the story, while the deceased's sister from the city is also trying to understand what happened in this tranquil town. More violent attacks and a resur- gent white farmers' militia add more complications. VERDICT Winner of the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize, this strong South African crime novel will appeal to fans of gritty yet exotic small-town settings and complicated mysteries that turn on local knowledge as much as procedure and intuition. A good read-alike for Jassy Mackenzie's Bad Seeds and Martin Steyn's Dark Traces.
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