Mais voilà une excellente surprise! Malgré quelques critiques laissant présager un bon début mais pas un grand polar comparé à d'autres plus récent de l'auteur, je me suis régalée. Oui donc, je ne suis pas vraiment d'accord.

Okay, on voit un peu venir le dénouement et le coupable. Mais ça ne pose aucun soucis et ne gâche absolument pas la découverte de certains aspects de Cape Town à la passation de pouvoir post-Apartheid toute fraîche. Les excès de la nouvelle hiérarchie de la police déterminée à rompre avec le passé de l'institution et de redorer son blason sont contés avec beaucoup d'humour sans en diminuer l'importance. Les divers héros bien brisés sont eux-mêmes épluchés lentement pour mieux se reconstruire et redécouvrir, avec le lecteur qui se régale au premier rang, leurs aspects humains et vivants, parfois de manière terriblement cocasse, au beau milieu de la violence du quotidien sud africain... J'ai été étrangement fascinée, entre deux éclats de rire, par le quotidien de veuf sur la mauvaise pente de Joubert. Un point de vue qu'on voit rarement. Je pense que je vais me faire un plaisir de retrouver Griessel (et j'espère Joubert aussi) dans les tomes dont il est le personnage principal. Et des personnages féminins intéressants (et bien allumés pour certaines)!

Mais il y a surtout le plaisir de retrouver des détails, des attitudes et des habitudes, la traversée de certains quartier de Cape Town, sans parler de ce braai de réveillon complètement imaginable... immersion totale et plus que plaisante. Et j'en reveux!

A nasty book

This was a nice quick read, with a good lead character exploration and arc, and a flowing main plot line. However quite a few sentences were jarring and didn't seem to make the translation from Afrikaans well. I also expected the end game to be cleverer than it was from the build up towards it during the whole novel. That said the descriptions of Cape Town came across vividly, though rarely did he leave the mountain surrounds, and explore the greater Cape Town area.

This year I'm doing a Reading Challenge; so I have 26 books with specific subjects that I need to read.
Book 11:A book set in your hometown/region

I couldn't find a book set in my home town, so I chose my home away form home - Cape Town.
We vacation in the Cape every year, and if given a choice I would move there tomorrow.


I think I've made a mistake to read this in English.
[a:Meyer's|283304|Deon Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1225442760p2/283304.jpg] dry sense of humor is not properly portrayed in the translation, and it makes the book tedious.
The main character sounds more like a teenager with raging hormones than a thirty-something grown man; but it was good to learn where everything started. How Mat became the man I got to know in the
Benny Griessel Series

I'm thinking of reading the books in order, so that the characters makes more sense. I've read a few books out of order and I think I spoiled somethings for myself.
But I need to read it in Afrikaans. - Book hunting!

Glad I read other Meyer books before this one. His later works are better.

Mat Joubert is one of the most flawed, damaged and interesting characters I've stumbled across in a while. I loved how he developed as the book progressed, and you found yourself cheering for him. I thought the plot was well paced and unravelled well. Can't wait to discuss this with my group tomorrow night!

This author came to our local literary festival and I was excited to pick up a detective novel set in South Africa. Who knows what I was expecting. I think I should learn not to expect anything. I finished this book last year but clean forgot to review it - probably wanted to block it from my mind.

This book is... not good. It's so typical of a male writer. A few points to illustrate why:
1. Dead wife
2. Dead wife who was a cop but made a mistake that no male character ever would, so she died
3. Male protagonist is not in the best of shape, mentally or physically
4. Nubile young thing is still obsessed with him
5. Did I mention the nubile young thing is also perfectly shaped? Or is that covered under nubile?
6. All the female characters (grand total of 3, I believe) want to get into the protagonist's pants
7. Rape is central to the story

Add to all this the book needed an eagle-eyed editor and proofreader as well - it has several annoying typos and mistakes which really shouldn't make it into a published book.

I want to say more but there's no point. This book is probably exactly what a detective novel is supposed to be - but it's the 21st century and all I want is for all art to move away from tropes. I don't want to read any more of Meyer's books - crime thrillers have a sexism problem, no need to read yet another series of books highlighting that point.

Moody mystery set in Cape Town, South Africa. Mat is an appealing widower.