Monday, May 9, 2016

DEATH BEFORE DYING; DEON MEYER


We are back with Matt Joubert, chief detective in Cape Town, after apartheid, in the new South Africa of affirmative action .  He's not a very happy guy, having lost his wife two years ago in a botched crime scene.  Since then, he's been reprimanded a couple of times, gained weight, drunk to much and almost lost his job.  This is his last case unless he proves he can return to the detective he used to be.  He also agrees to see a psychologist, who seems to help him.  And he falls for her, her gentle ways, complicating things.  There are two cases, one involving a bank robber who walks into a bank, in disguise, gives the teller a note, and walks away with money.  The other, much more serious involves a series of murders over a couple of weeks, with the same modus operandi but there seems to be no connection between the individuals.  Matt feels pressure not only from above but from the press, who are hot on this case, sensationalizing the murders, making the police and detectives look bad.  He of course cracks the case, discovers the connection between the six murders.  It leads him to an unexpected killer.  In fact, I was just thinking to myself how different this book was because the murderer, in most crimes novels, is someone we know.  And I was certain that was not true in this novel.  I will leave it at that.

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