This book is set in the bad old days of hard-edge apartheid, a situation that viewed from afar - as we in Australia did in the seventies - was abysmal; but close up must have been hell.
To inject a personal element, I remember that , as a journalist at the time, I was offered one of those trips journalist dream about - a free, all-expenses paid trip to South Africa. I was already to go when I was called in for a conference, I didn't have clue who they were. They were three fat white men representing South Africa, by the way they said you can't write any bad about the South African government.
That was the end of the fantasy trip.
That was how it was in the 70's and that's how it's depicted in this very fine book. The main character, as detective called Emmanuel Cooper, who is white, has a girlfriend who is not. Cooper runs across a senior cop who is both racist and a bastard, qualities that seem to go hand in hand.
So the game plays out, Cooper refuses to buckle under and is eased non too gently out of the case. As a result he goes it informally. Meanwhile he continues to live in jeopardy with the beautiful Davida and their daughter Rebekah. More crime, more racism, more violence, with Cooper and his secret in the thick of it.
here is a crime story set in a time and a place of a great overarching crime - the crime of apart-living, apartheid. The writer knows her subject, the story wings along at a great pace , and the back ground, ever present, gives the narrative its resounding depth.