Plain Dealing

The Ryder Quartet #3

by Ian Patrick

After midnight on a moonlit beach six policemen led by a top detective execute four criminals who have perpetrated an evil crime. The police are unaware that there is a witness to the executions. The action is set against dubious tactical, ethical and sometimes criminal choices faced by the central characters. The reader is left with a stark image of moral ambiguity as the police struggle to maintain precarious control of the crime that engulfs them, and the work of ‘plain dealing’ cops comes under scrutiny.The third book in The Ryder Quartet takes the reader on an emotional and action-packed journey through choices made by police in their day-to-day confrontation with rampant and brutal crime.

Genres: Crime

225 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2015

About the author

After working as an actor, director and teacher in theatre, film and television, followed by a long academic career, Ian is now a full-time writer. His years as an actor, director and scholar play a modest part in his writing, he says. 'My fiction is based to the best of my ability on research and field work. I have to believe every word my fictive characters say, every action they undertake,' he says. Which explains why he has accompanied detectives to the front line, interviewed forensics investigators, taken courses on forensics, crime scene management, and DNA analysis, and spent many hours scouring actual locations for his crime scenes: many of them based on actual events.

'I endeavour to make my fiction plausible and authentic. It takes me up to a year to write an eighty thousand word crime thriller. In my view, although it is clearly desirable to arrive at one's destination by bringing a work to publication, it is the journey that is the really exciting and enjoyable part of writing. I can only hope that readers will also enjoy the journey of discovering my characters and their foibles, their actions and their experiences. I hope, too, that they will inform me about and forgive me for any lapses in my work or any errors of detail.'

Reviews

[Ronald Gumede · Rating 5 out of 5]

After deep depression about all the criticism that we get as cops just doing our job against mad criminals, this is a really uplifting book. Here we have corrupt cops but we also have good cops. And then we have in-between cops, asking themselves the question whether they should meet fire with fire. This is such a good book. I’m blown away by it. The author is asking all the right questions. Is it morally acceptable to kill the devil? This is so good. Not only exciting but very sad one moment and then very funny and up-lifting the next. It’s my favourite thriller of the moment. And the race, gender, politics, language and cultural issues are so perfectly balanced. This writer is on top of things. I can’t wait for the next one from him.

[Matthew Seagreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Really up to date and relevant. Hit squads and all. Really moving characters: I loved the relationships that have been created, and it's very sad at points, too. And the action scenes are great. This one seems to flow better than the first one in the series. I finished it before I knew it. Real page-turner. I might change my rating upward when I've read the last one in the series. I get the feeling that it gets better and better with each book. Anyone know when we can expect the fourth book?

[Suzie Whyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I read this in two days. The beginning is so brilliant, and the whole of the first day is so intriguing. I just LOVED the scene in the afternoon of the first day. Wow. Those two forensics women are my heroes. Don't get on the wrong side of them, men. And then the last couple of scenes are so moving, so sad, and so funny. Can't give away the plot but I loved it so much. And I want a dog just like the Ryder one. What an intelligent, beautiful dog.

[Roxanne Grenville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely the best in the series. Magnificent. So exciting. In fact, thinking back on the other two now, this is the real five-star one. So sad, too, in parts. Oh my goodnesss, I really loved this one. And so very close to the shenanigans that are currently going on.

[Robert Storey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best so far. This, the third book in the trilogy (I think the fourth one in the advertised quartet is not out yet, unless I’m looking in the wrong place), is excellent. It’s almost as if the little things that, on reflection, caused momentary lapses in concentration for me in the first two books, have now been ironed out. This one feels so good and so relaxed and smooth-flowing. Relaxed for the writer, that is, who seems to have found the groove and rides perfectly along inside it. Not relaxed for the reader. No way. This is nail-biting for the reader. This has superb action (who ever thought that car chases in a book could be every bit as exciting as in the movies?) Some brilliant action scenes keep this rolling forward so that you want to read the whole thing in one sitting. The themes are so up-to-date. Police and crime and law and order and morality and ethics are so perfectly balanced. There are some powerful emotionally-moving scenes, too, which really pull the tears. Only because one gets so involved in the utterly believable characters. And because one is so at ease with the characterisation, it’s so nice when they utter throwaway lines that are witty or clever or funny or simply reflect genuine emotions or mature relationships. These are such real people: I see them all about me every day. I just have to follow them further. Fiona Ryder is a really interesting character for me. A wise and very strong woman. What a lovely creation. Lucky detective, this Jeremy is. And Nadine and Pauline and Navi, too. And Mavis. Great women characters. And a very funny and sad and angry and totally wonderful supporting cast of detectives and others. And such bad, evil, malevolent criminals, but with moments of fun and companionship even among them, too. Hope the fourth book comes out really soon. And maybe there’s going to be a fifth and a sixth book beyond that? They will each sure have my attention.

[Tertius Delport · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Truly amazing. This book is so timely. It's uncanny. With what is happening in KwaZulu-Natal right now, and the arguments about hit squads and proper journalistic responsibility, this should be a must-read. We read in the preface that the author accompanied detectives into the townships and that he received guidance from cops on drug-deals and forensics, but it's almost as if he also accompanied cops and journalists right into the front line as they engaged in and argued over all the allegations of a police hit squad, a topic so painfully under debate at present. This is such balanced writing. There is no sentimental posturing about rights and wrongs. Every argument you can muster is in the different range of characters and how they speak and act. What an incredible thrilling read. In addition, there is light-hearted fun and witty repartee, and touching scenes between close friends and lovers and family members. This is not only a crime thriller. It is a beautiful novel about life in current-day South Africa, as it grapples with a new phase of transformation and strives to be born as a genuine democracy.

[Kobus Koopmans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read the first two in this trilogy, and having really liked them, I then got caught in a mountain of work and forgot all about the third book. Now I've read it. Wow. Oh wow! I can't believe how fantastic this is. It is so relevant to what's been happening in Natal. Hit squads. Taxi wars. Police executions. Evil, wicked, satanic criminals. I couldn't put it down. This was so sad, too, in places. I think every cop anywhere in the world should read this. And especially my South African cop colleagues. This is so, so on the nail. It is brilliant beyond words. What is the author going to do now that he's finished this trilogy?

[Peter Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Top drawer. I loved the complexity of the moral dilemma being sketched out here. Given what's happening in Paris, in Syria, in Colorado, the question is: do the cops shoot to kill the devil? If evil is so obviously malevolent, do we need to trouble with law and moral justice? Don't we have the duty to execute the devil in order to save innocent lives? I have seldom seen the argument presented so sensitively, and at the same time so brutally. A roller-coasetr thriller that makes us confront the realities of evil all around us. Beautiful characters. beautiful relationships. Gender, race, politics, morality, all woven into a stunning 200-page thriller. I shall read it again and again for its lessons but also for its thrills. Beautiful writing.

[Gavinsp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review needs to be preceeded by a "Please proceed with caution". I am not well qualified to review this book for a number of reasons. Firstly, I know the author personally. In fact, Ian Patrick is one of the nicest people I know and I would not want to give him a negative review. Secondly, crime fiction is not a genre I've spent much time with since romping through the pages of The Famous Five and the Secret Seven 40+ years ago. I must also confess that my personal experience of the South African Police dates back to the 80's when the Security Police were doing their worst to keep uppity people in their place. I must also own up to the fact that as I write this review my daughter is protesting on the campus of Rhodes University because she and many of her cohorts believe that allegations of sexual assault and rape are not taken seriously, and while protesting their ill treatment police have arrested some of her fellow students and bundled them into the back of vans. My ability to empathise with police brutality is therefore badly underdeveloped.

So, what on earth am I doing reviewing this book? Well, I was willing to be dissapointed, expecting that I might have to offer a polite comment about it being very good, but not quite my thing, reading only because a good friend wrote it. But it seduced me before I realised it and it engaged me in its own right as a bloody good read. I had not allowed myself the luxury of getting through it in a single sitting (page turner though it is) but the characters drag you back down the escarpment (I was in the Drakensberg) to the salty, humid Durban air to put your own morality beside theirs, and encourage you to ask yourself how you're really so different from any of them in the choices you would make in similar circumstances. Mr Patrick does not examine the effects of the brutal crime, which sets the scene for the book, on the family and friends of the victim, but if I were the father of that mutilated girl in a country where the general perception is that justice is hard to come by ... who would I be ... who would I become?

[Rodney Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The action is absolutely startling from the very first page. The big question overhanging everything is the morality of policing. At what point in the struggle against the most evil of criminals do the cops themselves turn to murder? This is a topic that is handled by the author with dexterity and sensitivity. There is no simple answer. We see good cops and bad cops and in-between cops, and all of them face the dilemma. Any reader thinking that some of the crime depicted here is over the top or far-fetched need only look at the headlines in the newspapers in South Africa, or probe further into some of the reports on specific crime in that embattled country. There, journalists report in gruesome detail on the most brutal of murders. And there are no actions in this book that cannot find their equivalent in real life. Not so much fiction as faction, perhaps.

The action comes full circle in a touching closing scene, so that there is resolution of the action and yet the door is left open for more. I can't say that I await the fourth in the series with bated breath, because I've already read it. But I recommend it to anyone who has made it this far. And on that score, I heard from a friend that the kindle version of number four has been updated to include a tantalising preview of the first couple of pages of a fifth book from the author. My colleague read it to me over the phone. Sounded every bit as gruesome and as exciting as any one of these first four books. What's the writer going to do? Change the adverts for a "quartet" to a "quintet"? He could aim for a baker's dozen, for all I care, as long as the books keep coming and as long as the bad guys keep getting their come-uppance.

[Kevin Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just read Simone de Beauvoir this is uncanny. Here's a thriller that has two pairs of amazing lesbian women right at the centre of the action. How refreshing. This is an intelligent thriller in which politics, race, gender, language, culture and patriarchy are in the background all the time, without ever being intrusive, but which are the very lifeblood of the society in which these characters move. This is a good old-fashioned police thriller but with important undertones about the modern world of policing. The central character Mashego - a towering giant of a macho man - is as sensitive to his lesbian partner cop as it is possibly for guy to get. Nothing is stated by the author. It is all just there for the back-story, which really intrigues me. Maybe I'm missing something because I haven't read the first two books in this series, yet, but this book and the fourth one are certainly sufficient to get me going now on the first two. This is thrilling, real, contemporary, in your face, and with action all the way from the first paragraph. One wonders about the morality underlying it all, though. Justice as retribution? After what's happening in Syria and Paris this is too scary to contemplate. Who's judge? Who's executioner? Who's the real victim? Is this brutal society the real culprit? Where does such evil come from, and how will this brave band of men and women cops hold back the terror? UPDATE: had another read of the final two chapters today, and found them really moving. This thing hasn't gone stale on me. Must now read the first in the series, which I haven't yet got to.

[Tshepo Mkhize · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely Easter reading. What a thriller. So real, so like my backyard in Empangeni. Hit squads. Revenge. Morality. Brilliant. I think this is so powerful. It's probably the best in the trilogy. The characters are so well formed. The language is excellent. The little interjections of Zulu words are perfect. It all makes it so very real. And so timely, with what is happening in South Africa at the moment. Corruption everywhere. Revenge in the air. What an explosion when it all happens. Heart-poundingly excellent.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received a copy from Goodreads Giveaway.

Very real crime thriller. Current and relevant with South Africa's issues, with gruesome details. Totally believable. Was a page turner for me. Excellent characters. Well written. Author does an outstanding job of depicting emotional and moral choices law enforcement officials must make. The extensive research shines through in this novel.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because I had to refer to the back of the book for definitions which I did not understand.

[Suzanne Kloppers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ha! I came across a five-star review of this book on amazon.co.uk by none other than my former Vice-Chancellor at Natal University! Because I liked that woman so, so much I thought I'd follow her advice and get the book. Wow! She's right. This is a killer, and it's set in my own back yard too. I loved it. Exciting and subtle and all about what is happening right now. I'm going to get more of this writer. Thanks for the tip Prof Gourley.

[Francis Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. I didn't think I could improve on my Christmas reading, after reading a couple of sensationally good books in the last ten days. Then I read a review of this one on Good Reads and I saw it was all about police hit squads in the country of my birth. What a high-octane thriller this is. Not a moment seems implausible, and a glance at any newspaper tells us that this is a perfect mirror held up to real life in Durban. Just a couple of weeks ago there was an event in the same area where there was a hit on criminals and it looked uncannily like what is described in this work of fiction. Is it fiction? Is it documentary? Whatever, it is totally believable, page-turning, full of action. It is also tender and witty. It is also very touchingly moving in parts. I loved the preface, too. It was great to hear something about how the book came into being. I'll definitely read more of this author's work.

[Mark Jacobzyck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knockout! Brilliant! I read a review just a couple of days ago saying that this was in "the caliber of best sellers like James Patterson and John Grisham" so I went and got it. I read it straight through the night in one sitting. I loved this. The dialogue is so rich and nuanced and the characters are likely to live with me for a long time. It really is in the same league as Grisham (I don't know Patterson but I've got a whole stack of Grishams and this is probably better than any of them). The second last chapter is outstanding: action and tears and page-turning excitement all the way. Then the denouement in the last scene is, against the rules of denouement, another scene that is shattered by action, before a beautiful lyrical closing. Wonderful stuff.

[Susan Bradshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like I encountered Detective Mashego the wrong way around, in terms of when the two books were written. I read 'The Mashego File' first after a friend's recommendation and only then listened to the audio version of 'Plain Dealing'.

Anyway, the first one I read is about his earlier adventures, so at least I have followed his story chronologically. Mashego is now my favourite detective. Wow. What a guy.

This was so good and I am fascinated as to how people in his home country keep going on with their lives against such appalling crime. Long live the cops. I never thought I'd ever say that after what we see in this country. But, hey, when a country is at war with itself, someone has to hold the line.

[David Lackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a "Readers Favorite" review of this and thought I better get it. Excellent! Loved it! Very topical now, given debates about how far cops can go in dealing with really bad bastards. But this is done so sensitively, with the arguments balanced on a knife-edge. Lovely writing. Robust and direct and filled with humor (I like the poor old Afrikaner detectives - the butt of jokes, but it's nice gentle laughter and not in any way cheap). The comments extracted from the reviews and pasted on the cover of this book are spot on: thrilling, adventurous read, and a super work of fiction.

[Sharon Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read one of the other books in this series some time ago and also listened to the audio. Then I did the same to this one (book and audio). I liked it more than the first one (which I felt slowed down a bit in one part with too much talking). But this one is action all the way. Mashego is a deep and troubled man, but I like his morals.

[Marianne Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't listened to many audio books but I liked this one enormously. It was such a lovely blend of thrilling action and trauma, along with uplifting human moments and a nice sense of humour. I liked the warm comforting narrator's voice and the characters were really understandable in their complex humanity.

[Dolly Madibane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodness. This was exciting, and all about places I know so well. Very, very exciting. Lots of action and very interesting characters. What brave people they are, these policemen and women. Very nice writing and nice local slang and little phrases of vernacular. Very good.

[Janet Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

It might be taking me a long time but I'm slowly reading through the four books in this series. The first two were amazingly good and this third one opens with a bang and doesn't stop banging. It is sensational.

There is a new detective added to the group of policemen and women that I have come to know so well through their banter and their deeds. The new guy is a huge black man who is like Hercules and he is a very good detective. But is he completely clean? Could he be the most corrupt of all the villains? Well, it depends on your own morality. It is truly sensational, the way we twist and turn through our sense of what is justice and what is not. The climax is amazing. Action all the way.

I can't wait for the next book in the series. In the meantime, this one retains the five-star rating have for the whole set of books.

[Jeff Sutherland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first book in this series about two years ago and only got around to the second a month ago. Now here I am with the third. It proves to be as good as the others. The narrator's accent is just right and the action is portrayed very vividly. It is a frighteningly real reflection of life in that region in Durban, South Africa, where murders and mayhem and cops and robbers are filling the newspapers every day. These characters seem so real, so life-like, and the audio version gives it extra punch.

I likened Jeremy Ryder to my hero Jack Reacher, but now there's another even better hero, who works with Ryder. Mashego is a great character and he is very well presented here. I look forward to more from this guy.

[Louise Truter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many years ago I listened to the Ryder Quartet and I remember liking it but then over time I forgot about it. More recently I read Patrick's short stories, and also his memoir earlier this year, which nudged my memory and prompted me to dip back into one of his crime books. I'm glad I did. Plain Dealing is very exciting and very well written. Mashego is a fascinating character. His moral dilemma is the same as mine. I get so disgusted with crime that I fear my own morality would be in doubt if I sought retribution. The issues are complex and stay with me for a long time on every occasion I read about bad crime. This book is deeply troubling and deeply, deeply satisfying, too. It's about time the good guys win.

[Victoria White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its more than a year since I read the last one in this series. I'm sorry now that it took me so long. This was even better than the last one. In fact, it's probably my favorite one in the series. What is so strange is that I didn't realize I'd listened to the audiobook two years ago on the subway. I only recognized it as I was into chapter two, so I went and found the audiobook again to listen to it while I read.

The action is frightening and it's all so real. This is what a war zone looks like from my safe little room in New York. Thank goodness we don't have this mayhem on the streets here.

[Carmen Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Mashego. I read the other book about him five years ago and this book now shows him in a different context, so I found that very intriguing. I love the way these links play out in any author's work. Like The girl with the dragon tattoo, where those books are all linked but you don't have to read them all to enjoy any one of them. I listened to the audio of this one and it was good but not perfect, with some accents difficult to distinguish from others. The main thing is that the characters are all so well written. They are entertaining, very real (I know because of my own South African roots), and above all, it was a very enjoyable action-packed crime thriller.

[Bernard Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I read the other thrillers of the Ryder Quartet some time ago but I read them out of order. It was good to fill in the gap with this one, which I now think is the best in the series. This is because of the character of Detective Mashego, who I think is just great. I now need to re-think my original review of the other Mashego book on Goodreads, because with the way corruption in the police force has changed, I now see more objectively what the writer is saying about the moral dilemmas faced by police dealing with evil criminals.

Another fine police thriller. Page-turningly good, but it's even better to have received the audible version as well, which I got from a complimentary code.

[Priscilla Gumede · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third in the series is even better than the first two. The opening of the story is truly shocking. Moody and dark, it ends in a crescendo of violence. Then the detectives get to work and their teamwork is very impressive as they track down the villains.

But who are the real villains? It is all mysterious and seething with violence all the way. Yet the book is very uplifting, with touching relationships and lots of pain underlying the actions and motivations of the key figures. This was a very enjoyable reading experience.

[Evelyn Gaintree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a great deal. The narration is good, though one or two of the characters' accents were not sustained. I had already read the book and greatly enjoyed it, and then received a code for the audiobook with the instruction to review it exactly as I wanted to, with no obligation from the company or expectation that I should review positvely. I needed no such guidance. It is thrilling, dark, menacing, and very exciting. There is a horrific murder at one point (in fact, more than one) but it is all handled with finesse and style. I heartily recommend it.

[Evelyn Cronje · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this ever since, years ago, I read "Gun Dealer". I finally got around to it. I liked it very much. The villains are brutal, the detectives are - what can I say - even more brutal? No. Not quite, but they certainly pull no punches (except when they take down the very bad guys). I liked Mashego's character. He is a very complex man with a terribly painful history, which makes him what he is. All of the complexity of the man is crucial to understanding the morality of, and the action in, the book.