The Good Nigerian

by David Dison

From the author of Death in the New Republic comes another thrilling crime story featuring hard-bitten Johannesburg detective, Jerome Nossel.

A distress call from Nossel’s old friend, Alex, breaks into the detective’s lazy Sunday afternoon. He is propelled into the glamour and sleaze of the city’s underworld by a kidnap and a demand for an exotic ransom. Accompanied by Alex’s captivating Nigerian wife Ngozi, they scour the fleshpots of Johannesburg, from its mega-rich northern suburbs to its sordid core in the dark city. They are pursued by the crazed steroidal enforcer who answers to only one man – Yuri Kramerov, the pimpmeister of Doornfontein.

With time running out, and in their desperate quest to recover the ransom, encounters, characters and places create a Chandler-esque story, with Johannesburg as the main attraction.

159 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 14, 2021

Reviews

[Tom Mudge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. Dison has a fantastic way with words and is really great at creatively telling a story. However, I agree with a previous reviewer in that it’s not long enough. The book feels to cut up. And what’s worse is the editing. Not only is spacing an issue, but it’s also got a misspelling — Hugh Masakela instead of Hugh Masekela.

If it wasn’t for the lack of editing, I’d probably give this 4 Stars.

[Mish Middelmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining holiday reading, sustained by love for Johannesburg and hope for the future.

There is a rollicking, summer beer-and-braaivleis feel to this book, provided you don't mind quite a lot of grit blowing onto your braai. The grit is everywhere actually - in the streets of Johannesburg, the backdrop of apartheid and state capture, and in the sordid story of modern slavery, trafficking and violence. Yet our hero manages to roll through it all with a positive outlook, and I enjoyed that.

In many ways this is a prelude to a film script, and perhaps that is what the author intended. The book does its best to straddle local and international audiences, explaining some of the local colour and providing a glossary to help the curious with more. The rough edges of the writing, sometimes too many adjectives, were in some ways in keeping with the rough-hewn characters eking out their lives, crimes and punishments on the southern tip of Africa.

[David Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great story. Problem was, there wasn't enough of it. There could have been so much more description, context and background. This is a book that should have had 500 pages rather than 185. David Dison is a wonderful story teller, but he writes as if he's writing for radio - he has to get to the point to quickly - he goes from A to B as if on a motorway rather than on the scenic route. My criticisme won't stop me from reading more David Dison - this was my first and certainly won't be my last. One other complaint, that isn't related to the author but rather to the publishers (and not Jacana in particular, but South African print houses, including newspapers, in general). Do you not hire editors anymore (I know the answer). Editing is an important part of the process and it is a rare treat these days to see anything in print without errors.