Wake Up Dead

Cape Town #2

by Roger Smith

On a blowtorch-hot night in Cape Town, ex-model Roxy Palmer and her gunrunner husband, Joe, are carjacked, leaving Joe lying in a pool of blood. As the carjackers make their getaway, Roxy makes a choice that changes her life forever.Disco and Godwynn, the ghetto gangbangers who sped away in Joe's convertible, will stop at nothing to track her down. Billy Afrika, a mixed-race ex-cop turned mercenary, won't let her out of his sight because Joe owed him a chunk of money. And hunting them all is Piper, a love-crazed psychopath determined to renew his vows with his jailhouse "wife," Disco.As these desperate lives collide and old debts are settled in blood, Roxy is caught in a wave of escalating violence in the beautiful and brutal African seaport.

Genres: Thriller, Crime, South Africa, Africa, Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Roger Smith's thrillers Nowhere, Man Down, Sacrifices, Capture, Dust Devils, Wake Up Dead, Mixed Blood & Ishmael Toffee are published in eight languages and two are in development as movies in the U.S.

His books have won the German Crime Award and been nominated for Spinetingler Magazine Best Novel awards. He also writes horror under the pen name Max Wilde.

“Roger Smith writes with brutal beauty." The Washington Post

“Smith’s writing is astonishing.” Cleveland Plain Dealer

“You’ll struggle to find a more forceful voice in current crime writing.”
Die Zeit (Germany)

“Smith is the shooting star of the crime scene.” Radio Europe

"If you are a fan of George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane, give Roger Smith a close look." BookPage

Reviews

[♡ Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roxy und ihr Mann Joe werden überfallen. Joe wird angeschossen; die Täter fliehen mit dem geklauten Mercedes. Die Waffe bleibt am Tatort zurück, und kurzerhand erschießt Roxy ihren Mann.
Damit beginnt die Geschichte und zieht eine ganze Reihe weiterer Morde und Gewalt nach sich.
Das Buch ist spannend geschrieben und lässt sich auch leicht lesen, aber mir persönlich war die Ausdrucksweise in diesem Buch etwas zu vulgär und auch zu brutal.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author is known for being uncompromising when it comes to violence and brutality, but this book is Smith at his most savage. As usual, his Cape Town is a Grand Guignol stage of crime and violence, and this time, he focuses on a relatively simple but tragic carjacking, and the large cast of characters that all connect around this crime, including an American model, a failed cop, rival gangbangers, a violent psychopath that only wants to reunite with his prison wife, and a young boy who only wants to celebrate his birthday.

This book isn’t for the faint of heart or people who are turned off by graphic violence. It really rides the line of being gratuitous but it ultimately transcends this and rings with surprising sincerity because of how aware Smith is of his characters and their desires. The cast really sings here, as Smith efficiently illustrates who they are and what makes them tick. This book would simply just be an example of violence porn if it wasn’t for how well-drawn and complex of a hero Billy Africa is, or how great of a villain the monstrous Piper is. That’s one of Roger Smith’s strengths as a writer: the way he can somehow take despicable characters and make reading about them irresistible.

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was thrilled to find another South African crime writer, but found the violence is this book to be excessive. The book opens with a carjacking in Cape Town where the arms dealer husband of American Roxy Palmer dies and the gangbanger perpetrators (Disco and Godwynn), take center stage. Meanwhile, ex-cop turned mercenary, Billy Afrika is owed money, goes to see the husband, and then decides Roxy can help. Meanwhile, a local cop smells a rat, and decides to investigate the killing. Finally, Piper, a psychopath prisoner, is bent on getting his paroled jailhouse "wife" Disco back. Afrika ignites a gang war, and there is mayhem and slaughter galore. A dark thriller, with an authentic feel, showing the underbelly of poverty and despair in Cape Town.

[Amelia Strydom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe I haven't heard of Roger Smith before, especially since he is a South African author. Wake Up Dead is a fast-paced thriller with lots of action: it starts with a bang and the suspense builds right up until the cataclysmic end. I liked the characters and found myself rooting for the protagonists (who certainly weren't angels). It is NOT for sensitive readers, though, the gang-violence is upsetting and pretty graphic. Looking forward to my next Roger Smith read!

[Francis Kessy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being a 290 pages thriller, the whole plot took not even a week. The Book is about a Business Man hijacked with his wife on their way home after meeting a cannibal. After hijackers had left and dropped their gun, the irresistible wife shot the Husband.

A series of events erupt and within few days the wife get the Car. It is a fiction about the post apartheid South Africa and some of the plots seem to be real like the spooky lives of inmates at Pollsmoor Prison, a prison I hear you wouldn’t want your enemies to be in there.

I truly recommend it for a person who like fast paced thrillers.

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for a page-turning crime thriller? Wake Up Dead is violent crime story, full of bad people doing bad things.

With a book title like that you shouldn’t be expecting puppies, ponies and rainbows.

Two meth addicts on the streets of Cape Town decide to carjack a Mercedes. They pull ex-model Roxy and her husband out of the car and shoot him in the leg, leaving behind the gun in their meth-induced haze. Roxy decides on a quicky divorce and uses the gun to end her marriage. “Till death us do part.”

That opening leads us through the steamy underbelly of Cape Town, South Africa. The action is unrelenting as Roger Smith peels back the story like the layers of an onion. The story drives you forward as each vignette has you wondering where it will take you next. The characters are interesting enough to keep you involved. None of the characters are likeable. Each is deeply flawed, if not down-right psychopathic.

This is Smith’s second book. His first, Mixed Blood, has been optioned as a movie. Reading Wake Up Dead, it felt like a Guy Ritchie movie. Criminals coming together because a misfortune of events pulls them together. The murder and mayhem ensues.

The publisher provided me with a copy of the book in the hopes that I would review the book. It was very good, so I am willing to spread the word. The book goes on sale February 2.

If Wake Up Dead sound interesting, you can also read read the first chapter of Wake Up Dead (.pdf) on the Roger Smith Books website.

[Joemmama · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thriller is one that keeps you up, and reading to the end! Set in South Africa, Roxy, an American model, and Joe, her gunrunner husband, a man with very unsavory friends, are carjacked, leaving Joe dead in a pool of blood. Disco and Godwyn, the carjackers, are meth addicts, who have no idea what they've gotten into. Joe owes money to Billy Afrika, a mercenary, and former policeman, who appoints himself Roxy's protector, hoping to cash in and get his money from her. Also thrown into the powder keg, is Piper, a convict doing several life sentences, who wants nothing more than to be reunited with his prison "wife" Disco.

South Africa is like so many countries, divided into the "haves" and the "have nots". The grinding poverty is shown in great detail, along with the corruption and despair, that seems to hang in the air.

All the ins and outs make for one exciting and unforgettable story that will make you think about what you might do, either the same or differently, in the same circumstances. I look forward to reading Roger Smiths other novel, "Mixed Blood".

I received this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers.

[Djakata Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book. it's not for the faint at heart or the easily offended. it's raw, it's gros, disgusting, it has rape, sodomy , you name it. But it has a terrific story and plotand the characters are great. I had a lot of fun reading this and the ending was perfect.

[Delta Tish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, it keeps you wondering whats going to happen.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A Thriller" is right--I had a hard time putting this book down. Full of action and characters who seemed to come to life. I'll look for more by this author.

[Elinor Richter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Porno gibt es in vielen volkstümlichen Varianten– zum Beispiel Foodporn. Ich kreiere jetzt mal die Unterabteilung Crimeporn, in die ich Thriller einsortiere, die sich in Gewalt suhlen, als Selbstzweck. Ich habe Hardcore-Krimis (Wilhelm Busch!) schon früh zu lesen begonnen, bin also ziemlich abgebrüht, aber Roger Smith’ Thriller stimmte mich jetzt doch reichlich ärgerlich oder eher - angeödet. Ok, ich zähl mal auf, was u.a. innerhalb von vier Tagen geschieht (und aus vergangenen Zeiten erinnert wird) – aufgeschlitzte Bäuche mit Ausweidung, drei Enthauptungen, bei lebendigem Körper verbrennen, gebrochene Gliedmaßen, im Knast mal ordentlich durchvergewaltigt werden, geschlitzte Kehlen, natürlich reichliche Schussverletzungen, manche sofort wirkend andere mit Verröchelung. Wenn ihr euch eine Liste mit allem, was ihr eklig findet, erstellen müsstet – hier findet ihr Anregung! Erbrochenes, Exkremente, Smegma, fadenziehender Sabber, schwarze Zähne, Ströme von Blut, Mundgeruch, Eiter und alles selbstverständlich bedeckt von brodelnden, schwarzen Fliegenteppichen Ok, ich hör schon auf. Die Charaktere sind überzeichnet und nicht besonders sympathisch, was mit einem Hauch von Humor vielleicht zu ertragen gewesen wäre, aber wir sind ja schließlich nicht bei Quentin Tarrantino! Im Feuilleton wird Smith übrigens geliebt, weil so hardcore, noir und kompromisslos. Einige, die wie ich den Roman verrissen haben, weisen darauf hin, dass der Debütroman sehr vielversprechend und deshalb der hier besprochene eine Enttäuschung war.
Weil ich jetzt vielleicht doch zu sehr auf die Tube gedrückt habe, werde ich demütig in ihn hineinschauen.

[Isabell Meintjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book.
I will say the amount of violence in this book is crazy and it just goes and goes. But for the storyline, it makes sense when you think that where the story plays out, gangs and drugs and violence always go together.
I keep on going between whom I hope survived the story.
The story is fast paced, it takes place in a period of 4 days.
Amazing writing that keeps you hooked from page one.

[Asher Locketz · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Wake Up Dead' was my introduction to the violent, gritty and grimy Crime Thriller's penned by Roger Smith, a book which pulled no punches in its portrayal of the punishing and transgressive malaise that is South African crime.

Hard Hitting, captivating and propulsive prose govern a narrative that is a veritable roller coaster ride of note.

Highly suggested!

[Bernie Charbonneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the novels produced by this South African writer. These are not for the faint of heart as they are graphic and deal with the underworld of the Cape flats. Definitely not a holiday classic!

[Peg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, very well written but so dark. Does not paint a pretty picture of South Africa's Cape Town. Much more violent than the first book. Another hard to put down look at love, hate, greed, vengeance and redemption

[Siddhant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roger Smith is a genius for having crafted such a brilliant story. The brutality and the unrelenting violence of the books drags you helplessly till the end. Full of terrifying monsters, this book is unlike any other. I look forward to reading all of Smiths books.

[Rudi Opperman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thrilling, but very violent.

[Betsy Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting thriller. Good characters, but if you don't like violence and blood, this book is not for you.

[Ginette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page turner that is hard to put down. I did struggle with the level of violence in the story although it did come across as authentic. Not recommended for gentler souls.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story but super violent. Off putting to tell the truth. Probably a mistake to read this right before a trip to Cape Town. On the flip side, I recognized the prison by name..?

[Stephen Bonebrake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn’t hardly put this down. Brutally fast paced and bloody and full of graphic violence. Does not paint South Africa and Cape Town in a nice light.

[C Manter · Rating 2 out of 5]

More violence on every page

[Lisa Rutledge]

It took all I had to finish this book. I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters at all and found the story very disjointed and hard to follow.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roger Smith's second novel "Wake Up Dead" is definitely not in the same category as his great debut "Mixed Blood" (4 stars; my review is on Goodreads). Mr. Smith's first thriller, in addition to extreme violence and interesting plot, had depth and realistic characterizations. Both novels paint a horrifying portrait of Cape Flats, the Cape Town ghetto, but while the first book delivers acute social observation, "Wake Up Dead", also very brutal, is mostly about the plot and does not make connection between the violence and the social conditions.

Roxy, an ex-model and wife of an owner of a Cape Town agency that provides mercenary services, survives carjacking during which her husband is killed. Roxy's future is threatened by Billy Afrika, an ex-cop and a security contactor, back in Cape Town after being fired from his protection job in Iraq. A repulsive detective Maggott, one of the few non-corrupt cops, is trying to find the truth about the carjacking. These three as well as almost ten other main characters try to achieve their goals during a shaky truce between two powerful gangs. There will be blood - in mass quantities.

Everybody in Cape Flats constantly smokes meth (tik-tik), and meth-fueled vicious murders and rapes are common. Life of a black or a colored person has no value whatsoever. The violence is quite graphically described, although the climactic scenes toward the end of the novel are so theatrical that the brutality feels cartoonish. There are many well-written passages, but also several painfully bad sentences like, for example, "the elation he'd felt for the last day had drained slowly from him like stale piss down a backed-up urinal."

If you haven't read Mr. Smith, read "Mixed Blood" first. All there is in "Wake Up Dead" is the plot. The former is like a luxurious and nutritious dinner, the latter is just fast-food fare.

Two stars.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re heading on holiday to South Africa do not pack this book; indeed, the South African Tourist Board probably has a contract out on Smith’s head. It’s difficult to think of a crime that it is not committed in Wake Up Dead - armed robbery, murder, theft, blackmail, rape, fraud, bribery, assault, kidnapping, cannibalism, abandonment, carjacking, drug dealing, the harvesting of body parts; the list is endless. And they happen multiple times. In other words, Wake Up Dead is not for the faint hearted. From its inception it’s a fast moving, violent tale, whose pace and body count rises as it progresses to its bloody conclusion. Few of the characters have any redeemable qualities; one way or another they are all on the make, scrabbling and fighting to stay alive and out of each other’s clutches. And yet it is oddly compelling, sucking the reader into a gritty, gripping story that is full of twists and sucker punches. At times the violence seems a little gratuitous, but in the main illustrates the social realities of gang culture in the ghetto and prison, and the cheapness and tenuous nature of such lives. Given the pace and intricacies of the interlocking subplots, the story could have easily slipped into a narrative mess, but Smith writes with an assured hand that keeps everything in motion but straightforward to follow. I was hooked from the start, caught in the headlights as the carnage and life histories of its victims unfolded on the page. The most visceral, action packed rollercoaster ride of a novel I’ve read this year.

[Tom V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, this is a dark one. It just grinds away on you, like one of those tree-stump removal machines, eventually leaving a pile of chips where you thought your soul used to be. If there is a hero here, I can't find him; everybody in this work is playing the angle, getting the edge (sometimes a knife edge), working the system, gutting him before he guts you. The tension is unrelieved throughout and it's physically hard reading. Brutal.

Billy Afrika is back in town, looking for his mercenary pay to help protect the wife and child of his murdered former partner from the gang violence that is everywhere around them. There are enough murderers, rapists, thieves, perverts, and drug dealers per square inch of page in this book to make one doubt that anything human exists in the wild west that is the Cape Town Flats. Enter a murdering wife, a cop gone rogue, rival gangs that will kill as quickly as breathe, killers dressed as Uncle Sam in minstrel-garb, and bag lady beheaders, and you'd have a more-than-comic stew if it weren't so gruesome. Four days in this hell, and everyone dead or nearly so...well you get the picture.

Mr. Smith Goes To Cape Town, and he didn't write a Jimmy Stewart movie script.

3 stars.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story but this is a tough read and not for the faint of heart. I kept reading hoping that something would redeem someone but no such luck. This is a rough book from beginning to end.

All the characters have basically lost or given up their humanity and therefore have few redeeming qualities. I can honestly say that I didn't like any of the characters, they are all violent and out for themselves. Though Piper is the only one who actually scared me. What a maniac. Our heroine (and I use that turn lightly since she murdered her husband) is not a very nice person and I was surprised when she made it through unscathed. But I guess the author couldn't kill everyone off now could he?

The story moves from one violent encounter to another without stopping for breath and violence is definitely the name of the game in Capetown - murder, blackmail, gang rape, drugs, kidnapping, assault, nasty prison encounters and basically anything else of a violent nature that you can imagine was in this novel. The author definitely has a way with words. I listened to the audiobook so I can only recall one sentence but it's a doosey.

He was fighting his way out like a newborn out of a world of shit.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I was just the wrong audience for this book, since I found the tone and the general crassness of its attitude a turn off almost from the very beginning. I don't mean to be a prude, and I think I like some material that's a little bit edgy-- hell, I think I gave Kathy Acker five stars at one point, etc-- but I felt the way that prison rape was a joke except when it was the worst possible thing anyone could imagine, and the way that dominates the book, was a little obnoxious, in a snickering behind your hands kind of way. I felt the same about the pervasive violence against women, the sorta-smears against black Africans and muti, and well, the fact that the prostitute here was Ukrainian, which felt pretty central casting to me as well.

I like a book that effectively delivers thrills. But for me, what thrills this book delivered were undermined by the attitude of the narration, which wanted to be tough as nails but felt like high school locker room posturing. I know that in modern crime writing there's a kind of one-upsmanship that goes on, and really, I don't really care too much in the abstract. But I read this book and it kind of turned me off.

[Derrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book flat out kicks a**! I think the most amazing aspect of Smith's writing style is how he allows you to see the characters in a certain manner for a few chapters and then he puts you into their heads and turns your impression of them completely upside down. The characters all have their own story to tell and Smith tells them all with a style that keeps you hungering for more of their narrative. Smith is one of those writers that switch narrators and when he leaves one perspective you feel angry because you are into that character's point of view, but then you start the next chapter and think "Oh...I couldn't wait to see what this character was up to". Smith is one of the newer hard-boiled noir authors along with Millar, Zeltserman, Flexer and Chaney that is giving the genre new life. Smith has already established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the noir field and his writing seems to have gotten even better in his second book.

[Les Braddock · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book that I have read by this author. I was pleasantly surprised. Brought up gritty images of the underbelly of Cape Town, South Africa, a Place I quickly admit to having no familiarity with other than the name. Gang rule, corrupt cops, the ever present war between the haves and the have-nots. A picture painted in dirt, blood and pain.

The characters were very sharply drawn reflection of the society they were formed in. Bo one is an Angel, that is certain from the very beginning. The bad guys are Very Bad, while the good guys are just slightly less bad. You know who to cheer for, but there are times when that happens very reluctantly.

In all this was a rapid fire thrill ride, that kept you going at a wicked pace till the very end. Highly recommended read, and will definitely not be the last book from Roger Smith that I read.