SA reads discussion

Your comments on the second quarter of the book.

So the book finally started gaining momentum for me around chapter 22 with the shooting at the Mall. However, it felt as if there were too many security staff killed for this to be believable and completely out of character for the majority of professional assassins that I have met in my reading career.

There seems to be a lot of corpses strewn around this book compared to some of the others. I may be miscounting, but Thirteen Hours have two actual murders (both committed before the books starts) and the two other persons who are shot in the book both end up recovering in hospital.

7 Days have three people getting killed (again the first murder occurs before the story starts) and two other shootings.

I'm not convinced that the death count is necessary for the story line.

Carolien wrote: "So the book finally started gaining momentum for me around chapter 22 with the shooting at the Mall. However, it felt as if there were too many security staff killed for this to be believable and c..."

Agreed. Deon has over-reached in his attempt to write a truly 'international' thriller. It reads like he fell in love with an idea for a plot and then forced it to work. A lot of banal, cheesy speeches by characters.

He may however have achieved the objective of an "international" thriller since this book has the highest ratings of any of his books on Goodreads.

The other dynamic may be another dilemma facing South African crime writers of police procedurals who have been relatively positive about the police. Quite a lot of the book is premised on the SSA interfering in a matter for political reasons. As we are very aware based on the recently leaked cables, this whole scenario is quite probable in SA. I'm not sure whether the plot wants to highlight the issue and take a stand against it or whether it is more a convenience. Mbali is the voice of our conscience in the book and I admire her more and more. I suppose I'll have better clarity on the issue by the end of the book.

Here's an interesting article by Margie Orford on her experience of the Marikana slaughter in her writing.
http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2013/09/2...