Dust Devils
Roger Smith
Serpent’s Tail
When I first met Roger Smith last year, after he brought out Wake Up Dead following the success of Mixed Blood, I was impressed, during an interview, with his clarity of thought and the honesty with which he engaged. It is this same clarity that comes through in his novels.
Much like Smith himself – he is self-assured and comes across with an authenticity that makes for a powerful impact – his latest offering, Dust Devils, is superbly crafted with not a scrap of dialogue wasted or a phrase of description out of place.
Above all, Dust Devils is master storytelling, a crime ride that is wildly dark, riveting and original, a combination that has catapulted Smith to the highest ranks of the crime-writing game.
Not only is Dust Devils getting great reviews in the US, in June it was named a Der Spiegel crime novel of the month, and last month it was No 1 on the KrimiZeit top 10, as were Mixed Blood and Wake Up Dead in the years they hit the shelves.
Whereas Mixed Blood and Wake Up Dead are set in Cape Town, Smith ventures further afield this time round, setting the action in an imaginary KwaZulu-Natal town, Bhabatha’s Rock.
“I took a research trip, but also, in the 1980s, during the time of so-called faction fights and the ANC/ Inkatha war, I spent time working on a film in the Tugela Ferry area, which informed the back stories of certain of my characters,” says Smith.
The setting also served as inspiration for the title: “Dusty place. Evil. I was struck by how parched Tugela Ferry was.”
A telling line in the novel reads: “Dust, dung, rotting garbage, the stink of rural poverty.” Which is Disaster Zondi’s first impression as he returns home to be drawn into a vicious cycle of corruption at the highest levels.
Zondi, who featured in Mixed Blood, and on sabbatical from cop duties in Dust Devils, is indirectly pitted against Inja Mazibuko, an oppressor who rules his village with fear.
He’s a psychopath, tyrant and sycophant who’s responsible for the murder of journalist Robert Dell’s wife and children.
As Dell seeks retribution, he is reunited with his estranged father, Bobby Goodbread, released from prison on compassionate grounds.
Add to the mix a broody Zulu virgin named Sunday, earmarked for a suspect marriage to Mazibuko, and you have five characters on a tightly woven collision course with one another in a story that engages on an emotional and visceral level.
Although Dust Devils gets a resounding “yes” from me, Smith expressed concerns that the novel may not be as warmly received by others here. If either readers or reviewers are sensitive to showing our beloved land in a good light, then he might hit a few bumps. No doubt the book exposes uncomfortable truths and paints a bleak picture.
“I’m very happy with that,” says Smith, “since I’ve always loved noir writers like James M Cain and Jim Thompson. Also, I don’t write conventional mysteries or police procedurals, so my work is much closer to the noir structure where characters aren’t cops or outsiders called in to restore moral balance, but rather people directly connected to the crime: victims and perpetrators. Noir fiction is dystopian, dark, and frequently without Hollywood endings. It often deals with tough social issues.
“Interestingly, there is a real resurgence of noir fiction in the US now. Younger writers, in their 20s and 30s, from the heartland of post-9/11 America – the mid and southwest – are telling stories of poverty, unemployment, disintegrating families and rural meth labs.
“Noir seems to resurface during times of uncertainty, when societies have lost their moral compass.”
In part it is this very moral compass that drives Smith to explore controversial territory. He regards Dust Devils as his most personal book so far, and the most challenging to write. “I believe that crime writers, especially those working in a country as plagued by crime as South Africa is, are disingenuous if they say they are just writing entertainment.
“So, I wanted to write about things that outraged me. Scared me. Saddened me. But I’m not up on a pulpit here. I write thrillers, hopefully page-turners, and there’s nothing more tedious than the forward thrust of a crime novel being interrupted as a writer sermonises.
“So, the challenge with Dust Devils was to write a book that was fast-moving and gripping, but that also took a hard look at certain South African realities.”
One of which is the disturbing tendency of South African men saving themselves from HIV by indulging in sex with virgin girls. “I’m not going to quote statistics,” says Smith, “but it’s no secret that thousands of kids are murdered in South Africa each year. Many of them are also sexually abused.
“Why there isn’t greater public outrage beats me. We live in a country where the greatest taboo is violated. Daily.”
Dust Devils also brings into focus the intimate family, taking a hard look at dysfunction. “I seem to be drawn to dysfunctional characters. Crime fiction is appealing because you’re writing about people who are right out on the torn edges of society – desperate people doing desperate things.
“In my experience these people seldom come from happy, nuclear families – there is often a history of abuse and deprivation. This sense of family karma is a big part of Dust Devils. The sins of the fathers, I suppose.”
In this case Robert Dell’s father, Bobby Goodbread, with past links to the CIA, he makes an early impact with the line: “I busted Nelson Mandela’s black ass. You’re looking at the reason he got sent to prison.”
American characters feature squarely in each of his novels, but Smith says it is no commercial scheme. “My books have ensemble casts, shifting between very different characters and points of view. Having a foreigner in the mix allows me to bring the perspective of a ‘stranger in paradise’ and dissect things about South Africa that would seem contrived if I had to use a local character.
“Europeans, generally, have quite a developed sense of South Africa, its apartheid history and its present challenges. I have an English character in my fourth book, Capture, who is scathing, snobbish and cynical. She was a helluva lot of fun to write. An American character could quite believably be a little more naive, and get caught up in something that takes them by surprise.”
Sharing more on the writing process, he says: “As for the rest, it’s reading as much as possible. Talking to as many people as possible. Dredging things out of the ditches of my memory that I thought, or hoped, I’d forgotten. The usual business of writing.”
Then comes the usual business that follows the writing. Smith is starting a South African book tour promoting the deliciously wicked Dust Devils, a crime-thriller must-read for fans of the genre.
l Hichens is an author and editor. Her crime novel, Divine Justice, will be published in October. - Cape Times