The Affair by Lee Child
(Bantam Press, R215)
This was my first dip into a Child crime thriller and I realised why he has been such a winner for those seriously into this genre. The story is gripping, with many side alleys allowing the reader to grapple with the puzzle of “whodunit?”
It’s written in a fast-paced style that pushes you ahead, which is exactly what you want in this kind of read. You want to be taken away from your daily chores and stresses. The story also reads as strongly visually as it does mentally. It’s as if you can play the movie in your head while turning the pages.
It also buys into many of the issues people are dealing with in this new millennium – such as the role of the military and the reason it has become so powerful in a country as mighty as the US. What happens to all that power when it falls into the hands of people who don’t know how to handle the responsibility?
Child returns with an old favourite, Jack Reacher. He’s a fighting man, a major in the military police, and he walks a straight and narrow path. He’s one of the good guys and we know that.
It’s a tale of choices as the investigator is pushed in one direction and yet we know that’s not the route this guy will follow. He meets the county sheriff, a former US marine, and together they think they’re working this crime with one obstacle after another surfacing.
It’s good stuff if you want to escape.
Headhunters by Jo Nesbo
(Harvill Secker, R215)
This one says on the cover that it will soon be a major motion picture (major, nogal). I was keen to read the “new Nordic sensation”, as he’s being billed. It’s tough to follow in the shoes of someone like Stieg Larsson, who has broken all records, but Nesbo is not without his own accolades as one who joins the ranks of Larsson, Peter Hoeg (Ms Smilla’s Feeling For Snow) and Mankell in winning the Nordic crime novel award for his first book.
Naturally this one is translated but it is done well and, again, readability is the key as you’re marched along by the adventures of Roger Brown. It’s an interesting premise because, from the start, this is not a nice leading man.
It’s quite tough to get to like him or even root for his continued existence. In this harsh world perhaps this is one of those characters one could live without. But he is precisely what makes this such a gripping tale.
It’s different, too, which is what you’re looking for in this popular genre. The more thrillers sell, the more authors entertain the idea of telling these racy, pacy stories. It’s not a done deal, though. Writing, plot and character are all crucial.
Our lead character, Roger Brown, seems to have all the accoutrements. He is wealthy and the top man in his business. In fact he selects others for jobs. Naturally he also has the most exquisite house and an astonishing wife but it’s tough to create a perfect world and, to achieve this, he leads a double life.
It all comes crashing down and our peculiar hero has to try his darndest not to go under. It’s a complicated story and, in some of the violent scenes, the Coen brothers’ nastier moments in Fargo came to mind. But it will keep you racing to the end to make sense of the story.
No One Left To Tell by Karen Rose
(Headline, R210 )
It’s the writing in this one that really bothered me and I felt that with a really good edit job, the story would have been raised to a completely new level. The story itself was intriguing and kept me interested. Almost double the amount of pages of the Nesbo and a hundred more than Child, it could easily have been trimmed without losing anything.
More than anything it was the love scenes between the two lead characters that had me cringing. Those need to be written really well to add to a story and while one sees what the author is trying to do, she doesn’t get it right.
If you can bear some of the padding and skip through quickly, the story and the people are good enough for a lekker read. It’s one of those mysteries where class plays a dominant role. It’s all about those with power who believe they can get away with it while those victimised seek their rise to glory as pay-off.
The plot – and this one is a plot in capital letters – deals with Ramon Munoz, who has spent five years in prison convicted of a murder he did not commit. It’s the usual story of someone who has few defences and even less means and who becomes the scapegoat for people with clout.
It’s a good story with some marvellous twists – not always told with the necessary skill.
Death Comes To Pemberley by PG James
(Faber and Faber, R194.95)
She’s one of the classic crime writers and with this she’s moved into an even more classical realm, the world of Jane Austen. No one personifies Austen more than the infuriating Darcy, who almost broke Elizabeth’s heart in Pride and Prejudice. What has happened to the glorious couple since their marriage, their respective families and everything that has changed in their lives is part and parcel of this delicious tale.
The year is 1803 and the pomp and circumstance of their very existence allows for all the intrigue a crime writer could wish for. How clever of the astute PD James to latch onto the Austen tale for yet another in her smart series of crime novels, which have long established her at the top of the list.
She pulls it off brilliantly both in the sense of the characters and their world. If you’re a long-term reader, Austen will not have escaped you, but how much you remember or favour her style will dictate how you read this one. I have a few Austen fanatics in my immediate circle of friends, some who would easily slip back into that world. They’re going to lap this up. If you really know Austen’s work, like PD James obviously does, you will catch all the references, which will add to the fun.
But even if you’re just an admirer of Ms Austen, this one will pull you into that world and make you forget our fast-paced existence. But remember, this is almost a homage from James to Austen. Don’t go expecting too much. It’s a crime novel in the old sense of the word. These were different times and murders that happened in the middle of the night could not be solved by the scientific shenanigans of today.
If you’re one of those who delights in the peculiarities of Downton Abbey, you will probably whisk through this one.
Piekniek by Hangklip by Kerneels Breytenbach
(Human and Rousseau, R220)
For those who understand the taal, this is a great new local addition to the genre. Breytenbach has written before with relative success. He was at the head of one of the mighty local publishers for a long time, but has now turned seriously to writing and it shows.
When someone manages to have some fun with an often formulaic genre and turn it a little on its head, it’s always an adventure. When he is playing intellectual games and manages to keep it accessible and not have ordinary readers run for their lives, it’s an even bigger coup.
Hold thumbs that this one is translated because as the Michiel Heyns translation of Etienne van Heerden’s 30 Nights in Amsterdam proved, it can be done brilliantly while capturing all the nuances, even if with a slightly different flavour.
What Breytenbach has done while buying into a current South African crime scenario with great gusto, as he draws on the widest field of players possible, is to give us a flourish of local references and a style that is contemporary and cheeky.
His particular tale is about a robber who loses his mojo in the process of murder because he trips while shooting an elderly couple and kisses their distressed daughter on her mouth because of the fall. It’s about getting his mojo back, and to do that he has to find her and kill her too.
As the title suggests, the weekend playground of the Cape’s wealthy inhabitants introduces a specific setting and crowd.
Opening with a note explaining that his book has been written in a vague approximation of the style of Henry Fielding (Joseph Andrews), as well as the title, which is a clever steal of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Breytenbach seems to imply that he is writing with his tongue firmly in cheek.
It seeps through the story dramatically and produces dollops of fun for the reader as you try to keep up as the author sometimes rushes in where angels fear to tread.
If you cannot wait for the translation, which I hope is already part of the plan, and if your command of the language allows you to read more widely, don’t even think about missing this one.