Deon Meyer Dead Before Dying

Dead Before Dying

Deon Meyer

Little, Brown, May 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0316000132

In Cape Town, South Africa, a killer has murdered three victims with no apparent links. The culprit used a Boer War German Mauser gun with bullets as old as the weapon is to fire two shots to the head and to the chest of the victim. Murder and Robbery Squad Captain thirty-four years old Mat Joubert heads the investigation. Mat knows this case is probably the last opportunity to salvage a career that has rapidly collapsed since his beloved wife Lara was killed on duty during a police matter two years ago.

Mat investigates the three murders, but finds no motive to tie them together. He begins to wonder if the killer is just randomly selecting his victims. Still as the local residents panic over who is next, the media adds to the feeding frenzy and the brass, especially the ambitious politicians in and out of the police station, demand either the culprit or a fall guy. Mat struggles with finding clues before he has to visit the crime scene of the next victim.

This graphic South African police procedural is a tense gritty serial killer noir that grips the audience from start to finish with a haunting final twist. Mat is an interesting detective carrying plenty of baggage in a career that is as dead as the victims of the killer, but hooks fans, who will join him as he seeks evidence especially something that ties the dead together. Readers will appreciate Deon Meyer's strong vivid murder mystery and want to read his other South African novels (see HEART OF THE HUNTER and DEAD AT DAYBREAK: PAST IS NEVER DEAD).

Harriet Klausner