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“Dead at Daybreak Deon Meyer Little, Brown, Aug...”

written by Harriet Klausner on 08/08/2005

Dead at Daybreak
Deon Meyer
Little, Brown, Aug 2005, $23.95
ISBN: 0316000124

In South Africa, a mutual friend persuades attorney Hope Beneke to hire former cop Afrikaner and self pitying drunk Zatopek "Zet" van Heerden to find a missing will. Recently in Durbanville someone executed and burned with a blow torch millionaire antiques dealer Johannes Jacobus Smit in the victim's home; however, the deceased's will and other items in his walk-in safe vanished. The attorney further explains to Zet that he has one week to accomplish the mission or the state confiscates Smit's wealth leaving his common-law wife Wilhelmina Johanna Van As of eleven years with zilch.

Sobering up Zet knows the probability of solving this case in seven days is impossible, but begins making inquiries. He quickly learns that Johannes never existed before 1983 making the case even more complex and needing a divine miracle. Zet tries to track who Smit previously was, but thugs and law enforcement officials do anything and everything to prevent his learning the dead man's former identity even as the clock ticks away.

Though self wallowing and loathing himself, Zet still retains the HEART OF THE HUNTER as he investigates who Smit was, why he was murdered, and what happened to the will. The story line is action-packed for the most part though when the hero looks back at his own life while searching for clues as to Smit, the tale, though interesting in terms of character development, slows down on these sidebars. Still this is an exhilarating legal thriller private investigative tale that showcases how talented Deon Meyer is while providing a deep look at South Africa then and now.

Harriet Klausner