Thursday 24 February 2022

Dead at Daybreak

As I am waiting to receive the next Deon Meyer novel, which will not be available yet in this country for a few weeks (argh!), I was wondering if I should not revisit his other novels. I haven't read enough crime fiction this year (heck, I haven't read enough, period) and it is always nice to rediscover a book you loved. The first Meyer novel I read was Dead at Daybreak. My mother had bought it(in its French translation)  as a birthday present and had chosen this novel because I had started dating my future wife, who is half South African. I was completely blown away. Dead a Daybreak had the exact kind of stuff I wanted to find in a crime novel, but haven't yet: a slowburn thriller with lots of character, characterisation, atmosphere and, well, brutality. Like many of Meyer's early novels, it is a lot about the ghosts of Apartheid and the evils that it spawned in the country afterwards. I'm surprised it took me that long to read his other books.

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