A gripping thriller from the leading crime writer in South Africa, now with a best-selling international reputation featuring his much loved detective Benny Griessel.

This year's great discovery: classy, edgy writing, subtly plotted and beautifully balanced between fast-paced action, pungent social comment and the process of investigation.

Autorentext

Born in South Africa in 1958, Deon Meyer was a journalist, advertising copywriter, Internet manager and brand strategist before he became a novelist. Meyer has published fifteen novels and two short story collections. His books have been translated into 28 languages in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Meyer has written several series for television, six screenplays for feature films, and produced and directed movies. Dead Before Dying and Trackers have both been made into TV series in South Africa, and in 2023 the Benny Griessel series premiered under the name Devil's Peak on M-Net. Heart of the Hunter was released worldwide as a Netflix Original in March 2024 and was Netflix's number one streamed film for two consecutive weeks, with 25 million views globally in the first three weeks.

Meyer was knighted by France in 2021 as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. He lives with his family in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Klappentext

After 602 days dry, Captain Benny Griessel of the South African police services can't take any more tragedy.

So when Benny is called in to investigate a multiple homicide, it pushes him close to breaking point - a former friend and detective colleague has shot his wife and two daughters, then killed himself. Benny wants out - out of his job, his home and his relationship with his singer girlfriend, Alexa. He moves into a hotel and starts drinking. Again.

But Benny's unique talent is urgently required to help investigate another crime - the high profile murder of Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech startup, Alibi, whose body is discovered buried in the sand dunes north of Cape Town. Alibi is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners. It has made Richter one of the most notorious people in South Africa. Can Benny pull together the strands of his life in time to catch the killer?