Deon Meyer - Dead before dying
Summary: Mat Joubert used to be the pride and joy of Capetown Homicide Squad, but after his wife was killed during an undercover investigation, he has let himself go. Barely thirty, he is a wreck of a man who can't move on with his life.
Then the department gets a new a boss who has big plans for the Homicide Squad, which involve his detectives becoming more productive on the job and get back into shape or be fired.
Around the same time, a series of mysterious murders shake Capetown: the victims don't seem to have anything in common and the main murder weapon is an antique gun, a Mauser 1914 that somehow was never registered anywhere.
Joubert must pull himself back together and find the killer before the list of victims gets longer and his carreer is destroyed
What a waste of a perfectly good title.
I first read this book six years ago and at first I didn't realize how badly it failed, then I reread it a few months ago and...oh dear. It was a lot worse than I remembered, possibly because back then I skipped all the (almost-)sex scenes in order to get to the investigative parts as quickly as possible.
Said investigative parts are sadly lacking - and this is supposed to be a whodunit. Instead, the "romantic" subplots take over the stage as every single female character wants to get into Joubert's pants, including is his neighbor's 17-years-old daughter.
Note that this happens five minutes into his diet and exercising regime, while he's still struggling with his depression. Perhaps his returned interest for the fair sex was meant to signify his return to life, but it is handled very clumsily and it turns the book into badly-written porn.
Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising, considering sex moves even the criminal plot: the murder victims have their family jewels shot off, the criminal profilers are coming up with more and more convoluted explanations and there's even a flashback to Lara Joubert's murder which, it turns out, Joubert indirectly witnessed through an unauthorized bug he had planted into a drug lord's house, allowing him to hear her have sex with him before being shot. Oh, and don't forget the killer's true motive: revenge for a gang rape.
And the murderer? It turns out to be the main love interest - understandable, it's not like the author could suddenly introduce a new character five pages before the end.
Frankly, it's an embarassing book.
Then the department gets a new a boss who has big plans for the Homicide Squad, which involve his detectives becoming more productive on the job and get back into shape or be fired.
Around the same time, a series of mysterious murders shake Capetown: the victims don't seem to have anything in common and the main murder weapon is an antique gun, a Mauser 1914 that somehow was never registered anywhere.
Joubert must pull himself back together and find the killer before the list of victims gets longer and his carreer is destroyed
What a waste of a perfectly good title.
I first read this book six years ago and at first I didn't realize how badly it failed, then I reread it a few months ago and...oh dear. It was a lot worse than I remembered, possibly because back then I skipped all the (almost-)sex scenes in order to get to the investigative parts as quickly as possible.
Said investigative parts are sadly lacking - and this is supposed to be a whodunit. Instead, the "romantic" subplots take over the stage as every single female character wants to get into Joubert's pants, including is his neighbor's 17-years-old daughter.
Note that this happens five minutes into his diet and exercising regime, while he's still struggling with his depression. Perhaps his returned interest for the fair sex was meant to signify his return to life, but it is handled very clumsily and it turns the book into badly-written porn.
Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising, considering sex moves even the criminal plot: the murder victims have their family jewels shot off, the criminal profilers are coming up with more and more convoluted explanations and there's even a flashback to Lara Joubert's murder which, it turns out, Joubert indirectly witnessed through an unauthorized bug he had planted into a drug lord's house, allowing him to hear her have sex with him before being shot. Oh, and don't forget the killer's true motive: revenge for a gang rape.
And the murderer? It turns out to be the main love interest - understandable, it's not like the author could suddenly introduce a new character five pages before the end.
Frankly, it's an embarassing book.