“It takes a while to warm to Inspector Albertus Beeslaar, banished from Johannesburg to a remote farming community in the Northern Cape – but he’s worth the wait. With an edgy understanding of the new South Africa and his weary belief in proper police work, Beeslaar is all set to be a long-haul hero. His first case: a grisly multiple killing with motives more complex than a routine “farm murder”. It’s taken 10 years for the first of this Afrikaans series to appear in English translation, and as the plot reveals political, economic and racial tensions with no easy solutions, it’s a terrific guide to the Rainbow Nation’s seemingly intractable problems.”
