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A review by leemac027
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn
4.0
For a debut novel, Malla Nunn has written a compelling and fascinating crime drama set in 1950s South Africa.
Her characters are strong and the way she writes the Afrikaner characters is brutal, forceful, arrogant and captures everything that was happening in South Africa at that time.
The narrative focuses on the murder of a white police officer in a remote small town called Jacob's Rest. The detective sent to investigate, Cooper, is reviled by the Afrikaners making his job to find the killer extremely difficult.
Cooper finds some allies in a Zulu police officer, Shabalala and a Jewish shop owner (formerly a surgeon) to help him discover the evidence he needs to solve the crime. The problem is that the further Cooper digs, the more muck he finds, getting himself into some serious and violent situations.
It seems there are many secrets in Jacob's Rest and one prominent family (belonging to the murdered police officer) certainly do not want these coming to light.
There are many plot reveals along the journey, the majority of which I did not see coming which keeps the plot fresh and action oriented.
It is riveting and a fabulous read - though maybe not late at night!
Her characters are strong and the way she writes the Afrikaner characters is brutal, forceful, arrogant and captures everything that was happening in South Africa at that time.
The narrative focuses on the murder of a white police officer in a remote small town called Jacob's Rest. The detective sent to investigate, Cooper, is reviled by the Afrikaners making his job to find the killer extremely difficult.
Cooper finds some allies in a Zulu police officer, Shabalala and a Jewish shop owner (formerly a surgeon) to help him discover the evidence he needs to solve the crime. The problem is that the further Cooper digs, the more muck he finds, getting himself into some serious and violent situations.
It seems there are many secrets in Jacob's Rest and one prominent family (belonging to the murdered police officer) certainly do not want these coming to light.
There are many plot reveals along the journey, the majority of which I did not see coming which keeps the plot fresh and action oriented.
It is riveting and a fabulous read - though maybe not late at night!