Tangled Web UK Review June 2009
Blood Safari by
Deon Meyer
hbk out October 08
Published by Hodder
at £17.99
A thriller from a well-known South African writer, well-translated from the original Afrikaans.
His hero is Lemmer, a professional body-guard suffering from an anger syndrome, which already earned him four years in jail for killing a taunter. Now he works for a private company who offer personal security and is given a job protecting a rich young woman, Emma le Roux, who since beginning a search for her long-lost brother, has been attacked in her home.
Lemmer accompanies her in a car tour of much of South Africa, searching game farms and conservation parks for her brother, who was devoted to animals and their preservation. They are attacked again and Emma is seriously wounded, Lemmer then going off on a revenge hunt.
The plot is complex and obscure until the end, but is unfailingly exciting. One needs either Google maps or an atlas to keep track of the travelling, which extends from Kruger Park and Mozambique to the cape. In spite of the shooting and knifing thriller aspect, there is plenty of brain fodder offered, mainly about conservation and the sad message that it can never succeed in the face of human greed. The book offers an alternative view of South African upper and middle class society, replete with smart cars, mobile phones and body care, so different from the usual television news images of shanty towns and chanting rallies.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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