Excellent character development. The story was also fantastic and kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I can tell this is a book I'm going to want to read again in a few years. It's that good. Meanwhile I've already got the next Meyer book in this series (Seven Days) on my reading to-do list. ( )

Spannend ( )

Jissis, this is a good one. A nail-biter all the way through.

I am really impressed by Deon Meyer's writing and story-telling, and I presume that the translation is spot-on. ( )

Digital audiobook performed by Simon Vance

From the book jacket: Morning dawns in Cape Town, South Africa. A teenage girl’s body has been found on the street, her throat cut. She was an American. Somewhere in Cpae Town her friend, Rachel Anderson is, hopefully, still alive. Rachel is terrified, unsure of where to turn in the unknown city. Who can she trust? How long can she stay ahead of her relentless pursuers? Racing against the clock, Detective Benny Griessel desperately tries to solve the murder and bring Rachel home safe, all in a single day.

My reactions:
This is a hard-hitting, fast-paced, police procedural with a complicated plot, a second, unrelated (or is it?) killing, and multiple twists: drugs, human trafficking, the music industry, and, of course, Benny’s continuing struggle as a recovering alcoholic.

He's also been named as a mentor to a group of younger investigators, and Griessel is having a hard time with his recent assignment: Inspector Mbali Kaleni, a black woman, a Zulu, a feminist. She’s eager and intelligent, but lacks the experience of Griessel and his previous partners. And she has her own agenda: trying to equate the effort expended by the police investigating cases of dead black women with that expended in the cases of missing white women. This is an interesting pairing, and I’d like to see it continue in future books.

Simon Vance is marvelous, as usual, performing the audiobook. ( )

Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer is the second book in the Benny Griessel police series. Set in Cape Town, South Africa this is a taunt thriller that keeps the reader on edge throughout all of the 13 hours he writes about. In one memorable day, Benny and his proteges have to deal with two murder cases, and try to rescue a young American tourist, who is on the run from a group of men who are trying to kill her. The South African setting generates a certain amount of racial issues which the author deftly handles, all the while continuing to build up the excitement. Benny is also dealing with his sobriety and has a meeting with his estranged wife scheduled for the end of the day, is she ready to forgive him and accept him back into her life or does she have other plans.

Thirteen Hours is a well written thriller that blends edge-of-your-seat suspense with the daily problems of policing in South Africa. Manpower shortages, a blackout, and the protocols of dealing with other police departments have to be dealt with. The narrative jumps back and forth between the investigations which can be rather irksome at times, also the reader is never informed why the young American is being hunted until the very end. The author does build to a satisfactory conclusion with a desperate last minute rescue attempt, but be warned, there is torture involved which may upset some readers. ( )