Devil's Peak

In present-day South Africa three stories unfold in parallel . Christine explains to a patient Minister what led to her becoming a prostitute while Benny, an alcoholic police officer, has one last-ditch attempt to salvage his marriage and career. At the same time Thobela, a former freedom-fighter, is devastated when his adopted son is killed as an innocent bystander to a robbery and he turns to a life of vengeance.

This book reminded me of Peter Temple's The Broken Shore. Although they're set on different continents both books stretch the boundaries of traditional crime fiction and use the genre to demonstrate wider social issues in an understated way. And, like Temple, Meyer paints the most spectacular pictures with often only a handful show more of words, as with the sentence

"Beyond George the houses of the wealthy sat like fat ticks against the dunes, silently competing for a better sea view".

The book is littered with such startlingly clear images that make it easy to visualise the people never met and the places never visited.

At the beginning of the book I almost groaned audibly at the thought of yet another drunken copper (I've lost count of how many I've met over the years) but Meyer's depiction of the alcoholic's constant struggle with his demons is the most eloquently heart-wrenching character development I've read in a long time and I was soon internally cheering Benny's day-by-day efforts along. In fact Meyer takes his time, and ours, establishing all three characters and their separate, but ultimately linked stories. In a lesser writer's hands this would be annoying but here provides a solid foundation for what otherwise could be an unbelievable or far-fetched climax. Instead the stories are tantalisingly built to their inevitable but gripping combination and resolution.

While I won't pretend that one book can give a definitive view of such a mammoth thing as post-apartheid South Africa I think a good book can provide a valid snapshot of a time and place that helps define the bigger picture. All three characters struggle with details of 'the new South Africa' in very real ways that made me think more deeply than I've done before about what the removal of the apartheid system might have been like to live through from a variety of perspectives.

I learned since reading this book that while not strictly part of a series there are other books featuring some of these characters however I didn't once have the sense I was missing something by not having read anything else by this author. The book works entirely as a suspense-filled standalone novel which is haunting, unpredictable and utterly absorbing. show less

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Description: From rising South African thriller writer Deon Meyer, a gripping suspense novel about revenge, forgiveness, and the race to catch a trained killer.

A young woman makes a terrible confession to a priest. An honorable man takes his own revenge for an unspeakable tragedy. An aging inspector tries to get himself sober while taking on the most difficult case of his career. From this beginning, Deon Meyer weaves a story of astonishing complexity and suspense, as Inspector Benny Griessel faces off against a dangerous vigilante who has everything on his side, including public sympathy.

A gruesome abuse case has hit the newsstands, and one man has taken it upon himself to stand up for the children of show more Cape Town. When the accused is found stabbed through the heart by spear, it's only the beginning of a string of bloody murders - and of a dangerous dilemma for detective Griessel. The detective is always just one step behind as someone slays the city's killers. But the paths of Griessel and the avenger collide when a young prostitute lures them both into a dangerous plan - and the two find themselves with a heart-stopping problem that no system of justice could ever make right.


My Review: For once it's a good thing I don't keep good track of who it was suggested I read something. Whoever suggested this book to me: Don't fess up or there will be split lips and black eyes in your immediate future.

I hated this reading experience. Hated it. Fathers with murdered children, children in jeopardy that they can only desperately struggle to save, oh my bloomin' garden I was hit from every emotional angle and then smacked from behind and then misdirected into several dark corners and therein kneecapped. I started reading the book and, six and a half hours and one piddle break later, emerged on the other side of the dust jacket with bloody stumps in place of my ground-away teeth, hurting belly from all the unaccustomed muscle-clenching, and a serious need for a shower and hair wash to rid myself of the stress-sweat stink.

I am still in a state of high dudgeon at being made to participate in the shenanigans surrounding vigilante justice that I can only say I approve of (oh how that hurts to type) and police corruption scandalously indifferently treated (pause for blood to stop boiling over) and a miserable alcoholic a-hole with a serious need to destroy, himself his life the world, whatever comes into range, who happens to be the one being Diogenes would light up with that damn lamp...!

So. Unless you want to be lifted from the confines of your safe little rut, smacked into walls and hit with unbearably terrifying images of loss and its unending damage, beaten with the sensory overload of immersion in a landscape and a culture alien and familiar and overwhelmingly pungently vibrantly present, don't even think of reading this book.

Poor you, if you don't. show less

I pulled this book out of my TBR pile when I heard that the BBC and hired Sean Bean to star in the BBC mystery production of this title. That in itself was enough to make me read it, but up until about 2/3's of the way through the book I wondered why. Up to that point it was a fairly standard police procedural with a prototype hero that had been better done by other authors. Wallander comes to mind. Then, when I thought I knew where it was going, all of a sudden, the plot got twisty on me. From that point on I could not put the book down.

Meyer builds this story slowly, ... from desperate pieces, in much the same way as Kate Atksinson does in the early Jackson Brodie series. Meyer takes the stories of three different people and weaves show more these seemingly unrelated pieces into a whole connected story that evolves and eventually engrosses the reader. For the patient reader the wait is worth it, but I am afraid that many people won't wait that long, and therein lies the rub. Meyer writes in Afrikaans and the books have to be translated. (as far as I can tell this is a good translation) This makes him an important new voice in the world of literature. I am happy to recommend this book to readers and will read more of his books. show less

Digital audiobook performed by Simon Vance

Book #1 in the Inspector Benny Geissel mystery series, starring the South African detective. There’s a serial killer on the loose; the reader knows it is Thobela Mpayipheli, a man torn by grief over the death of his son who has sworn vengeance by killing those who have harmed children. A second thread involves Christine Van Rooyen, a sex worker with a need to confess. And then there’s Benny and his alcoholism; at the outset he awakens to find his wife standing over him with a packed suitcase – she gives him six months to sober up, or get out of the family’s life forever.

Knowing who the serial killer is does nothing to lessen the tension and suspense in this novel. Benny is such a flawed show more character and watching him try to make sense of his life and keep away from the bottle while he tracks the serial killer and becomes ensnared in the mystery Christine weaves had me backtracking and re-reading sections to try to make sense of what was happening. Meyer does a great job of adding layers to an already complicated plot. And the final chapters are a wild ride!

The audio version is performed by Simon Vance. Need I say more? show less

I read 13 Hours before I realized that it was the second book in the Benny Griessel series and I'm actually glad I read it first, because had I read Devil's Peak, I might not have continued with the series. One of the things that turned me off of Wallander was the first book of the series and the way Wallander behaved. Because I already knew where Griessel was going, I was able to handle the alcoholism/violence/etc (unlike in Wallander). Meyer is an excellent writer and you feel for Griessel when his wife kicks him out, his pains with trying to quit but you also don't want him to give in. In spite of everything, I really enjoy Griessel's story, along with Meyer's ability to write about race without it seeming fake or just there to show more further the story along. Because the book is set in South Africa, race is integral to the lives of the people who live there -- and to Meyer's writing. I can't wait to read the third book in this series. show less

Esta es la primera vez que leo un autor sudafricano, realmente ha sido un buen descubrimiento, me ha gustado mucho el estilo del autor.

Es un libro excepcionalmente bueno en su trama, tiene un punto de intriga bastante atrayente, sus personajes, todos ellos me han parecido realmente interesantes, no solo en lo que les toca de acuerdo a su rol en la trama, si no la personalidad de cada uno y además Deon Meyer le ha dado un toque muy peculiar a la psique de cada uno de ellos en relación al pasado y lo que se vivió durante el Apartheid, es como si cada uno tuviera que reconstruir su vida pero al final de algún modo su pasado los persigue.

Me cuesta mucho trabajo leer sobre temas de pederastia, me pueden estos temas, así que todo ese show more tema realmente fue un trago difícil de pasar, pero independientemente de eso, que, además, es un tema más bien personal, hay que reconocer que el libro es realmente muy bueno.

Vamos conociendo la trama a través de diferentes actores, aunque el protagonista es Benny Griessel, quien al comienzo del libro esta con una gran lucha contra el alcoholismo, es un personaje bastante típico en este tipo de libros, sin embargo me ha gustado, todo esa parte donde lucha con sus demonios personales y la manera en que el autor plantea su problema de adicción es realmente realista, lo cierto es que no es un personaje que genere lástima a pesar de todos sus problemas, es más bien un personaje muy fuerte, tanto que no fue eclipsado por otros personajes igual de fuertes como Thobela Mpayipheli, que bien pudo haberse llevado la palma en cuanto a fuerza en personalidad.

Este es el primer libro de una serie que seguramente voy a seguir, me ha gustado muchísimo, si bien el ritmo del libro no es algo a lo que estoy acostumbrada, es ágil, pero al mismo tiempo en momentos me parecía algo pesado de leer, tal vez por el tema que trataba, no estoy muy segura, lo que si es un hecho es que me ha gustado mucho el protagonista de esta serie, me ha gustado este tipo de thriller y he dado con un buen escritor de novela negra. show less

Devils Peak is my first acquaintance with the author Deon Meyer but not the last. I am not really fond of crime novels but I really liked Devils Peak. Interesting descriptions of the characters, you get to know them in detail, and the fact that it takes place in South Africa makes it even more interesting. Three broken people, three lives that are led by the same fate: An alcoholic police officer, a prostitute and a former soldier who has lost his son in a brutal robbery.

I have not found a new author that I will be able to follow, and the fact that he has written many more books that take place in Africa really makes me expect

Devils Peak är min första bekantskap med författaren Deon Meyer men inte den sista. Jag är inte jätte show more förtjust av kriminalromaner men Devils Peak tyckte jag jätte mycket om. Intressanta personbeskrivningar man får lära känna karaktärerna ingående, och att det utspelar sig i Sydafrika gör det ännu mer intressant. Tre trasiga människor , tre

livsöden som förs samma: En alkoholiserad polis, en prostituerad och en före detta soldat som har förlorat sin son i ett brutalt rån.

Jag har nog hittat en ny författare som jag kommer få följa, och att han har skrivit många fler böcker som utspelar sig i Afrika får det verkligen att klia i mina fingrar av förväntan show less