September 2009

December 24 - I haven't been able to update this site for some months, given the pressures of other work over the fall (see http://www.africafocus.org). So it's just now that I'm noting that September was the month I first discovered Deon Meyer, by far the best at portraying "post-apartheid" South Africa of any that I have come across, both recognizing and exploding racial and ethnic stereotypes and highlighting both the links to the past and the "new" South Africa.

Not all of his books are yet available in English translation, but I came across the latest at the library - Blood Safari, and managed to find used copies of two earlier ones: Dead at Daybreak and Dead Before Dying Blood Safari features a professional bodyguard; the other two feature Cape Town detective Benny Griessel. All his protagonists are complicated figures with character flaws combined with a devotion to duty. Highly recommended!

Kenneth Abel's Down in the Flood is an excellent story of New Orleans at the time of Katrina. His earlier book, The Blue Wall , set in New York, is ok, but not as good as the New Orleans one, in my opinion. C.J. Box's Trophy Hunt , set in Wyoming, and Laura Wilson's The Innocent Spy, set in London, are both enjoyable reads, but they didn't strike me as outstanding.