Deon Meyer

Antiikkikauppias Johannes Smit löydetään toimistostaan murhattuna. Häntä on kidutettu hitsipillillä ja sitten teloitettu niskalaukauksella Kassakaappi on tyhjennetty, ja ainoat johtolangat ovat kasa valkoista paperia ja epätavallinen murha-ase: M16-kivääri - palkkasoturin eikä murtovarkaan ase. Syrjäytyneellä entisellä poliisilla Zatopek van Heerdenillä on seitsemän päivää aikaa ratkaista arvoitus - mikä on sitäkin hankalampaa, kun käy ilmi, että joitakin vuosia sitten uhria ei virallisesti ollut olemassakaan... Kuolema päivänkotteessa on loistava ja ajatuksia herättävä trilleri hapuilevasta yhteiskunnasta, joka opettelee tulemaan toimeen tuoreiden vapauksien, vanhojen syntien ja uusien vaarojen kanssa.

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickI'll shoot a policeman every day until you arrest the murderer of Hanneke Sloet. Shortly after the South African Police Services receive this threatening email, a policeman is shot by a sniper and recovering alcoholic Benny Griessel is ordered to reopen the Sloet case. Hanneke Sloet was a sensual and ambitious lawyer. At the time of her murder she was working on one of the biggest Black Empowerment deals in South African history. She was found dead in her luxury Cape Town apartment, a single stab wound to her chest. After forty days, the trail has gone cold. The first investigation could find no motive and no leads, only a set of nude photographs, an ex-boyfriend with a rock-solid alibi, conniving attorneys and financial double-dealing. Benny has to deal with immense pressure from his superiors, the media and the unfathomable sniper, whose emails keep coming and who won't stop shooting. And then there's Benny's love interest, former pop sensation Alexa Barnard, who is also trying to rebuild her life after the ravages of alcohol, and Benny has to make sure she stays sober for her comeback. At the same time, Benny's feisty colleague, Captain Mbali Kaleni, is hunting the shooter, trying desperately to find what connects him to Hanneke Sloet. Both Benny and Mbali are about to endure seven days of hell.

"Sleekly done crime fiction layered with the cultural complexities of the new South Africa." --Joanne Wilkinson, BooklistIn Deon Meyer's Thirteen Hours, which won the Barry Award for Best Thriller in 2011, Cape Town homicide detective Bennie Griessel struggled to solve the murder of an American girl, find her missing friend, and avoid drinking again, all in a single day. In Seven Days, Griessel is given another nearly impossible task. Two police officers have been shot, and the department has received emails from the shooter alleging corruption and a cover up in a cold case. The shooter quotes scripture and threatens more violence until the cold case is solved. The case in question is the murder of Hanneke Sloet, an ambitious lawyer stabbed to death in her luxury apartment. There's no apparent motive, no leads, and no promising forensic evidence. There's no sign of a struggle either; the front door to Sloet's apartment was not damaged, so Griessel is sure she either knew the killer, or the killer had a key. All in all, the original inspector seems to have done a thorough job, only to come up empty. The one piece of evidence that Griessel finds promising is a set of provocative professional photos of herself that Sloet kept in her apartment. Perhaps jealous rage was the motive? Sloet's ex-boyfriend, who works at a vineyard making barrels, had the strength, the connection, and the access to the right type of blade, but he has an alibi that checks out. And then, another cop is shot. Pressure ramps up on Griessel, and on his feisty colleague, Captain Mbali Kaleni, who is hunting the shooter, trying desperately to find a connection to Sloet as the number of injured rise. The emails keep coming, and the shooter reaches out to the media. And then, as if Griessel's life isn't complicated enough, his girlfriend Alexa Bernard, a singer who was in Thirteen Hours, falls off the wagon herself thanks to the pressure of a big comeback concert. Seven Days is another fantastic novel from Deon Meyer, one of international crime fiction's stars. He has won major awards and is gaining new fans here, as his Barry Award and successful tour for Thirteen Hours can attest. Seven Days is a completely gripping read, a brilliant amalgam of thriller and mystery.

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickThe big man known as 'Tiny' has a past littered with violence and death. An assassin's past that he hopes never to face again. But when his best friend is kidnapped, Tiny suddenly finds himself on the back of a stolen motorbike, speeding away from his child and the woman he loves. Tiny has only 72 hours in which to deliver a computer disk that one group of people would kill to possess, and another would kill to destroy. If he fails, his best friend dies. HEART OF THE HUNTER is the tale of one man's struggle for survival against a corrupt government, a group of bloodthirsty killers and most of all, against his past.

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickAn antiques dealer is burned with a blowtorch and executed with a single shot to the back of the head. The only clues at the scene are a scrap of paper and an unusual choice of gun. Ex-cop Zatopek 'Zed' van Heerden has just seven days to solve the case - an almost impossible task made even harder when he discovers that, until a few years ago, there was no proof that the victim even existed . . .

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickLEMMER is a professional bodyguard. Silent and invisible, he never gets involved. EMMA LE ROUX believed her brother died twenty years ago, until she sees him on the news as the prime suspect in the brutal killing of four poachers. As Lemmer and Emma join forces in pursuit of the truth, it soon becomes clear that someone is willing to do whatever it takes to stop them. When that someone tries to murder them both, Lemmer is forced to step out of the shadows for the first time in his life.

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickThe former freedom fighter known as 'Tiny' has finally achieved his dream of a peaceful life. But then his beloved son is taken away from him. In that moment, he unleashes himself upon a corrupt South Africa. His victims are those guilty of crimes against children. He goes by the name of Artemis. Benny Griessel, a fading policeman on the brink of losing his job, family and self-respect, is assigned the case. Benny knows that this is his last chance - both his career and the safety of Cape Town are on the line. But then Benny meets Christine, a young mother working as a prostitute, and something happens that is so terrifying that the world will never be the same again for Benny, for Christine, or for Tiny.

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickMilla has finally escaped her abusive husband, only to find herself at the heart of an anti-terrorist operation. Lemmer has agreed to protect a pair of smuggled rhinos on a thousand-kilometre journey - his strangest job yet will also be his most dangerous. And former policeman Mat already wants to quit his new job as a private investigator. But he has promised a young woman he will find her missing husband . . . wherever the trail may lead. From the vibrant streets of Cape Town to the wilds of Zimbabwe, from luxurious gated communities to the ganglands of the Cape Flats, different paths begin to cross in a novel of ever-increasing suspense.

From the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times '100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945' pickONE COP. ONE KILLER. TWO CAPTIVES OF THE PAST. Mat Joubert, once a rising star of the South African police force, had it all. Then his wife was murdered, and his hopes died with her. Alcoholic, depressed and overweight, he is a shadow of his former self. Then a new killer appears on the streets of Cape Town, murdering at random. Mat throws himself into the case, viewing it as his last chance for redemption. But, as their shared desire for revenge threatens to destroy both him and the mysterious killer he is hunting, Mat soon learns that he is not the only one with ghosts to lay to rest . . .

Internationally acclaimed, prize-winning thriller writer Deon Meyer has been heralded as the King of South African Crime. In Thirteen Hours, morning dawns in Cape Town, and for homicide detective Benny Griessel it promises to be a very trying day. A teenage girl's body has been found on the street, her throat cut. She was an American--a PR nightmare in the #1 tourist destination in South Africa. And she wasn't alone. Somewhere in Cape Town her friend, Rachel Anderson, an innocent American, is hopefully still alive. On the run from the first page of Thirteen Hours, Rachel is terrified, unsure where to turn in the unknown city. Detective Griessel races against the clock, trying to bring her home safe and solve the murder of her friend in a single day. Meanwhile, he gets pulled into a second case, the murder of a South African music executive. Griessel's been sober for nearly six months--156 days. But day 157 is going to be tough. A #1 best seller in South Africa and a finalist for the CWA International Dagger, Thirteen Hours is an atmospheric, intensely gripping novel from a master storyteller.