Just Arrived

Marcia at Skoobs, Theatre of Books in Johannesburg, SA became my book pusher...er..I mean reader's advisor last year and has helped me broaden my SA reading interests and brought me into the SA reading community. About every three months (the affordable transit time from Joburg) a parcel of books arrives. Today my summer reading was delivered. Good times ahead; I may need to take some annual leave.

The Diabolist by Layton Green

Someone is killing the leaders of satanic cults, some by fire, others found dead in locked rooms. Viktor Radek, professor of religious phenomenology and expert on cults, is asked to investigate by Interpol. Each of the doomed cult leaders received a letter telling them to renounce their beliefs or die. The death's defy reason—a figure in a black robe with silver stars, the sign of a Magus, appears during a black mass, the High Priest goes up in flames, the Magus disappears. With other letters being delivered, Viktor and his assistant Dominic Grey split up conducting their investigations in the US, England, France, and Sicily. The investigation becomes personal for Viktor as a painful episode in his past surfaces to haunt him, sending him to his bottle of absinthe too often. The adversary is deadly and Radek and Grey are fighting not only for the lives of other cult leaders but their own as well.

This is the third Dominic Grey/Viktor Radek action thriller, the first two being The Summoner and The Egyptian. It isn't exactly a stand-alone but can be read first without confusion. The author works in events from the other books (particularly The Summoner) to give a new reader context.

The appeal these books have for me is that they provide both intellectual content as well as intense action. Grey is former Marine Recon and a martial arts experts who spent many years around the world fighting in underground, non-sanctioned, no-holds-barred bouts. this experience serves him well when he has to fight for his life in the sewers of Paris or dingy London back streets. I enjoy the way the author choreographs the fights, the reader can visualize what is happening.

Viktor Radek provides the intellectual component of the story. As a religious phenomenologist he isn't concerned about the truths of religious belief but what the believer believes. The subject of evil is a constant theme: what is it; is it subjective or objective; can you define it; can you recognize it? If you are like me and fascinated by cults, this is great stuff. Even if you aren't, the author gives you something to think about, maybe even challenge your own beliefs. Dominic represents the everyman skeptic and Viktor the intellectual (not that Dominic isn't extremely intelligent in his own right) and their discussions frame the discussions about the nature of evil.

Regardless of the topic, this isn't supernatural thriller. The author leaves it open as to that happens. Some things are explained, others, well...we may never know.

The Diabolist is a good read with its intelligent plotting and driving action. This is a series I intend to follow.

This review is base on an uncorrected proof.

Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie

I have Jassy's latest Jade de Jong crime thriller, Pale Horses, on order so it is about time I review the first three before it gets here. This review was posted earlier on a different blog. I am reposting it here, with some tweaks, for continuity with the next three reviews.

Random Violence is Jassy Mackenzie's first U.S. publication and the first in the Jade de Jong investigations series.

Private investigator Jade de Jong left South Africa immediately after the funeral of her father, the police commissioner in Johannesburg. Something she did made it expedient to leave for a while. Unfinished business brings her back, ten years later.

When Jade arrives back in Jo'burg from her latest job in the UK, Superintendent David Patel, a friend and secret crush who worked for her father, asks her to assist in the investigation of a woman who was shot and killed outside the gates to her house. Jade isn't a licensed PI at this point so her role is to interview. As Jade begins collecting details about the dead woman, she finds that there are missing pieces and some pieces don't seem to fit. Like all good PIs, Jade is good at finding patterns.   What begins to emerge is that there is a psychopath at work and Jade and the psycho are on a collision course.

Jade de Jong is a welcome addition to the P.I. genre. She's hard-boiled, exercising a moral flexibility when the situation demands it but not so hard-boiled that she is without human feelings. She is definitely from the school of private investigators who believe justice is not always served by the law; sometimes it comes from the barrel of a gun.

Readers who like a strong sense of location in their crime fiction (and I'm one) won't be disappointed with the setting or the way Mackenzie weaves in post-apartheid social and cultural adjustments as well as South Africa's extraordinarily violent crime problem. Random Violence has three story lines: first there is the main investigation into the murder; Jade's need to close a chapter in her life; and third, her relationship with David, is there a future there. This thriller has what I enjoy in a story: good plot; a couple of peripheral story lines that fill out the personal aspects of the character's life; and a strong feeling of location. I binge read my way through Random Violence. This author reinforces my opinion that South Africa produces first-rate crime writers.

I started reading Random Violence just after I finished Antony Altbeker's study of crime in South Africa, A Country at War with Itself: South Africa's Crises of Crime (Discussed in detail by Jameson Maluleke and Nick van der Leek). I was struck by how well Mackenzie captured the problems still facing South Africa sixteen years after the end of apartheid and the start of majority rule. For example, Altbeker discusses how the drive for security by those who can afford it drives wedges between people, between affluent and those living a marginal existence. Jassy makes frequent mention of private armed response companies providing security for walled, fortified, and electrified communities springing up around Johannesburg.

The author herself has first hand knowledge of violence in South Africa having been car-jacked at gun point. Also, when you finish the book, keep in mind that the violent conclusion is based on a true-life event of which Jassy has personal knowledge. The person't escape happened as described in the book.

Adding to the sense of location, the Valjoen brothers, characters in the story, are patterned after Eugene Terreblanche, the leader of the white supremacist leader of the AWB (Afrikaner Resistence Movement) who was murdered in 2010 touching off a serious political crises. The Valjoen brothers fom one of the subplots of the story and link Jade's past with the course her life has taken.

Random Violence is an excellent crime/PI/thriller that gives an outsider a look into a different culture.

Visit Jassy's Web Site and read an interview with her at Scene of the Crime.

Next up, Stolen Lives, book two in the Jade de Jong series.

Death of a Saint by Lilly Herne

Death of a Saint is the second book in the series and picks up where Deadlands ended. I wrote about Deadlands here.

The Mall Rats (Ash, Saint, Lele, and Ginger) are in trouble— their cover is blown and the revelation about what the Guardians do with young 'winners' of the lottery that was supposed to bring down the establishment is co-opted by the Resurrectionists. A trip back into the enclave almost ends in disaster with only unexpected assistance allowing them to escape back to the Deadlands.

Ash proposes that they leave the Cape Town area and look for other free survivors. Lele, ever the loose cannon is opposed and counters with impractical and foolish plans that would probably get them killed in short order. She reluctantly agrees to go along. The means to leave comes from another unlikely source and soon they are on motorcycles on the N2 heading toward Durban— a Zombie road trip! Ginger the genial giant exclaims.

I think that any post-apocalyptic event story requires a journey at some point. Stephen King's The Stand and Cormac McCarthy's The Road come to mind immediately. As road trips go, this is a good one, well suited to the intended audience (young adult), the characters themselves, and the arc the story is taking.

They do encounter pockets of humanity unaffected by the Resurrectionists and the Guardians and I am happy to say that we don't have the mask-wearing, bare chests criss-crossed with leather straps and medieval weapons descent into barbarity from Mad Max 2. We do get interesting adaptations that range from the almost normal, to the strange, the weird, the really weird, and the nasty. I give the authors full marks for imaginative, but not unlikely, scenarios displaying human response to an inconceivable event.

Everything is not harmonious with the Mall Rats. A group of strong-willed people travelling together is an inherently stressful environment and the conflicts add more dimension to the characters. We get jealousy, betrayal, a secret revealed, female-male relationship tensions, sympathy, and kindness. I was also amused to learn that the Mall Rats really are not that familiar with African wildlife.

The post-apocalyptic road trip often sees new companions join the group and that is deftly handled here. Ginger, the least complicated of the Mall Rats, gets them to accept a most unusual new member, one that brings a little lightness to the story. Other newcomers help drive the story forward.

The book ends with a staggering cliff-hanger that brings into question everything you think you learned in Deadlands and Death of a Saint. The Army of the Left is the next book and as soon as it is available I'm ordering it.

Obviously the Deadlands series can be enjoyed by grey-haired old-timers since I'm hooked but the main audience is young adult. There is no direct comparison to be made with The Hunger Games but I'll pull out the librarian reader advisory tactic and say "If you liked Hunger Games, you'll probably enjoy these books." Young people, post-apocalyptic world, fighting for survival. I think non-South African readers will enjoy a different environment; I was inspired to do some Googling myself as I read.

I have an extra copy of the first book, Deadlands, and plan to give it away as soon as I figure out a good way to handle it.

Lily Herne is the pseudonym of Sarah and Savannah Lotz, mother and daughter.

Interlude 1—The Schoolboy

While I'm drafting my next book review, Lily Herne's Death of a Saint, here's a different scream out of Africa—two of my grade reports from Waterkloof House School in Pretoria, South Africa. As you can see, I didn't set the academic world ablaze. I blame not being able to make change in British currency. This was before the Rand. Notice there is no grade for Afrikaans. I regret that they decided that an American didn't need to learn the language.

I was also rubbish at sports but I think I looked pretty good in my rugby uniform. Scroll down for photos.

On my way to swimming?

First Day of School