This first novel by Malla Nunn is set in 1950's apartheid South Africa and is the first in a series of books by her featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper. Malla is a filmmaker with three award-winning films.
Detective Cooper is a complex character with demons of his own which Nunn hints at and slowly unfolds without yet giving us the whole story -- which I expect we'll learn progressively in her future books in this series.
Detective Cooper is sent to investigate the murder of an Afrikaner police officer then has the case taken out of his hands by a higher authority -- the powerful police Security Branch. Although Cooper is told to stay out of this investigation, he is allowed to investigate an old unsolved case of the murdered police officer. His dogged pursuit of the perpetrator in that case has him smack in the middle of the case he's been told to stay out of!
As Cooper learns more and more about the private life of the murdered man, we also learn what it was like to live in apartheid South Africa so, in some senses, this mystery is also a historical novel.
pazt
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