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Mixed Blood: A Thriller

by Roger Smith (Goodreads Author)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 244 ratings · 80 reviews

An American fugitive hides out in Cape Town—one of the world’s most beautiful and violent cities—in this riveting debut thriller that asks: Can you ever outrun your past?

Reluctant bank robber Jack Burn is on the run after a heist in the United States that left $3 million missing and one cop dead. Hiding out in Cape Town, South Africa, he is desperate to build a new life fo...more

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published March 3rd 2009 by Henry Holt and Co.

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Jun 26, 2010 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read both of Smith's first two novels (including #2 Wake Up Dead ) in one fell swoop, part of a larger project I'm fiddling around, trying to see if/how it might develop. (If you're interested...I'm interested in the explosion of South African crime fiction since '94... what, how, why, who. Other than having an assumption that pop culture embodies and enacts a complex and intriguing approach to social issues, cultural values and beliefs, and the knotted tangle of who "we" are -- I haven't any...more I read both of Smith's first two novels (including #2 Wake Up Dead ) in one fell swoop, part of a larger project I'm fiddling around, trying to see if/how it might develop. (If you're interested...I'm interested in the explosion of South African crime fiction since '94... what, how, why, who. Other than having an assumption that pop culture embodies and enacts a complex and intriguing approach to social issues, cultural values and beliefs, and the knotted tangle of who "we" are -- I haven't any predetermined theses. And I'm a fan of crime fiction.) But I'm not going to spend a ton of time boring you with a tedious "real-time" performance of how the project evolves. Instead, a quick "review" here and then a couple of open issues (that I'll address on the other's review and) that Smith's two novels provoked me to consider.

So, do they work as crime fiction? Yes, undoubtedly. But I almost read on a bell curve. At first, Mixed Blood's outsized grotesqueries seemed cartoonish, in the bad way. A bad cop isn't just corrupt--Smith returns again and again to his sweating flaps of flesh, his hemorrhoidal pain, his flatulence. I mean again, and again. The prose is all staccato emphatics, and the characters are all exclamation points -- the literary equivalent of ALL CAPS. But as this first novel wore on, the sheer cussed pervasiveness of these exaggerated perversities began to hit home, to shape an Ellroy-like (Ellrovian?) worldview that was bleak, unsettling, provocative--and not simply 2-d shenanigans. Every secondary, even tertiary character gets the treatment, and the book becomes an expressionistic collage of the worst visions of human behavior. The second novel opens with a whiz-bang viciousness that's similarly well-drawn, the protagonist there sitting down to dinner with a "cannibal" and a "whore." Yet by the middle of that novel, the chiaroscoro began to return to crude black and white, at least for this reader. Without spoiling anything, the author seemed to rely on too easy a set of shortcuts and stock types, and the book's second half seemed more a ready-made drag to me. Drag is perhaps overstating it -- you rush along, but. . .

. . . it's also tied to a similar problem arc, over the two novels, in plotting. In the first half of Mixed, Smith starts with a couple of cool kicks to the solar plexus but then spends a lot of time wandering through his gallery of grotesques, but (like the best of Elmore Leonard) he keeps throwing balls in the air, and by the end he's got a whole constellation of interconnected shit flying around. I started Wake with heightened expectations, but... as one character notes late in the second novel, a sudden collision of a couple of subplots and personalities could be coincidence, or it could be destiny, and she opts to read events as destiny. I am afraid it seemed increasingly like the cartoon happenstances familiar to overdetermined noir. (I don't want to spoil anything, but a repeatedly noted "extra" is so portentously noted, again and again and again, that when the character emerges more forcefully to put the bow on another subplot, and conveniently collide with two other subplots, I was rather annoyed.)

Smith's got loads of talent, and these will both please more hardcore fans of the genre, looking for some of these kicks. But I namechecked Ellroy and Leonard, and Smith's got neither the brutal existential heft of the former nor the well-honed attention to character of the latter... yet. He's worth paying attention to...(less)

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Jun 28, 2011 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: hard-core noir fans

This brutal, fierce neo-noir--I liked reading it--set in South Africa's Cape Town is probably more suited for male readers. The relentless pace reminds me of Charlie Huston. No character (all despicable in their own dark way) wins much reader sympathy. Violence, corruption, greed, and evil marinate the storyline that fulfills the genre's expectations. So you know what you're getting. The setting is vivid and often gritty. Gatsby, the obese boer inspector, has to rank as the most bent cop I've ev...more

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Dec 19, 2008 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jack Burn is a bank robber. Unfortunately one of his jobs has gone wrong. Three million dollars and a dead cop, now finds Jack and his family making a new life in Cape Town, South Africa. One night, something terrible happens, while the family is eating dinner. Something, so bad that it causes Jack to take matters into his own hands. .

Benny Mongrel is an ex- con. He is trying to turn his life around. Benny is now a night guard watchman for a building site. The site is right next to the Burn’s h...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Aksana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: firstreads, mystery-suspense-action

I won a copy of this book through FirstReads. I was disgusted by the style and language that the book was written in, but they helped the visualization and seemed to sincerely portray the events that were being described in the book, i.e. drug dealers, ex-cons and corrupt cops. I think that the ending was a good one to show that there is no really justice served to anyone and it remains a world where stronger and more powerful individuals suppress the rest. Overall, for me, it seemed an average...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Clive Sacke rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's always a special moment when you discover a writer who can actually write. This book barely puts a foot wrong in the stylistic department. The characters exist on the edge of a world that has two faces. The sunny cosmopolitan part of Cape Town where the Euro trash bask in days that seem filled with only promise, and then the other side where there is no promise and no way out. Violence is as normal as bottled water in Camps Bay. Smith captures that contradiction perfectly.
There is no let up...more

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Nov 26, 2008 J.C. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to J.C. by: Amazon Vine Program

Shelves: 2009-reads, arc

Gritty and Intense... Tough to Put Down

Mixed Blood, by Roger Smith, was a gritty thrill ride from start to finish. I must preface this review by saying this book may not be for the faint of heart because the book is riddled with drug, prostitution, rape, and gang reference, to name a few. If that doesn't bother you, this book is a fantastic read from start to finish.

The story follows many unique characters from significantly different backgrounds. We have a gang officer trying to make a better l...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Kara Jorges rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jack Burn is on the run since his gambling debts got him involved in a bank job gone wrong, resulting in the death of a cop in Milwaukee. His pregnant wife, Susan, knew nothing of his nefarious activities, but she took their young son and left their home behind to join him in Cape Town, South Africa, where they live quietly in an affluent suburb. The idyll is shattered one night when a couple of thugs invade their home, and Jack kills them both. He can’t afford to involve the police, so he dumps...more Jack Burn is on the run since his gambling debts got him involved in a bank job gone wrong, resulting in the death of a cop in Milwaukee. His pregnant wife, Susan, knew nothing of his nefarious activities, but she took their young son and left their home behind to join him in Cape Town, South Africa, where they live quietly in an affluent suburb. The idyll is shattered one night when a couple of thugs invade their home, and Jack kills them both. He can’t afford to involve the police, so he dumps the bodies out on the veld and starts making plans to move on. Things get far more complicated than that, however.

A construction site across the street is guarded by Benny Mongrel, a retired gangster and ex-con who decided to go straight, and his aging watchdog, Bessie. Benny’s life hasn’t improved any since the day he was beaten and left for dead in a garbage dump, and to say he is a hardened man is an understatement. The one thing he ever cared for is old Bessie, so when a fat cop who comes by asking questions about the BMW the thugs left on the street that night hurts her, the cold hatred within Benny awakens.

The cop, Rudi Barnard, known as Gatsby around the Cape Flats slums, rules his patch of territory with an iron fist. He’s been murdering and terrorizing with impunity for years, but now he’s got word that he’s being investigated. He knew the thug whose BMW was left outside Jack Burn’s house, and something about the American on the hill piques his interest. He hatches a plan involving the thug’s drug-addled widow and the mysterious Americans to get a million dollars in his pocket.

Disaster Zondi is the investigator from Johannesburg sent to Cape Town to investigate Barnard. Though the fat man manages to slip out of his grasp just when he’s got him in his sights, he is always one step behind, thereby drawn into the drama playing out between the crooked cop and the American on the run.

The drama unfolds around these four men and a few other colorful side characters, moving from person to person as the intrigue builds. Barnard was such a horrible person, part of me was reluctant to keep reading, afraid of what evil he would do, yet at the same time, the storyline was so compelling I could not put the book down. It was anything but predictable as it bounced from the fugitive, the ex-con, the crooked cop, to the cop who was there to bring him down. None of the characters was a particularly “good” person, so I wasn’t sure who I should root for, but I did know who I wanted to see go down.

One of the most interesting aspects of this novel, however, is its setting. It painted a very vivid picture of the Cape Flats slums, sprawling onto the scrubland north of Cape Town, and populated by a variety of mixed-race poor (like District 9 minus the ailens). Smith’s descriptions of Cape Flats make the slums of Los Angeles sound like Disneyland, making it the perfect setting for a novel about violence and murder.

If you love good, gripping suspense wrapped in dark, gritty noir in a colorful locale, this book has it all. Smith’s next book will also be set in Cape Town, and I will be sure to read it.
(less)

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Dec 01, 2012 Col rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, s

Blurb...... An American fugitive hides out in Cape Town—one of the world’s most beautiful and violent cities—in this riveting debut thriller that asks: Can you ever outrun your past?

Reluctant bank robber Jack Burn is on the run after a heist in the United States that left $3 million missing and one cop dead. Hiding out in Cape Town, South Africa, he is desperate to build a new life for his pregnant wife and young son. But on a tranquil evening in their new suburban neighborhood they are the vict...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Best Crime Books rated it 5 of 5 stars

This author only came to my attention after reading it as a recommended book by another author I love Sean Black. I figured that as I enjoyed the Sean Black books so much, I would take his recommendation up and give the new author Roger Smith a go.

As I had brought this book on my Kindle, by the time I got around to reading it I had no idea what the book was about so just started to read. The first thing that is noticeable with this book is there is no `typical' hero copper who has an attitude to...more This author only came to my attention after reading it as a recommended book by another author I love Sean Black. I figured that as I enjoyed the Sean Black books so much, I would take his recommendation up and give the new author Roger Smith a go.

As I had brought this book on my Kindle, by the time I got around to reading it I had no idea what the book was about so just started to read. The first thing that is noticeable with this book is there is no `typical' hero copper who has an attitude towards authority and in its place we meet the Burns family. Jack Burns is on the run after getting himself into a sticky situation in the US. He, his wife Susan and son Matt are now living in South Africa and Susan is expecting her second child.

Very early on a random act of violence in the form of a gangland-style break in is the catalyst for the whole story. It was clear to me from very early on that this book was a little different from other crime and thriller books I have been reading recently. For a start the setting wasn't in the USA or the East end of London. Seeing as the author is an author born and still living in South Africa there is no question of the realism of the setting for the book. I have never visited South Africa but after a few chapters I began to get an idea of how awful the area of the Cape Flats really is.

The Burns family are a strange bunch and early on you see that things are not rosy for this family on the run. This made the story even more intriguing for me because things started off on a bad note so as a reader you want to see the outcome. We also meet Benny Mongrel who is an ex-gangster who has turned his life around following time in prison. He is a night-watchman for the estate that the Burns live on. In addition to Benny we see the crooked policeman Rudi `Gatsby' Barnard enter the frame.

The characters in this book are real and gritty, that's the best words I can use to describe them. There is also no shortage of violence in this book as we see many murders happen. As the story progresses various events put all three men on the same path and as their lives cross the tension picks up in a serious way. The danger level is high and the further into the book I got the more I just had to keep reading.

As I finished the book I realised a few things. Firstly, the book is totally original and refreshing to read. There is a new author on the scene; that has produced a debut novel that feels like he has been writing for years. Secondly, I knew next to nothing about South Africa. This book actually made me do a web search on the Cape Flats to find out more about the place. I am so pleased that I read this book and am now eagerly looking forward to the next one. I an also see the huge appeal in turning this into a film. Whether that will work or not is another matter!

Roger Smith is certainly coming into the book world with a bang; I am just surprised that I haven't heard more about him until now. If you want something a little different and original, then give him a try. Just be warned that it is violent and gruesome in certain places. Highly recommended by me! This review will also appear on the website best crime books... (less)

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Aug 08, 2011 Loren rated it 3 of 5 stars

From ISawLightningFall.com

THREE-AND-A-HALF STARS

In the late nineties, I spent close to a month in three countries near Africa's tip, and my memories of each nation couldn't be more different. In Swaziland, I recall sipping sweet tea and eating oranges in a dirt courtyard behind a Reformed church. The scents of boiled sadza and stewing meat fill my thoughts of Zimbabwe. But when it comes to South Africa, I mostly remember the bars on the windows in Johannesburg and how every car seemed outfitted...more From ISawLightningFall.com

THREE-AND-A-HALF STARS

In the late nineties, I spent close to a month in three countries near Africa's tip, and my memories of each nation couldn't be more different. In Swaziland, I recall sipping sweet tea and eating oranges in a dirt courtyard behind a Reformed church. The scents of boiled sadza and stewing meat fill my thoughts of Zimbabwe. But when it comes to South Africa, I mostly remember the bars on the windows in Johannesburg and how every car seemed outfitted with a complicated key system to discourage vehicular theft. It's a rough city, and I only learned how close I came to disaster one night when recounting to an Afrikaner how a group of us got lost on the highway. He explained that a close friend of his had done the same and ended up dragged from his car, doused in gasoline and set ablaze. That sense of ever-present peril thoroughly informs Cape Town-based author Roger Smith's debut novel, Mixed Blood.

John Hill isn't John Hill's real name. Back in America, people once called him John Burn, and then he'd owned a successful business, the honor due a wartime veteran and a picture-perfect family. But as Hill, he's lost everything except his wife and child, and he's barely holding on to them. He thought immigrating to South Africa would keep a stateside criminal secret hidden, and at first it did -- until the two men turned up. A pair of drug-addled Cape Town gangsters broke into his new home, a random transgression, a thrill crime with no plan or purpose. Their mistake. Quick work with a carving knife removed the thugs from the equation, but now the calculus of John's expat life has gotten exponentially more complicated. Unable to go to the police because of his past, he tries to hide the bodies, which soon attracts the attention of a very corrupt cop and a fearsome killer who is himself quick with a blade.

Mixed Blood succeeds most in its portrayal of a stratified city whose social classes differentiate themselves not only by race and wealth, but also by how easily they can avoid violence. That doesn't prove particularly easy for even the most advantaged. In Smith's Cape Town, safety depends less on law than luck. It's an incendiary place where the violence can erupt from as small a matter as taking a wrong turn and where none of its inhabitants have clean hands. Indeed, a back-cover blurb perfectly sums up the novel's nuanced presentation of human depravity: "The bad guy is really bad -- but so are the good guys." Unfortunately, the book doesn't handle religious belief with the same light touch. In fact, Mixed Blood seems to propose an inverse relationship between virtue and piety, with the most believing characters descending to the blackest depths while skeptics avoid the worst degradations. A disappointment, as are a few lurches in the plot. Still, Smith satisfies with a noirish ending and an abrupt denouncement that hits like an enraged heavyweight. Blood may be a bit mixed, but it's a solid hardboiled thriller all the same.(less)

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Feb 08, 2010 Anindya added it

An American attempting to outrun his past runs afoul of Cape Town locals on both sides of the law in this debut thriller.After Jack Burn participates in a bank robbery that leaves a cop dead, he and his pregnant wife decide to start a new life with their four-year-old son in this bustling city on Africa's southern tip. Things are going well until two small-time gangbangers, high on crystal meth, decide to break into Burn's house, terrorize his family and take what they want from his home. Of cou...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Mack rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: To anyone who likes fast paced action thriller with violent acts.

Shelves: crime-fiction, thrillers

Sometimes, what I really want to read is a scorched earth, no prisoners, no quarter, no good guys just degrees of badness, thriller. It's like running Sodium hydroxide through the plumbing, it cleans out the pipes. This is why I was happy that I came across Roger Smith's Mixed Blood. But for me, Mixed Blood is more than a read-and-toss thriller, it reaches me at intellectual and emotional levels as well. My family lived in Pretoria, South Africa from 1952 and 1956 and I've become interested in S...more Sometimes, what I really want to read is a scorched earth, no prisoners, no quarter, no good guys just degrees of badness, thriller. It's like running Sodium hydroxide through the plumbing, it cleans out the pipes. This is why I was happy that I came across Roger Smith's Mixed Blood. But for me, Mixed Blood is more than a read-and-toss thriller, it reaches me at intellectual and emotional levels as well. My family lived in Pretoria, South Africa from 1952 and 1956 and I've become interested in South African and its history as I reflect back on that time. South Africa has complex history and Mixed Blood and the effects of decades of apartheid are a subtext to the story.

Jack Burn has a gambling problem. Back in the U.S., a large debt put him in the middle of a robbery that left a cop dead. Jack escapes with a large part of the loot and takes his pregnant wife and young son to Cape Town, South Africa. With a new identity and lots of money, Jack feels pretty safe until a random home invasion by a couple of drug dealing gang-bangers puts him in the sights of Rudi "Gatsby" Barnard, a physically and morally repugnant and corrupt cop. Rudi senses that there is more to Jack than just another American expat. Also drawn into the picture are vengeance seeking ex-con Benny Mongrel and Zulu police investigator Disaster Zondi who wants to settle an old score and at the same time take down a bad cop.

Mixed Blood is a solid thriller with the plot, action, and violence that make this type of thriller enjoyable. But while I thoroughly enjoyed it as a thriller, there is something much more that makes it stand out for me. This is the role South Africa plays in the story. Consider Rudi "Gatsby" Barnard. His nickname comes from the signature South African sandwich, the gatsby, that he favors. With his horrible body odor, sumo-sized gut, air bag-sized butt cheeks and a love of "Jesus Christ, gatsbys, and killing people" you might dismiss him as a caricature of the bad cop. But Rudi is a holdover from South Africa under apartheid. Do a Google search with the terms apartheid and apartheid hit squads and you will see that Rudi is based on fact.

Cape Town itself is a character in the story. Gatsby rules the aeolian sand flat known as Cape Flats. It blasted by winds in the summer and many areas flood in the winter. Here are the government-built townships where non-whites were forced to move; the Flats were apartheid's dumping ground. They are a place of terrible poverty, drug abuse, and gang violence. In contrast, Jack Burn and his family live on the wealthy Atlantic side. I recommend a visit to Roger's web site where there is a video narrated by him. There is also a slide show of images of Cape Town and Cape Flats that will give you a good picture of the settings in the book.

I enjoyed Mixed Blood as a straight-up thriller and also for the intense sense of place that Roger was able to weave into the story.

Recommended highly for readers who like thrillers and don't mind a bit of stomach churning violence. (less)

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May 06, 2012 Rob Kitchin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mixed Blood starts at a nice quick pace and steadily gathers more speed, rattling and twisting along like a rollercoaster by the end. This pace, however, is not at the expense of plot, sense of place or characterisation. Indeed, Smith manages to pack an awful lot into three hundred pages and Mixed Blood is a masterclass in tight, taut and tense writing. Smith perfectly captures the troubled post-Apartheid politics and geography of Cape Town, its racism, poverty, crime and corruption. The charact...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Jennyamy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I jumped into this head first and eyes closed, and I felt like I swallowed a mouth-full of saltwater! So terrible, but in a good way. This book was recommended by a friend with an interesting taste in films and crime culture, and I thought anything he recommended would be unique at a minimum. Additionally, I have not read anything that takes place in Cape Town. While the writing style may leave something to be desired, I couldn't put the book down. I explained to my friends and family that the c...more

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Mar 16, 2009 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Although the book started off fast and kept up a good pace with twists and turns, I had a hard time getting into it. First of all, the language was difficult for me. Don't get me wrong, I have a potty mouth from time to time, but it was pretty pronounced and hard for me to ignore. The author also used the slang dialect of the area which was hard to get used to, but not as distracting toward the end of the book as it was during the beginning. I did find that the further I read, the harder it was...more

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Nov 01, 2011 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one book that truly lives up to the sobriquet, a thriller. A page turner that is violent, entertaining, scary, and a joy ride. The words brutal and brutish keep coming to mind when I think of this book. Set in the Cape Flats section of Capetown South Africa, its the South Africa thats never seen by tourists unless they've made a dangerous wrong turn. Some of the language at first gave me serious reservations but after being assured by people you live there that yes, calling people half-b...more

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Mar 20, 2010 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Mixed Blood Smith has a way of taking the most obnoxious, despicable character and painting them in such a fashion that you find yourself rooting for them, all of them. As each main character is introduced, each one worse than the previous one, you are able to find some unbidden trait that makes you want to see them succeed. From Jack Burn, the American bank robber, hiding out in Cape Town under an assumed name, to Benny Mongrel the ex-jail-bird and long time gang-banger to the slime-ball, po...more

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Sep 06, 2011 D.E. Meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the brilliant first novel from Roger Smith and I have just ordered the others. Smooth as silk in structure, it connects like an Alan Altman film. Extremely visceral writing, laugh out loud moments combined with action packed plot and some of the best hard boiled prose I've read in years. Very very violent in action and images, so be warned because Roger Smith pulls no punches in his depiction of Cape Town. Dante's Inferno, more like and to quote one of his characters, the quite unbelieab...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010-mysteries

Mixed Blood, a Capetown Thriller, by Roger Smith, narrated by John Lee, produced by Highbridge Company, downloaded from audible.com.

In this thriller we have an American whose gambling debts eventually led him into collusion with gangsters and after a bank heist gone bad, he leaves the country and tries to start a new life in Capetown for himself and his child and his pregnant wife. But gangsters from the U.S. find him and when they invade his home, he kills them both and takes their bodies to bu...more

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Apr 13, 2011 Mark Stevens rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked Roger Smith’s straightforward style and enjoyed the armchair trip to the Cape Town setting, but “Mixed Blood” grew increasingly hard to stay with just because it was just too hard to root for Jack Burn. He’s desperate at the outset and his desperation increases. His actions grow increasingly hard to buy. The book is told from multiple points of view so not all the questionable behavior can be laid at Burns’ doorstep, but the murder of an innocent child and an innocent housekeeper just le...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Tuck rated it 4 of 5 stars

i like noir, i like tough, mean street grittiness, but sometimes south african noir just takes it too far, too gross, too sad? i guess winnie mandela DID say to the young people, with your gasoline and matchbooks, we can end apartheid. (putting a necklace, an old tire filled with gas around the neck of the "bad guy" and setting it on fire.) so when this little scene in this novel comes about its not THAT unexpected, but also just seems gross and pointless. i guess even SA is a brutal version of...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Author Phillip Margolin describes MIXED BLOOD as "an unnerving thrill ride." I am now reading fiction set in South Africa and this takes place in Cape Town, described as the most dangerous city in the world. which author Roger Smith writes about with "a shattering sense of place." Its bad guy Inspector Barnard is a Boer who mentally and physically lives in old apartheid South African and loves killing as much as he loves his religion. Our first city to visit in South Africa is Cape Town and I wi...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Toni Osborne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Book 1, in the Cape Town series

This fantastic story almost impossible to put down recounts how, why and what happened to Jack Burns, an American who relocated to Cape Town, South Africa with his family.

Blackmailed into participating in a bank heist that went terribly wrong in his home town of Milwaukee Jack realizes he needs to get out of town and go into hiding with his wife and son. At first everything seems to be going well, then one evening all hell breaks loose when Jack is forced to defend...more

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Feb 27, 2010 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gritty-fiction, cool-crime

A friend of mine recommended this one to me based solely on my penchant for grit lit and George Pelecanos's urban noir. But I've got to say, the Cape Town thugs and corrupt cops in this one make the characters in a Pelecanos story look like the lollipop guild. I read this book in two days, definitely getting that can't-put-it-down sensation you get from a good, fast-paced crime story. I did take issue with the fact that pretty much all of the characters were detestable in one way or another, jus...more

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May 29, 2010 Doug Cornelius rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: publisher-provided, read-in-2010

Roger Smith has written a gritty, violent thriller full of deeply-flawed people trapped in bad luck and the violence of Cape Town, South Africa.

Some books slowly weave a tapestry of ideas. Mixed Blood is not one of those books. It’s rapid roller coaster with scenes quickly moving through the ups and downs of his cast of characters. The background and flaws of the characters are fired with the staccato of a machine gun into the narrative.

You probably won’t like any of the characters. Most of th...more

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May 31, 2010 Maddy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-reads

RATING: 3.5

Jack Burn thinks he's come up with a foolproof plan to escape arrest for a three million dollar bank robbery. In reality, he was a reluctant participant, but of course the authorities don't know that. Jack has managed to go underground by changing his identity and moving with his wife, Susan, and young son, Matt, to Cape Town, South Africa. After an idyllic interlude, a random event threatens to uncover Jack's subterfuge. Jack and his family are the victims of a gangland assault, and...more RATING: 3.5

Jack Burn thinks he's come up with a foolproof plan to escape arrest for a three million dollar bank robbery. In reality, he was a reluctant participant, but of course the authorities don't know that. Jack has managed to go underground by changing his identity and moving with his wife, Susan, and young son, Matt, to Cape Town, South Africa. After an idyllic interlude, a random event threatens to uncover Jack's subterfuge. Jack and his family are the victims of a gangland assault, and the robbers end up dead. Ordinarily, this event would cause the average family to seek the help of the police. But in the Burns' situation, doing that would risk uncovering their secret and putting Jack and Susan at the mercy of the US legal system.

The house next to Jack's is under construction and being watched by a security guard named Benny Mongrel. Benny is one step above homelessness. What makes the job worthwhile for him is that he has been assigned a dog, Bessie, who helps him to patrol the site. Benny has observed what happened to the Burns' family and also what Jack did to the perpetrators. Although he doesn't want to become involved, he has no choice when Bessie becomes a victim as well.

Smith exposes the reader to the dark side of Cape Town through a corrupt Afrikaner cop named Rudy "Gatsby" Barnard. He's a cruel cop on the take who terrorizes the local population. Some of the most suspenseful moments in the book revolve around trying to determine what horrific deed Gatsby will do next. There are a few other characters who are attempting to take Gatsby down, such as a Zulu detective named Disaster Zondi; but Gatsby is so powerful that those efforts don't look likely to succeed.

Smith does an excellent job with the characterization of Gatsby and Benny. On the other hand, Jack felt stereotypical to me rather than realistic and some of the other characters, such as Zondi, are almost toss-aways. Smith's greatest success is in painting the details of the Cape Town setting. Through Benny's eyes, we see the parts of the city that aren't advertised in tourist brochures. The corruption and poverty are appalling. On the down side, some of the plotting was over the top.

Mixed Blood is a debut novel. Recently, there has been an influx of books set in South Africa reaching the US reading public. Mixed Blood more than holds its own. It will be interesting to see if Smith turns this into a series or moves forward with thriller standalones. In any case, his skill with developing the setting makes the idea of future books an appealing one.

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Mar 15, 2009 Lavonda Talbert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jack Burns, an American fugitive trying to restart a troubled marriage and create a new life in a new country. His life and those around him got turned upside down during a botched robbery. Every character in this story was touched by Burns and not in a positive way. There's not a boring moment in this story. In the end, justice prevailed for some of the characters but this story reminds people that evil people do exist.

The photos on Roger Smith's website really shows the events in this story.

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Mar 03, 2010 K rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: suspense, more-by

Set in contemporary Cape Town, South Africa, with most of the action in the lawless Cape Flats, where the apartheid regime relegated the city's non-whites. Stuff goes down in a rapid and violent fashion when one dude murders two other dudes and another dude sees it.

Had a hard time reading the first third of the book because there's a disfigured ex-con character who really loves a dog and it's the first time he's ever loved anything etc, so I was in constant dread that something bad was going to...more

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Apr 27, 2009 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sarah by: Lane Library

Shelves: africa, murder, south-africa, thriller, crime, library-book

This book (along with a story I read about sexual assault in South Africa) has made me afraid of visiting South Africa. I know that this is pretty silly because it's unlikely I'd be drawn into gang violence as a tourist, but it definitely made me look at the country differently. Why doesn't Ian Rankin do this to me for Scotland? I don't know. Maybe it's because I've seen Scotland for myself, so maybe it's a sign that I should go to South Africa.

The book was all over the place. The ending was cer...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Amorak Huey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

Well, it's violent.

Which is fine.

The setting is also pretty cool: the seamier -- WAY seamier -- side of Cape Town. As for plot, well, it turns on any number of implausible coincidences (starting with the violent scene that sets things in motion) and is in general pretty thin.

Unfortunately, there's no one really to root for or care about. The main character (a fugitive American bank robber with marital problems) is a jerk, and not especially interesting. The antagonist (a corrupt cop) is slight...more

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About Roger Smith

Roger Smith was born in Johannesburg and now lives in Cape Town. His debut thriller, Mixed Blood (2009), was published in six countries and won the Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Prize). His second book, Wake Up Dead (2010), was a 10 best pick of the Philadelphia Enquirer, Times (South Africa) and Krimiwelt (Germany) and was nominated for the German Krimi-Blitz Reader’s Award .
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