A Beautiful Place To Die

Detective Emmanuel Cooper #1

by Malla Nunn

In 1950s South Africa, the colour of a killer's skin matters more than justice. In this captivating debut novel, brilliant newcomer Malla Nunn explores the layers of racial divides in a small South African country town as Detective Emmanuel Cooper tracks the killer of an Afrikaan's police captain. While Cooper navigates his way through the towns labyrinthine partitions of race and class, his position becomes more dangerous and his life is put at risk as he confronts the ever harsher realities of South Africa under the new apartheid regime. Malla Nunn combines a thrilling, action-oriented plot with a thoughtful and complex portrayal of a particular time and place and the human desires that drive us all, regardless of race, colour or creed.

Genres: Mystery, Africa, Fiction, Historical Fiction, South Africa, Crime, Mystery Thriller

399 pages, Trade paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Malla Nunn grew up in Swaziland before moving with her parents to Perth in the 1970s. She attended university in WA and then in the US. In New York, she worked on film sets, wrote her first screenplay and met her American husband to be, before returning to Australia, where she began writing and directing short films and corporate videos. Fade to White, Sweetbreeze and Servant of the Ancestors have won numerous awards and been shown at international film festivals, from Zanzibar to New York.

Her first novel, A Beautiful Place to Die (2008), was published internationally and won the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Novel by an Australian female author. Malla and her husband live in Sydney with their two children.

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 "the house is in disarray" stars !!!

2016 Honorable Mention

Ms. Nunn has written a detective debut that is riveting, intense, complex and compelling.

I was about to start Les Miserables but decided I wanted something shorter and my murder mystery fanatic buddy sent this my way.

Well, I did not do a stitch of housework this weekend as all I wanted to do is read this book.

The book takes place in 1950's South Africa where apartheid is about to begin in full swing and a Dutch Police Chief is murdered in a small town on the Mozambique border. Detective Cooper from Jo'burg is first on the scene and the investigation begins.

The brilliance in this book is that it is much more than a police procedural. It is a political thriller, dark romance and is psychologically insightful. The characters are wonderfully etched and there are many of them. Ms. Nunn very succinctly teaches the non-South African about race relations, gender expectations and bits of history, sociology and cultural anthropology that is seamless and fits in beautifully with the rest of the story.

I don't know why this book is not better known as it is superb, endlessly interesting and full of twists and turns about the evil that lies within privilege, power relations and the interrelationships that exist in a small South African town.

I loved this book so much that I have already ordered books two through four in this detective series!!

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunningly good debut novel. The writing is very assured and the characters complex and well developed. Set in the South Africa of 1952, with new apartheid rules introduced to segregate black from white, Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate the murder of an Afrikaner police captain in a small town on the border with Mozambique. What he discovers is a complicated story of power, race and sex. However he is hampered in his investigations by the appearance of the sinister Security Branch who are convinced of a political plot and will do all in their power to pin the blame where they want.

This story of power and corruption and the evilness that men are capable of is set against the beautiful background of South Africa. The author writes so evocatively of the time and place you can feel the fear and tension simmering below the surface in the everyday lives of those who are not white, male and dominant. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series to see what becomes of Emmanuel Cooper.

[Daniel Shindler · Rating 4 out of 5]

“ A Beautiful Place To Die” is a criminal thriller that rises above its genre by its chilling portrait of the brutal system of apartheid.It is set in South Africa in 1952 right after the Boer government came to power and instituted laws that restricted relationships between racial groups.

Emmanuel Cooper, an English detective,is sent to Jacobs Nest, a small town near the border of Mozambique.The chief of police,Captain Pretorius, has been shot to death.Cooper is tasked with investigating the crime.It quickly becomes obvious that this task is daunting and filled with emotional roadblocks.Captain Pretorius was much more than the chief of police.He was the ruler of this small town.He owned the most prominent businesses and was the predominant landowner. Fortified by his wife and six sons, he dominated the political and social life of this self contained community.He was also viewed as the apotheosis of the Boer ideal, embodying the perception of the self proclaimed chosen people who deem themselves entitled to fulfill their destiny of ruling South Africa.

Cooper therefore encounters hostility, fear and misdirection as he pursues his inquiries. Cooper is an outsider whose inquiries might tarnish the image of the deceased hero.His only allies are a Zulu constable and an elderly Jewish merchant with a mysterious past.The investigation sputters forward and uncovers fissures in Pretorius’ perfect image and revelations of long held secrets centered around racial relations.

The plot of the investigation is well conceived.However, the novel distinguishes itself by depicting the institutional codifications of the restrictive racial laws. The author creates a chilling picture of xenophobia, corruption and misguided foundational myths set within the picturesque South African landscape.The thoughtfully conceived characters blend together to create a narrative fraught with misguided privilege,suppressed desire and illicit liaisons. Their interactions subtly debunk the ethos of this society even as they portray a country embarking on an ill conceived path. 4.5 stars

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant book! My first Malla Nunn, and what a beginning!

Detective Emmanuel Cooper found himself in Jacob’s Rest, a tiny town situated on the border of South Africa and Mozambique. He’d been sent there to investigate a suspected homicide, but his superior was convinced it was a hoax, so only spared Emmanuel to check it out. But what he found was an Afrikaner police captain who had been murdered, and his only help in the investigation were an 18 year old white boy, who had recently donned the police uniform, and a black Zulu, Constable Shabalala who was a boyhood friend of the deceased.

Suddenly the powerful Security Branch was on the scene, trying to take over the investigation. Their viscious and thuggish tactics guaranteed them a result…of sorts. But Cooper wasn’t too concerned about the politics of the situation, he just wanted to find the murderer. So he went out on his own, keeping evidence from the Security Branch, in particular Lieutenant Piet Lapping, with Shabalala by his side.

With racial tensions escalating, corruption and double standards rife and all leads coming to a dead end, Emmanuel found his time running out. Would he find the person who took the life of the Afrikaner captain? What would he uncover that would tear lives apart?

The incredibly fast pace of this novel, the vision of the beautiful landscape of South Africa, the heart-wrenching treatment of the coloured people, especially the women, and the way the white people were sure they were untouchable, despite what they did, made this a wonderful read. I am really looking forward to reading the next instalment in Detective Emmanuel Cooper’s story.

Highly recommended.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malla Nunn writes with such a sure and steady hand that it's hard to believe this is a first novel. She really knows how to string you along with the mystery, keeping you reading as the secret lives of the characters are slowly revealed.

The mystery itself is excellent, but the intimate look at rural apartheid in South Africa is equally as interesting, if not more so. The story takes place in 1952, shortly after the National Party has enacted very strict new segregation laws. It's against the law for whites and blacks to even touch each other. The murder of an Afrikaner police captain leads to an investigation that ultimately reveals the depravity of those who believe they are ordained and favored by God. They see this as entitlement to take what they want from those not favored. Their whiteness makes them virtually immune to the consequences of their actions. Or does it?

I'm looking forward to the second book in the Emmanuel Cooper series. My copy of this first one has a teaser with the first few pages of the second one, so I'm all primed up and ready to keep reading!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent debut novel by Mala Nunn, takes place in 1952 south Africa as the new apartheid laws are being encoded and enforced. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper, a WWII veteran, is sent to a small town to investigate the murder of the local police captain. what follows is a tale of complex racial relationships, family pride and power, negotiating the new laws while trying to solve a murder, and dealing with other forces of government who may not care who is really guilty.

Well written, with an interesting cast who I hope will reappear in future books along with Cooper.

A strong 4 to 4.5

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific sense of place and characters! I've never been to South Africa, feeling as though I were directly present in the action.

At first, I was concerned that the Afrikaner racism (villainy) might be overdone, but no. Author does a good job with showing the nuances of the situation. Books I've read featuring race relations in the modern American South often have locals (all races) defering to the phrase "It's complicated." I have little to say of the Zulu policeman, except that the effort of maintaining his dignity under such oppressive circumstances seemed almost super-human.

For the sake of the plot resolution, Cooper's own history is implied, with details left until late in the story - frustrating, but necessary. Some might find referring to The Old Jew uncomfortable, but it fits with the era well; his thoughts being "I've been called worse."

Despite the feeling that a bit of the violence might have been gratuitous, I'm planning on reading more of the series.

[Book Him Danno · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love police procedurals get on this series right now! The author is only three books in and they are absolutely fantastic.

I love a great mystery, especially one that can educate me on a part of history I know nothing about beyond the basics. The hero of the books is English police detective Emmanuel Cooper, trying to balance the tensions of learning the truth to solve the case, and the racial policies of 1950’s apartheid South Africa. The white police captain has been found murdered in the small border town of Jacob’s Rest. Was it the black population, or smuggler’s from Mozambique, or the usual suspects of most crimes, greed and lust? In a community where power is king and racial tensions high, can Cooper navigate the all the factions and manage to stay afloat.

Nunn opens a world of restrictive laws and racist mindsets and presents a multi-layered crime equal to any in the genre. The atmosphere is almost the Wild West as he tries to get the truth while not risking upsetting the apple cart too much, because it would mean his death. And with each step closer to the truth what is revealed others would wish to remain hidden. They would pin it on some random undesirable than the perceived ugliness of what really happened be known; if only to protect the deceased and their own reputations.

An absorbing mystery from a tremendous series that anyone interested in the genre should not missed. And if you are looking for a great first step into the procedural novel I couldn’t recommend this series enough. As for me, this book also fulfills my three main goals when it comes to expanding my horizons (I analyzed my reading patterns a few years ago and found I read mainly American White Male authors). Malla Nunn and Emmanuel Cooper conquer all three of those problems while being fabulous too. A must read.

[Malia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sort of in two minds about this book. I liked the style of writing and Emmanuel Cooper, the protagonist and detective in this story. The story itself was a little less exciting, and, at times, downright confusing. There was a lot of talk of sex and at times it felt very graphic and unpleasant, as well as a rather unnecessary amount of violence and gore. I know this story was meant to give the reader a glimpse of South Africa in the 50s, and maybe the author painted an accurate picture, I suppose I just hope she didn't. We all know of the apartheid, so obviously, there were tremendous racial tensions at that time, in that sense, Nunn is probably trying to give us a greater understanding of the degree of discord and fear everyday people lived with, and the fact that a white policeman would naturally be viewed with suspicion, in light of this situation.
So that was my little confused ramble...;-) All in all, I did think this was a good book, particularly as the main character is so strong and frankly, quite likeable. I can see myself picking up the next ones in the series, once I have read something a bit lighter.
If you enjoy Bryce Courtenay, this might also appeal.

Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com

[Alex Cantone · Rating 5 out of 5]

“To live in this country a man, he must be a liar. You tell the truth”- Shabalala clapped his hands together to make a sharp sound -“they break you.”

Set in a small town in South Africa, near to the borders with Swaziland and Mozambique, Malla Nunn’s debut novel introduces Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper. It is 1952 and the new apartheid laws separating whites, blacks and coloured peoples are in force, including the Immorality Act which forbids inter-marriage/union.

He is assisting on another case when his superior in Johannesburg, the ambitious Lieutenant Van Niekerk, sends him to investigate a rumour of a body in the river separating South Africa from Mozambique (then a Portuguese colony). The victim, a white police captain, shot and dragged into the river, is Pretorius, the patriarch of the powerful local Afrikaner family. At the scene he meets a black constable of Zulu blood, Samuel Shabalala, who has known the captain since the two were boys. The captain’s sons speculate that the murder was part of a cross-border smuggling operation and want to take the body home for burial. Cooper stands firm, insisting the body is taken to the hospital morgue to establish the cause and time of death.

With the resident doctor away, Shabalala suggests they find “the old Jew” Daniel Zweigman, who runs a local store, a former surgeon in Germany before the war. Like many white South Africans, Cooper fought with the Allies in WWII, and the three men forge an unlikely friendship. But before Cooper can investigate, the case is taken over by the Security Branch from Jo’burg, believing it to be politically motivated, with Cooper sidelined to take over one of the deceased’s cases, a peeping tom attacks on coloured and black women in the town.

With a missing police file, Cooper’s investigation is going nowhere: limited help from a bumbling teenage white officer, he encounters hostility at every turn, first from a one-time suspect in the peeping tom case, to the Captain’s assistant, Lieutenant Uys, who nurses his own grudge.

The bitter tone had changed to longing. Uys had never left the playground or outgrown the desire to be close to the most popular and athletic student. The captain had denied him the small pleasure of living in his reflected glory.

Reluctance too from the Captain’s family, when he asks about the victim’s papers.

Emmanuel did not put much store in Mrs. Pretorius’s lecherous Shylock story: her world was populated with crafty Jews, drunken coloureds and primitive blacks. It was the standard National Party bullshit that poor Afrikaners swore by and educated Englishmen loved to mock while their own servants clipped the lawn.

Stumbling upon evidence that the captain led a secret life, he comes under attack, leaving a tenuous clue that he follows to the Mozambique capital, Lorenzo Marques – a prosperous and popular holiday destination (its name was changed to Maputo after a Tsonga chief in 1976).

Raised in Swaziland, author Malla Nunn delivers a stunning indictment of the racial divide: of a black people with their own tracks around the town and curfews, the streets the domain of the whites, the brutality of the Special Branch, beating confessions, and conjures up some powerful imagery of the town, and the surrounding area.

Inside the compound a black watchman paced the front of a large supply warehouse while an Alsatian dog, chained to a spike in the ground, ran restless circles of its territory.

Emmanuel walked on past the coloured church and shops. He moved past the backyard fences locked and barred against the night, past the path that led to the Protea Guesthouse and his room, then around the outside curve of the town that showed him civilised backyards pushing up against the untamed veldt.

And the stricken look on the faces of those who had fled there, hoping to start afresh.

The fragile Lilliana had stopped all activity until her husband emerged unharmed from the back room. Something in the past still cast a shadow over the Jewish couple. How many people in towns and villages and cities lived with the firsthand knowledge that nothing is safe? History, written with the help of bullets and firebombs, swept away everything in its path.

It might have helped that I visited South Africa - though not this area - a decade ago, and I look forward to reading more of this author’s work.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice beginning to a series, though still a bit rough in places. There is plenty of room to grow with characters like Nunn has created, and much physical beauty in the landscape. One can just see the heat and smell the air. The cariacatures created to people the Security Forces are much too clownish to give a deep sense of evil, but perhaps that is the tone Nunn wished to establish. After all, real evil is off-putting in the extreme. It may be good enough to sketch it without giving it a real face, if the rest of the work can carry it. But there were weaknesses throughout, I thought, that perhaps a little time and distance would have made apparent to the author. Anyway, I'll look for book two, in hopes that practice makes perfect.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new author for me and a new setting for a story. The book is set in 1952 in South Africa. Our protagonist is Detective Sgt. Emmanuel Cooper, an Englishman. Cooper has been sent out of the Johannesburg office to investigate a murder in Jacob’s Rest, a small village of “inbred Afrikaner farmers.” A body of a man has been found floating in the river. It turns out that the victim is Captain Willem Pretorius, the head of the local police. Cooper arrives alone without back up unaware the victim is a police officer. It turns out that the Capt. is the son-in-law of Frikkie van Brandenburg, one of the “lions of Afrikaner nationhood.”

The author weaves into the story some of the history of South Africa and the segregation of the races that has been a policy in South Africa for generations. Because of the influence of the Pretorius family the secret police have been sent to hunt the killer who they say is a communist. Cooper must attempt to solve the crime in spite of the threats of the secret police and all the racial problems in the village. Cooper is having PSTD from his service in WWII throughout his investigation. The ending is somewhat different and reveals a surprise.

The story is well written and the descriptions create an almost cinematic feel to the book. I enjoyed the addition of some SA history tossed into the story. The array of characters was most interesting and some were refugees from war-torn Europe such as the Jewish doctor. I found the book most interesting and the location intriguing.

The author was born is Swaziland, South Africa and currently lives in Sydney Australia. She is an author and an award winning filmmaker. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Saul Reichlin did a good job narrating the book. Reichlin is an actor, director, voice over artist and an award winning audiobook narrator.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read, combining an exciting detective story with well-told descriptions of South African locales and life before Mandela. It is infuriating to read of the official intolerance and persecution of coloreds and blacks by despicable, hateful whites. This was the first in a series.

My wife and I had the good fortune to meet Malla a couple of years ago at a Key West Literary Seminar. We heard her speak and shared a meal with her. She is a delightful person.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

'That's not the place.' Emmanuel pictured the crime scene at the river, the sweep of land and sky shimmering with the quintessentially African light. It was a beautiful place to die.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a morality tale of the failed and destructive Apartheid regime, set in 1952, rather than a crime novel, and I wondered why the writer needed the additional attraction of the “puzzle” to propel her novel.

Why the setting fails as a crime novel is that societal lines are firmly drawn under Apartheid and its heinous Immorality Act: the three races – white, black and coloured – cannot interact with one another (a black caregiver is even prohibited from preparing a white corpse for burial). But there is a caveat: the superior white race cannot be sent to jail for committing a crime against the lower races, white men are allowed to sexualize coloured and black girls as long as their wives don’t hear about it, but blacks and coloureds will get skinned alive for even stepping off the kaffir path into white territory. So how does an investigator with racial ambiguity and his black assistant conduct a comprehensive investigation that requires crossing all racial lines to get to the truth? Add to that the obstructionist Security Branch (white cops who act like the German SS) who have their own agenda for white supremacy and wish to interpret every crime to further that goal. A rather narrow field to play in as a detective. It’s easy to see that justice does not get done, but that each person gets only what they deserve and what is their right based on their race.

Yet, recently divorced Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper, who is dubbed an Englishman, perseveres to solve the murder of Police Captain Pretorius, an Afrikaner as blue-blooded as they come but who has a weakness for coloured women. Pretorius, the police chief of a small town, Jacob’s Rest, has five hot-blooded sons who run roughshod over everyone in town, while their mother believes that she belongs to God’s chosen people: the White Race of Africa. During the course of the investigation, Cooper has to suppress the urgings of his loins towards those he has power over, dodge the Pretorius boys and the Security Branch, dodge his shaky past that could see him disqualified from the case, and manage his ambitious boss in Johannesburg who cares only about his own promotional prospects.

What is also revealing is the consequence of crossing racial lines in procreation. Many illicit white-on-black or white-on-coloured unions begat offspring who were either closer to white or closer to black. The off-white ones, if they could conceal the fact, opted for the white designation thus being privy to many professional and property entitlements while the off-black siblings were cast into the margins. Entire families kept these dark secrets for many years with disastrous consequences for both the off-whites and the off-blacks.

I found the writing to be rather amateurish, and the choice of writing Cooper, the narrator, in third person, as probably a poor choice, for often we hear this outside voice conjecturing, concluding, arranging facts, telling us what is happening or going to happen. Why did the author not choose a first-person narrator instead, one who would have legitimized all the “telling”?

Of course, as is to be expected in this society, justice is not fully served and those looking for all loose ends in this crime to be tied up will not find it, not in this society, not even in the fragmented one that has since emerged in South Africa post-Apartheid. But the novel makes for an interesting social commentary on those who try to create exclusionary societies and reap the foul results of what they sow.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent...until Cooper's "trick" at the end.That was silly,but a series to follow.

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This superior thriller written by the gifted Malla Nunn is the first in a series featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper who plies his trade in the bleakness of Apartheid era South Africa. Navigating through racial tensions so poisonously thick he can almost taste them and fighting against a government that sees a communist behind every corner he's also hiding some secrets of his own that could be his undoing.

As the story begins Cooper has been called to the backwater town of Jacob's Rest on the border of South Africa and Mozambique where a well known (and supposedly well liked) Captain has been brutally murdered. Cooper must contend with the Captain's volatile posse of thug like sons, his zealot of a wife and the various Afrikaners and natives who don't have any interest in an Englishman invading their town.

A mystery like this, set in this part of the world and at this time is completely dependent on the author nailing both time and setting and Nunn manages both in spades. This really is "a beautiful place to die" and even Cooper with his calm, calculated attention to details and determination to do his job come hell or high water stops sometimes to smell the flowers. Nunn doesn't (pardon the expression) white wash anything. This place is beautiful and brutal and disgusting with its appalling, elitist and racist attitudes, the practices of its people, and its grim determination to stamp out "inferior" races through segregation and exclusion. Young women are bought and sold here. Valiant, brave and educated men must hide their religion from the world for fear of persecution. Even love is mandated or forbidden by the government.

The captain's death and the people behind it are the story here but the series grounds itself in the gritty, distasteful political culture and the backlash that results. Nunn never wants the reader to forget where they are. This is an unjust, uncaring world where the "good guys" not only don't win they're not allowed to based entirely on the color of their skin.

Cooper is an incredibly likable hero; noble to a fault but damaged from years of service in the army and personal losses. He's tireless in seeking the truth but doesn't get bogged down in a desperate thirst for "justice" that I've seen drive similarly written detective characters crazy. He understands the limits of his world and takes whatever justice he can find.

This is a murky, dark and deeply moving read. Violent but not grotesque. A lush and vibrant world with a decaying heart that you can smell when you breathe too deep. The end is a bitter pill to swallow and you'll want people to be punished who get off scott free but somehow its satisfying anyway because you know Cooper will always be there to fight the good fight no matter the outcome.

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Sentence: Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper switched off the engine and looked out through the dirty windscreen.

Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent from Johannesburg to Jacob's Rest after a call comes in reporting a possible murder. What he finds is the body of the town’s Afrikaner police captain, William Pretorius, and a confrontation with his volatile family. Members of the powerful Security Branch also arrive and push Cooper out, leaving his to investigate a peeping tom case unsolved by the dead chief. Clues and determination lead Cooper to Pretorius secrets and the motive for his death.

“A Beautiful Place to Die” gives a stark portrayal of South Africa during apartheid and the Immorality Act banning sexual conduct between whites and nonwhites. Although I was able to look the terms up, a glossary might have been helpful for those of us not as familiar with the history and terminology.

Cooper makes a sympathetic protagonist with shades of Charles Todd’s Ian Rutledge character. While it’s an interesting homage, it also felt like a cheap, and not very satisfying, way of telling us about Cooper’s background. We do learn, though other means, some of this background throughout the story, but much remains vague about him. However, all the characters seemed stereotypical, from the Jewish doctor and his wife, to the enigmatic Zulu constable, to the storm trooper Security Branch and on. There was very little dimension to the majority of the characters.

The plot conveys how unjust and brutal living was under apartheid. While interesting and educational, it’s not enough to make the book work. The mystery itself, and its investigation, became almost secondary. It did have a number of well-executed twists and revelations, along with suspense and some brutality. I did identify one villain early but not another. However, my largest complaint was that, although realistic, I found the ending unsatisfying.

I certainly don’t regret having read this book. It was interesting and I did learn from it. However, I don’t believe this is a series with which I shall continue.

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This outstanding debut novel got a well-deserved nomination for an Edgar award for best novel of the year (2010). Nunn creates a vivid portrait of South Africa in 1952, and sets into that world a memorable cast of characters.

The main protagonist, Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper, is sent to a small town to investigate the murder of the local police captain who is also the head of a prominent local family. Cooper soon finds himself up against the captain's family and the national security police as he confronts the baffling mystery of the captain's murder.

The security police soon settle on an expedient and politically useful solution to the crime. But Cooper is skeptical and believes that the murder is tied to a Peeping Tom case that the captain had been investigating. At great risk to his career and to his own physical well-being, Cooper defies the security police and continues his own investigation that takes him deep into the world of the complex racial and social relationships that existed in the South Africa of the early 1950s.

This is a beautifully written and very engaging book that continues to deliver surprises to the very end. Happily, it is the first of a series and readers can look forward eagerly to the next book from this very talented writer.

[Hermien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this detective novel set in South Africa in the early fifties.

[Richard Kunzmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Beautiful Place to Die – Malla Nunn
(Picador)

Turn back the clock to 1952, South Africa. The National Party is at the height of its power and, to paraphrase the author, not a year goes past without the government introducing some new heinous law that can be broken by virtue of a person’s skin colour.
The body of Captain Willem Pretorius is found floating in a river bordering on Mozambique, and Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent from Johannesburg to investigate the killing. At first smugglers are suspected, but what Cooper eventually uncovers in the small town of Jacob’s Rest unleashes a political and personal storm that catches him wholly off guard.
On the surface, it seems that the townspeople had great respect for the captain. His family owned much of the business in the town, he was widely acknowledged as a white induna, or leader, amongst the Zulus, and appears to have had crime wholly under control. But as with all good mysteries, appearances are deceiving, and the peace in Jacob’s Rest, is no exception. The Englishman Cooper almost immediately runs afoul of the Captain’s four Afrikaner sons, and it is not long before the outsider is forced to form alliances with people at the fringes of society, in order to solve the case.
One is immediately struck by how one-dimensional all the Afrikaner characters in this novel are, and how the entire culture is ruthlessly vilified at every turn, when the author goes to great lengths to illustrate the complexities and conflicting moralities of the other characters. The junior police officer in the town, Hansie Heppel, is depicted as the village idiot to such extent that one wonders whether the character would ever have realistically been given a uniform; he is beyond parody. The white townspeople are routinely illustrated as zealous Christian fundamentalists, who have few qualities other than being inbred and mean. The women are milkmaids of bountiful mammaries, while the men are almost exclusively built like bulls, with the intelligence and temper to boot. A disappointment when one considers Detective Cooper. Our white detective from the big city is easy and comfortable around non-whites, yet his demons, associated with a failed marriage, his time in the trenches of the Second World War, and an even darker history further back in his childhood, is an achievement for a debut novelist. As is the old Jew Zweigman, a character very similar to the old shopkeeper in Richard Reve’s excellent Buckingham Palace. Though he sells his wares on the outer edge of white society, trading with blacks and “coloureds”, he too has a brooding history that’s resulted in his dear wife being a shattered husk of her earlier self.
The storyline stumbles in two places. At one point, a troubled man rather predictably emerges as the main suspect in Cooper’s investigation. The character dramatically shifts from a troubled lost soul to a heinous Proverbs-spewing rapist with only the vaguest explanation as to how he might have transformed himself in this way. Further on, Cooper and his romantic interest get into a pickle with very cold-blooded professional killers, and yet they escape what is an extremely harrowing and successful scene with a distraction that is implausible at best.
But let these objections not deter you. Malla Nunn’s prose is easy and accessible, her descriptions finely woven, the plot multi-layered, so that Jacob’s Rest and its people come alive in a memorable tapestry. The book’s strength lies in the metaphor that the town becomes for the racial tension in the country, at the time. The big houses and wide open streets belong to the whites, but they have no secrets the housemaids and garden boys don’t know about. Then there are the “kaffir paths” running in the veldt behind those houses and shops, trodden by those who are forbidden to walk proud in a white man’s town. The secrets hidden on these paths are invisible and inaccessible to the whites who have purposefully blinded themselves to what lies beyond their ideology. Cooper follows the clues into this world and discovers a world of paedophiles and porn, whores and drugs, and the white men who can’t leave non-white women alone. By stepping off the beaten track, the scales are removed from his eyes and he finally sees Jacob’s Rest for what it really is.
This metaphor, the meticulous build-up of the plot, and a very engaging Detective Emmanuel Cooper make this brooding mystery more appealing than most of the whodunits out there. It would be very interesting to see what Nunn does next with Cooper, who has the potential to become one of the great detectives of African crime fiction.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book by chance while looking through my local book store. The synopsis looked interesting and I hadn't read many mysteries set in Africa. I'm so glad I took a chance on it as I enjoyed the story immensely, right from the first few paragraphs. The story is set during apartheid and the plot revolves around the shooting death of an Afrikaner police captain in a small village. An English police detective is sent form Johannesburg to work the crime. He suddenly finds himself in the midst of tension with the Security services who want to find a Communist threat as the cause for the murder and also from the Police Captain's sons, hard core Afrikaners who provide a constant threat to Sgt Emmanuel Coopers well-being. The story moves along so very nicely and highlights the tensions implicit in the apartheid system; from the ruling white Afrikaners through the mixed - race peoples (the coloureds) to the blacks (the Zulu races. The characters are well-crafted, I particularly liked Emmanuel Cooper and the Zulu constable, Shabalala (excuse any spelling mistakes) and the Jewish doctor, Schneider (once again apologies for any errors in spelling). Cooper and the story itself remind me of Arcady Renko in the Martin Cruz Smith books set in Russia. Cooper also is a man in the middle, a police officer trying to solve a murder but having to deal with the tensions caused by apartheid, and the constant threats from the Security Services, even the threat of physical violence to his person. Malla Nunn has crafted an excellent story, creating tension and making you want to keep reading. My only slight dissatisfaction and the reason I gave it a 4 (actually a 4.5) was the ending. While I was satisfied with it overall, it was a bit pat. However, if you want a tense, well-written mystery story, you have to give this a try. I will move on to the next book.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had shelved this some time ago and then studiously ignored it. My attention was revived when I thought it might be in that corner of South Africa that became Swaziland. I was completely off base about that. This takes place almost entirely in South Africa with part of a chapter in Mozambique. The time is 1952, early in South Africa's Apartheid period.

The murder is at the beginning of the novel, that of a white police captain found in the early morning. He was dragged off a path and in the shallow waters of the river. No question about it's being murder as he was shot in the back of the head and also in his back. Who would have the courage and wherewithal to murder a police captain? Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper was sent to investigate. This was even highly unusual as such a case would normally garner a team and not just one man.

Cooper is a man of integrity. I suppose any reader could expect the star in a continuing series would fight for Truth and Justice. Actually, the characterization of Cooper is quite good as it is also for some of the supporting characters. There is a good plot and I liked the writing style. While this comes late in the novel, I think not a spoiler and explains the title. Emmanuel pictured the crime scene at the river, the sweep of land and sky shimmering with a quintessentially African light. It was a beautiful place to die.

But I have to admit that I've read too many books recently where racism is an issue. Again, later in the novel, but shows what a reader might have to contend with.

“Only white people talk about choice like it’s a box of chocolate that everyone gets to pick from. A Dutch police captain walks into this room and I say what to him? ‘No, thank you, Captain sir, but I do not wish to spoil my chances for a good marriage with a good man from my community, so please ma’ baas take yourself back to your wife and family. I promise not to blackmail you if you promise not to punish my family for turning you away. Thank you for asking me, Mr. Policeman. I am honored.’ Tell me, is that how it works for nonwhite women in Jo’burg, Detective?”

Yes, I should have expected it and I was unthinking. I was just hoping for a good mystery novel and not have to deal with this type of cultural issue or politics that should be beneath all of us. I will undoubtedly read more novels that deal with racism, but hope the ones I choose will be historical fiction (emphasis on historical). For the mystery, this is definitely 4 stars. For subject matter, I cannot find more than 3 stars. I'll color in only 3, but your tolerance may help you to the higher one.

[oshizu · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. I devoured this mystery over two days. Set in 1950s apartheid South Africa, the story kept me guessing and turning pages. I need to get a hold of Book 2 in the series...

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Beautiful Place to Die is a cracker of a novel. In the book we see 1950s South Africa through the eyes of Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper, sent to investigate the death of an Afrikaner police captain in the small town of Jacob’s Rest near the border with Mozambique.

Emmanuel reminds me of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander, polite, neither unkind nor easily intimidated, resigned to his lot of long days and headaches, and wearily facing down human cruelty in all its petty, pathetic and monstrous guises.

Nunn has the ability to skewer a character to the page with one phrase: “the tight-lipped constable”, “the shy brown mouse”, a “dapper peacock of a manner”, “a woman with fire in her eyes and ice in her heart”.
She loves a good metaphor, does not waste words, and has what I like to think of as a dry Australian sense of humour, put to excellent use in one priceless scene where two nuns witness a crucial piece of evidence.

The question of what motivates each of these characters and who they really are beneath the surface drives the plot relentlessly forward so that for the reader it becomes almost impossible to put the book down.

Beneath the compelling, cinematic, beautifully written, tight as a drum story, Nunn is telling us what happens when we demand of people what is impossible and deny to them what is necessary. Just after I finished this book I came across a reference, in The Mother Dance by Harriet Lerner (p85), to something Alice Walker said in a radio interview:

…one outcome of racism is that a mother may think things are just fine because she can provide her children with a good life and education, while across the tracks other people’s children have no access to either. It’s a myth, Walker reminds us, that the two worlds of these children can be kept separate for very long. The children who have little or nothing will always be wanting what the other children have. The children of privilege will always be trying to protect what’s theirs and to justify that inequality.

It’s a message not only relevant to 1950s South Africa, or the years of slavery in the United States.

[Rusalka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up like so many children of the 80s and 90s knowing about apartheid. I knew that in South Africa black and white people were separated, and black people were denied things, and rights, and opportunities that white people had. I also remember it ending, and Nelson Mandela becoming President, lots of happy people and dancing.

So I've always had the knowledge of apartheid. But I don't think I have ever really had an understanding of apartheid. I mean, it's pretty straightforward, right? White and black? I never considered the tiering between Afrikaans and English, or Jews, or Indians, or mixed race, etc. This book explores all of this and some. My 7 year old knowledge was blown out of the water and highlighted as what it obviously was, incredibly naive and simplistic. But until I had to really think about it, I really never realised how simplistic I assumed it was.

Detective Emmanuel Cooper is a white, English police officer. He is called out to a small town on the border with Mozambique. He arrives at the murder scene of the Afrikaan police captain, who seems to pretty much rule the town with his pack of sons. In an incredibly volatile situation already, Detective Cooper also has to work with officers from the country's Intelligence Agency who have taken over the investigation, while also enforcing the new apartheid policy and stamping out communism.

It's very well written. Both the story itself and the writing as a whole. I didn't think the story would be able to string itself out for the whole book, but she did it well. I thought I had the culprit picked early, but that got flipped on it's head, which I love. The writing of the landscape and the area was by someone who obviously loves the land, and made it sound incredibly beautiful, even in its barrenness.

She also handled the political landscape very well, I was impressed. There was obviously a point of view in the book, but it never felt heavy handed. I definitely would recommend, it's well worth the read.

For more reviews, visit: http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful writing and a stomach-turning description of South AFrica as Apartheid legislation was ruthlessly put in place in the early Fifties. Must read on how a twisted ideology can pervert a country and its social/civil institutions

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical crime fiction is doubly delightful for lovers of history and crime fiction like me. Adding the tension of crime brings to life the social tensions in a society like apartheid South Africa of the 1950s.
After the delightful Sam Wyndham series in the same genre by Abir Mukherjee, I picked this one up on basis of a 5/5 rating by a friend on goodreads. The historical fiction part was rich in details and the crime fiction part was good. The characters were interesting and the pacing was good but I was irritated by the author's writing style. It was as if she deliberately wrote in an obscure way and it was a slow read for me. Maybe the contrast was even more as I was reading a Scandinavian police procedural before this. Other than that it would have got a higher rating.
Because of the superb setting, I may read one more novel in the series.

[Allan Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"¿Qué otra cosa podía hacer uno salvo volver a levantarse y enfrentarse al mundo una vez más?"

Adictivo. Cooper se adentra a lo profundo del apartheid en Sudáfrica para descubrir quién asesinó a Petrorious pero terminará descubriendo lo profundo que el racismo esta implicado en el crimen y como afecta la vida de mujeres y hombres.

Lastimosamente el final me decepcionó. Todo lo que construyó la autora merecía un mejor cierre y no dejar cabos sueltos.

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow burner that turned into an almost obsessive read. The crime mystery is a good one, but the setting of South Africa in 1952 lifts it on so many levels because of the unfamiliar, complex and deeply unequal and ignorant society we learn about.

Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent to a small town, or village, to investigate the murder of the local, white, chief of police. He faces prejudice and mistrust from all directions and not least, he has his own corrupt and complex police force and its branches to try to navigate. A wrong step can be fatal.

Like mentioned, it started quite slow, but I liked the writing a lot (as well as characters and settings) and I was soon rewarded by a mesmerising tale.

Didn’t care for the ending, the resolution is perfectly fine, but, oddly for an old gore-hound, I find violence in a “real” setting hard to stomach and it got a bit much.

Close to a full 5-star, will read more.