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Kramer and Zondi Mystery #7
The Artful Egg
Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his Bantu partner Micky Zondi seek the murderer of a world-famous novelist whose naked corpse is found strewn with herbs and flowers and whose death has left several people considerably wealthier
479 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
James McClure
42 books21 followersJames Howe McClure was a British author and journalist best known for his Kramer and Zondi mysteries set in South Africa.
James McClure was born and raised in South Africa and educated in Pietermaritzburg, Natal at Scottsville School (1947–51), Cowan House (1952–54), and Maritzburg College (1955–58). He worked first as a commercial photographer with Tom Sharpe, who later wrote a series of celebrated comic novels, and then as a teacher of English and art at Cowan House in 1959-63, before becoming a crime reporter and photographer for the Natal Witness in his hometown of Pietermaritzburg.
His journalistic career saw him headhunted first by the Natal Mercury and then by the Natal Daily News. After the birth of his first son, he moved to Britain with his family in 1965, where he joined the Scottish Daily Mail as a sub-editor. From there, he moved to the Oxford Mail and then to The Oxford Times.
His first crime novel, The Steam Pig, won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1971. He resigned as deputy editor in 1974 to write full time. He added to his series of police procedurals based on his experiences in South Africa, featuring the detective partnership of Afrikaner Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi.
McClure also wrote a spy novel set in Southern Africa - Rogue Eagle - which won the 1976 CWA Silver Dagger, a number of short stories, and two large non-fiction works that won wide acclaim: Spike Island: Portrait of a Police Division (Liverpool) and Copworld: Inside an American Police Force (San Diego).
After publishing 14 books, he returned to the bottom rung of "The Oxford Times" in 1986, as his police books had made him aware of how much he had missed working with others - his intention being to write in his spare time. What proved his most popular Kramer and Zondi novel then followed, The Song Dog, but journalism soon became all consuming. He became editor in 1994 and three years later The Oxford Times won the Weekly Newspaper of the Year award, beating all comers from across the United Kingdom.
He was promoted to editor of the Oxford Mail in 2000, and spent the next three years on a variety of objectives to enhance the quality and revenue of the county's daily paper. That done, he decided it was time to again step down, and retired to return to writing. He was working on a novel set in Oxford and had just started his own blog when he came down with a respiratory illness and died on 17 June 2006. He lived in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.
James McClure was born and raised in South Africa and educated in Pietermaritzburg, Natal at Scottsville School (1947–51), Cowan House (1952–54), and Maritzburg College (1955–58). He worked first as a commercial photographer with Tom Sharpe, who later wrote a series of celebrated comic novels, and then as a teacher of English and art at Cowan House in 1959-63, before becoming a crime reporter and photographer for the Natal Witness in his hometown of Pietermaritzburg.
His journalistic career saw him headhunted first by the Natal Mercury and then by the Natal Daily News. After the birth of his first son, he moved to Britain with his family in 1965, where he joined the Scottish Daily Mail as a sub-editor. From there, he moved to the Oxford Mail and then to The Oxford Times.
His first crime novel, The Steam Pig, won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1971. He resigned as deputy editor in 1974 to write full time. He added to his series of police procedurals based on his experiences in South Africa, featuring the detective partnership of Afrikaner Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi.
McClure also wrote a spy novel set in Southern Africa - Rogue Eagle - which won the 1976 CWA Silver Dagger, a number of short stories, and two large non-fiction works that won wide acclaim: Spike Island: Portrait of a Police Division (Liverpool) and Copworld: Inside an American Police Force (San Diego).
After publishing 14 books, he returned to the bottom rung of "The Oxford Times" in 1986, as his police books had made him aware of how much he had missed working with others - his intention being to write in his spare time. What proved his most popular Kramer and Zondi novel then followed, The Song Dog, but journalism soon became all consuming. He became editor in 1994 and three years later The Oxford Times won the Weekly Newspaper of the Year award, beating all comers from across the United Kingdom.
He was promoted to editor of the Oxford Mail in 2000, and spent the next three years on a variety of objectives to enhance the quality and revenue of the county's daily paper. That done, he decided it was time to again step down, and retired to return to writing. He was working on a novel set in Oxford and had just started his own blog when he came down with a respiratory illness and died on 17 June 2006. He lived in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 8, 2016
I've read all of it, and still haven't caught the title reference. As far as I know, there is no egg, artful or otherwise, in the novel, though there are plenty of artforms: drama, novel, sculpture, painting, dance...Much better than the preceding installment, it's a good, fast-paced yarn. A banned author is found stabbed in her own home, naked and surrounded by flowers. Whodunit, why dunit, and why dunit like that? A day or two later, a retired SAP officer's wife is found dead in her shower. Was it an accident--or murder? This time both victims really are innocent, instead of being the sort of person who had it coming.
What kept it from being a five-star read for me was the depiction of all the Indian characters as half-witted pastiche caricatures. I've known several citizens of the Subcontinent myself, and they were all as reasonable and intelligent as you or me...most of them far more intelligent than me. I've run across this tendency in other white authors from different African countries, and it is not an endearing trait. I expected rather better from McClure, but we all have our little issues. I find it ironic that he would leave South Africa due to his dislike of the racist system, only to reveal his own prejudice.
Once again, the ending stops dead, with no wrap. And this time, the motivation for one of the deaths seems more than a little odd and convoluted to me, but it was still a good read. At least McClure only wrote when he had something to say, resisting the temptation to ride his fame and churn out a title every year or two. Unfortunately for me, there's only one left. Sigh.
What kept it from being a five-star read for me was the depiction of all the Indian characters as half-witted pastiche caricatures. I've known several citizens of the Subcontinent myself, and they were all as reasonable and intelligent as you or me...most of them far more intelligent than me. I've run across this tendency in other white authors from different African countries, and it is not an endearing trait. I expected rather better from McClure, but we all have our little issues. I find it ironic that he would leave South Africa due to his dislike of the racist system, only to reveal his own prejudice.
Once again, the ending stops dead, with no wrap. And this time, the motivation for one of the deaths seems more than a little odd and convoluted to me, but it was still a good read. At least McClure only wrote when he had something to say, resisting the temptation to ride his fame and churn out a title every year or two. Unfortunately for me, there's only one left. Sigh.
November 17, 2015
The Artful Egg by James McClure was an accidental discovery. I have one of his non-fiction books on my shelf, but didn't know he wrote mysteries. The setting is South Africa in the 1980's. A woman writer has been murdered. Lt. Tromp Kramer, a white man, and his partner, Zulu officer Zondi must fight their way through a cast of incompetent characters to find the killer. The egregious treatment of non-whites is as much a part of this tale as is the crime. McClure manages to paint a picture of the dismal social atmosphere with a remarkable sense of humor and irony. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
March 5, 2022
Heavily ironic, even satiric, and more humorous, even slapstick, than earlier entries in this series.
Sad that I only have one more left in the series.😩
Sad that I only have one more left in the series.😩
March 15, 2014
Our intrepid officers of SAPD of Trekkersberg are back on the case, or here two cases. A woman who is famous as an author is found dead next to her pool. She was supposed to be in London to receive an award. The first problem for the Police is that all of her books had been banned by the Apartheid government. The second is that the murder weapon was a sword (or more precisely a foil). On her typewriter, at the end of the last page she had been working on is typed, “ II ii “.
There are little if any clues and her ‘friends’ can’t think of why anyone would want to kill her. Tromp and Zondi begin looking at who ‘would profit’ by her murder and use the beneficiaries of her Will to create a suspect list. Her son (who will receive more than 1 million rand) has an iron clad alibi in that he was 200 miles away at the time. None of the other people had any reason to kill her, most were surprised they had been left money.
At the same time Tromp is put on another case that is the most sensitive of his career. A wife of a retired Major who was in control of CID for many years, has died from a slip in the shower. The problem is that during his career, the prisoners of the Major had a propensity for falling in showers, down stairs, through windows and off roofs. The proof that the fall was an accident needs to be made before the papers find out about the wife’s death.
Once again, our boys do a great job of working on both cases in tandem and come of with the proof and the murderers. Nice job.
Zeb Kantrowitz
There are little if any clues and her ‘friends’ can’t think of why anyone would want to kill her. Tromp and Zondi begin looking at who ‘would profit’ by her murder and use the beneficiaries of her Will to create a suspect list. Her son (who will receive more than 1 million rand) has an iron clad alibi in that he was 200 miles away at the time. None of the other people had any reason to kill her, most were surprised they had been left money.
At the same time Tromp is put on another case that is the most sensitive of his career. A wife of a retired Major who was in control of CID for many years, has died from a slip in the shower. The problem is that during his career, the prisoners of the Major had a propensity for falling in showers, down stairs, through windows and off roofs. The proof that the fall was an accident needs to be made before the papers find out about the wife’s death.
Once again, our boys do a great job of working on both cases in tandem and come of with the proof and the murderers. Nice job.
Zeb Kantrowitz
July 11, 2021
Hard to follow. Potential is not realized.
I wanted this book to be great. It had so much going for it. South Africa in the 1950s when apartheid was entrenched and truly nasty. A murder mystery. A wide range of characters through which it might be possible to explore South African life. And an author who had written some pretty good books. Unfortunately, it just didn’t tie together for me. There were too many characters and names with not enough clarity about each of them. The plot jumped around, which is usually not a problem for me. However in this case, I continually lost interest because the focus on the characters drew attention away from the plot. I’m sure some people will like this kind of thing. It just wasn’t quite good enough for me.
I wanted this book to be great. It had so much going for it. South Africa in the 1950s when apartheid was entrenched and truly nasty. A murder mystery. A wide range of characters through which it might be possible to explore South African life. And an author who had written some pretty good books. Unfortunately, it just didn’t tie together for me. There were too many characters and names with not enough clarity about each of them. The plot jumped around, which is usually not a problem for me. However in this case, I continually lost interest because the focus on the characters drew attention away from the plot. I’m sure some people will like this kind of thing. It just wasn’t quite good enough for me.
April 14, 2021
Too many characters; too much irrelevant detail; too much racism; too much sexism; too abrupt ending.
October 3, 2021
This is a 1984 book by British author James McClure and is the 7th book in his Kramer and Zondi detective mystery series with a setting in the fictional city of Trekkersberg in South Africa. The Kramer and Zondi series of books represents a subtle criticism of apartheid and gave a lot of examples of the racial discrimination of the period, including brutal treatment of minorities and institutional racism in South Africa at the time. This book is a police procedural mystery with a setting in 1980s South Africa. It is well written and very funny with a clever plot. Like a Shakespeare tragedy, there is a character specially created whose job is to create comic relief. In fact, the title of the book, the Artful Egg, probably has something to do with the first sentence in the whole book. “A hen is an egg’s way of making another egg.”, which is a philosophical theme of half-crazy postman called Ramjut Pillay. Pillay played a minor role in the story, but provided plenty of laughs as comic relief. I quite enjoy this book. I would definitely try another McClure book again, probably the Gold Dagger Award winner and the first in the series “The Steam Pig”.
Spoiler Alert. The book includes two unrelated cases, one primary and the other secondary. The primary case involves the murder of world-famous award-winning novelist Naomi Stride, whose colorful and borderline anti-apartheid novels have been banned in South Africa. When Naomi was found naked and murdered in her home in Trekkersberg with a sword, the case became a media sensation. Colonel Hans Muller, boss of Kramer and Zondi, put Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his partner Bantu Detective Sergeant Michael Zondi on the case, as well as a few other members of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad. The crime scene has a lot of literary references to William Shakespeare’s famous tragic play Hamlet. The sword that killed Naomi came from the local university drama club which has just finished playing Hamlet for the city audience and the murder weapon was the sword used in the play. Near Naomi’s body was sprinkled with rosemary and pansies, which are herbs and flowers that references the play Hamlet, in which Ophelia said rosemary are for remembrance and pansies are for thought. While this strongly suggested that the murderer might have connection to Naomi’s literary career or her professional life (instead of her home life), Kramer thought otherwise. Finally, he was able to uncover a twisted plot. It turns out Noami’s adult son Theo Kennedy, an African curios dealer who was always fighting with Naomi but was the sole heir of her huge fortune, has a neighbor called Vicki Stilgoe. Vicki, who has a spoilt brat daughter Amanda, was herself a self-centered, selfish gold digger and a snob. She was looking for a rich husband who could get along with Amanda. After she has set her eyes on Theo as a good husband candidate and an easy prey, Vicki plotted with her brother Bruce to murder Naomi, correctly figuring that Naomi would object to Theo marrying her and also after Naomi’s death Theo would become emotionally vulnerable and she could then come in to fill the void and catch Thao, which was exactly what happened. Vicki also made sure on the night of the murder Theo has a solid alibi and to cast enough red herrings to lead police to look towards different direction. In the end, Kramer and Zondi cracked that case and arrested Vicki and Bruce for the Naomi murder.
While Kramer and Zondi were investigating the Naomi murder, a second unrelated case came up. An old woman, Marie Louise Zuidmeyer, wife to retired Major Willem Martinus Zuidmeyer, was found dead in her shower tub, with her head cracked, probably from a slip and fall accident. However, since Major Willem Martinus Zuidmeyer was a notorious high-ranking police officer in the South African police Security Branch, who has been accused by the press to have on many occasions killed political prisoners who were in his custody but make them all look like accidents, the accident case required careful handling. Therefore, Colonel Hans Muller himself took over the case but brought in his best detective Kramer to handle the work, hoping Kramer can quickly close the case as an accidental death. After Kramer looked into it, however, he discovered it was a clever murder plot went awry. The Zuidmeyer couple has a young son called Jannie, who really hated his father but loved his mother. Jannie worked at a slaughterhouse as a clerk, where they used an industrial grade detergent called DH-136, which was super slippery. Jannie used a tube to inject the detergent into the shower tub of her parents’ bathroom, expecting her father (who was always the first to take a shower in the morning) to slip and fall. Since the water would carry the detergent away, no trace would be found. Unfortunately for Jannie, on that particular day her mother decided to take a shower first and she was killed as a result. Also, contrary to Jannie’s expectation, Kramer was able to find minute traces of the detergent and have it analyzed. Jannie in the end took his own life by jumping out the window of a tall building before he can be arrested.
Spoiler Alert. The book includes two unrelated cases, one primary and the other secondary. The primary case involves the murder of world-famous award-winning novelist Naomi Stride, whose colorful and borderline anti-apartheid novels have been banned in South Africa. When Naomi was found naked and murdered in her home in Trekkersberg with a sword, the case became a media sensation. Colonel Hans Muller, boss of Kramer and Zondi, put Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his partner Bantu Detective Sergeant Michael Zondi on the case, as well as a few other members of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad. The crime scene has a lot of literary references to William Shakespeare’s famous tragic play Hamlet. The sword that killed Naomi came from the local university drama club which has just finished playing Hamlet for the city audience and the murder weapon was the sword used in the play. Near Naomi’s body was sprinkled with rosemary and pansies, which are herbs and flowers that references the play Hamlet, in which Ophelia said rosemary are for remembrance and pansies are for thought. While this strongly suggested that the murderer might have connection to Naomi’s literary career or her professional life (instead of her home life), Kramer thought otherwise. Finally, he was able to uncover a twisted plot. It turns out Noami’s adult son Theo Kennedy, an African curios dealer who was always fighting with Naomi but was the sole heir of her huge fortune, has a neighbor called Vicki Stilgoe. Vicki, who has a spoilt brat daughter Amanda, was herself a self-centered, selfish gold digger and a snob. She was looking for a rich husband who could get along with Amanda. After she has set her eyes on Theo as a good husband candidate and an easy prey, Vicki plotted with her brother Bruce to murder Naomi, correctly figuring that Naomi would object to Theo marrying her and also after Naomi’s death Theo would become emotionally vulnerable and she could then come in to fill the void and catch Thao, which was exactly what happened. Vicki also made sure on the night of the murder Theo has a solid alibi and to cast enough red herrings to lead police to look towards different direction. In the end, Kramer and Zondi cracked that case and arrested Vicki and Bruce for the Naomi murder.
While Kramer and Zondi were investigating the Naomi murder, a second unrelated case came up. An old woman, Marie Louise Zuidmeyer, wife to retired Major Willem Martinus Zuidmeyer, was found dead in her shower tub, with her head cracked, probably from a slip and fall accident. However, since Major Willem Martinus Zuidmeyer was a notorious high-ranking police officer in the South African police Security Branch, who has been accused by the press to have on many occasions killed political prisoners who were in his custody but make them all look like accidents, the accident case required careful handling. Therefore, Colonel Hans Muller himself took over the case but brought in his best detective Kramer to handle the work, hoping Kramer can quickly close the case as an accidental death. After Kramer looked into it, however, he discovered it was a clever murder plot went awry. The Zuidmeyer couple has a young son called Jannie, who really hated his father but loved his mother. Jannie worked at a slaughterhouse as a clerk, where they used an industrial grade detergent called DH-136, which was super slippery. Jannie used a tube to inject the detergent into the shower tub of her parents’ bathroom, expecting her father (who was always the first to take a shower in the morning) to slip and fall. Since the water would carry the detergent away, no trace would be found. Unfortunately for Jannie, on that particular day her mother decided to take a shower first and she was killed as a result. Also, contrary to Jannie’s expectation, Kramer was able to find minute traces of the detergent and have it analyzed. Jannie in the end took his own life by jumping out the window of a tall building before he can be arrested.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2022
Excellent characters, interesting crimes. The solution is somewhat ad-hoc, but this story is enjoyable for the telling, not the solution.
August 17, 2025
This was a superb mystery. I am getting to the end of this series and am rather disappointed as the author alas is muerto aka deceased. This book takes place in South Africa in 1985 the height of apartheid. The author, McClure does a remarkable job of capturing the racism of the era with humor, and brutal truth. Lt. Kramer is most adept at solving complex mysteries and this definitely qualifies. With his most excellent black Bantu assistant Sgt. Zondi he unravels this mystery from tip to tale. A female author has been murdered and she was a “progressive” with all of her books banned in South Africa. She is found stabbed with a sword just outside her pool. Several suspects stand to gain a sizable inheritance which causes numerous false leads. As Kramer gains a handle on the case he encounters a very nasty bitch gold digger who is a stone sociopath. Ignoring his instincts because she is an attractive tramp he gets into a bit of a sticky wicket. The psycho bitch is from Rhodesia and terrorists murdered her family, which while tragic does not justify her actions. She also has a turd brother who was a former Selous Scout, which was a Rhodesian special unit that caused the end of many a terrorist during the Bush War. This mystery races to a dynamic conclusion and I highly recommend it.
September 3, 2020
I located this book by McClure via the list of Soho Crime Series writers and novels listed at the end of Magdalen Nabb's Monster of Florence. The Kramer and Zondi series is set in South Africa while apartheid was still politically operative. There are 9 books in this series and this was written in 1984. It proved to be for me a great history lesson in terms to the nature of the interracial relations (Afrikaans, indigenous people, Indians, Europeans) in SA at the time. From my perspective in 21st century USA, the characters were so completely and naturally non-politically (and morally) correct that it was stunning. In addition to moving nicely through the development of the investigation, the relationships among police and the plot resolutions, it was really humorous. I hope to read more of the series to watch the evolution of the characters, social/cultural setting and the writing over the 20 years span of the series (1971 - 1991).
August 13, 2018
I know this was written at an earlier time but I do feel a bit uncomfortable that I enjoyed this. I don't know anything about the author or his politics to know if this was how he felt about different ethnicities or if it was satire. Because the racism is so prevalent through the whole book, its hard to separate it from what were several interesting mysteries. But then again, racism is the real mystery.
March 28, 2020
James McClure finished his famous South African police procedurals with this excellent mystery. His odd couple detectives , Afrikaner Trump and Bantu Zondi, are the only reason the crimes are ever solved, and they aren't all that clever. But their shoe- leather detection gets the job done. Each of McClure's mysteries painted a bright backdrop of the Apartheid darkness of South Africa.
May 12, 2020
Good Story
Starts out good with the celebrity murder of a writer who allegedly had no enemies. The postal worker turned P.I. who turns out to be a bumbling fool and contaminates the crime scene. Kramer and Zondi get reassigned to a new case which quickly ties into the old case.
Starts out good with the celebrity murder of a writer who allegedly had no enemies. The postal worker turned P.I. who turns out to be a bumbling fool and contaminates the crime scene. Kramer and Zondi get reassigned to a new case which quickly ties into the old case.
March 5, 2018
Sort of a strange who-dunit. The South Africa's setting and the societal norms between whites and blacks is disconcerting. Many characters. There's a "main" murder and then a second one that adds to the confusion.
April 8, 2018
This mystery is set in South Africa. I am recognizing my own reading preferences that sometimes those that are set in a different culture than my own take more time to read. There are some characters that appeared to be portrayed with a great deal of prejudice. Is this cultural or artist style?
March 17, 2020
DNF - just couldn’t get into this story. Tried, but pretty boring. After 4 chapters I gave up,
July 19, 2021
Murder mystery set in South Africa. Kind of quirky, interesting enough.
September 30, 2021
Not a particularly clever storyline. The ending is weak.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2013
I really don't know what to think of this book. I started reading it three times before I finished it. Not because it was a bad book, but because it wasn't a "can't put it down" book, and it was an e-library book. That meant I could only borrow it for two weeks at a time, and then had to return it through Amazon, then re-check it out, and re-borrow it through Amazon. So, while I was reading it, I was really enjoying it, but I didn't enjoy it enough to hurry and finish it during the loan period.
That said, I think if I had had a better understanding of the intricacies of South African culture, it would have resonated a bit more. Thankfully I have read enough books about India during British Imperialism that I wasn't completely lost, but it was still definitely a bit of culture shock. There is quite a lot of segregation in this book, and racism seems to be taken with a grain of salt, not only against the native population, but against the large Indian (or Asiatic, as they call it in the book) population as well.
It was both a difficult (because of the aforementioned race issues) and enjoyable read. There was a good deal of subtle comedy ingrained in the story, so if it had not been set in such a blatantly racist environment, I probably would have loved it. But as it currently stands, it left me feeling uncomfortable enough that every time something made me laugh, I also felt dirty at the same time.
I guess that is the mark of a truly written book--it was enjoyable on a light-hearted level, but made me "feel" on a deeper subconscious level. So while this will likely never be classified as a piece of modern "literature," in actuality, it really does fit the bill.
I do recommend it to those who either 1)enjoy mysteries and 2) are familiar with the culture of South Africa or India under British rule, as there are many little things that you really only pick up on if you have that sub-context. It stands okay as a mystery on its own, but if you are truly and completely unfamiliar with the prejudices of British imperialism, it may be to much for you to swallow, and the mystery is not engaging enough on its own to get past that.
That said, I think if I had had a better understanding of the intricacies of South African culture, it would have resonated a bit more. Thankfully I have read enough books about India during British Imperialism that I wasn't completely lost, but it was still definitely a bit of culture shock. There is quite a lot of segregation in this book, and racism seems to be taken with a grain of salt, not only against the native population, but against the large Indian (or Asiatic, as they call it in the book) population as well.
It was both a difficult (because of the aforementioned race issues) and enjoyable read. There was a good deal of subtle comedy ingrained in the story, so if it had not been set in such a blatantly racist environment, I probably would have loved it. But as it currently stands, it left me feeling uncomfortable enough that every time something made me laugh, I also felt dirty at the same time.
I guess that is the mark of a truly written book--it was enjoyable on a light-hearted level, but made me "feel" on a deeper subconscious level. So while this will likely never be classified as a piece of modern "literature," in actuality, it really does fit the bill.
I do recommend it to those who either 1)enjoy mysteries and 2) are familiar with the culture of South Africa or India under British rule, as there are many little things that you really only pick up on if you have that sub-context. It stands okay as a mystery on its own, but if you are truly and completely unfamiliar with the prejudices of British imperialism, it may be to much for you to swallow, and the mystery is not engaging enough on its own to get past that.
October 29, 2011
Set in South Africa, this Kramer/Zondi novel concerns the murder of a prominent
woman novelist who while much admired abroad, is banned from publishing under Apartheid. Her body is initially discovered by a young postman of Indian background, who is portrayed as almost idiotic or delusional. His own family despise him, so the portrayal can't be construed as stereotypical Asian-bashing.
The book contains some characters from artistic and bohemiam circles, and has a very exciting finish. Like McClure's other books about the Africaan detective Kramer and his Bantu sergeant Zondi, it paints a picture of South African society which is only recommended for the strong of stomach.
woman novelist who while much admired abroad, is banned from publishing under Apartheid. Her body is initially discovered by a young postman of Indian background, who is portrayed as almost idiotic or delusional. His own family despise him, so the portrayal can't be construed as stereotypical Asian-bashing.
The book contains some characters from artistic and bohemiam circles, and has a very exciting finish. Like McClure's other books about the Africaan detective Kramer and his Bantu sergeant Zondi, it paints a picture of South African society which is only recommended for the strong of stomach.
March 18, 2014
Fascinating thriller from deep within the apartheid era. A seditious little tale that places its two heroes into an Agatha Christie type of puzzle set in South Africa. The sedition comes from the relationship between the white detective Kramer and his black sergeant Zondi. Not quite equals - Zondi is definitely the sidekick - and couldn't be in that era in South Africa's troubled past but their working relationship is a solid one where each respects the other in a way that is contrasted with the casual and deliberate racism of the other characters. A period piece but nicely plotted and written.
May 18, 2012
James McClure's detective books are set in Pietermaritzburg in Apartheid South Africa, featuring two policemen, Kramer and Zondi. The plots are OK, and the writing not bad, what is excellent, though, is how they capture the zeitgeist.
The relationship between the white Afrikaans Kramer, and the black Zulu Zondi is brilliantly explored. The town, too, appears almost as a character.
The relationship between the white Afrikaans Kramer, and the black Zulu Zondi is brilliantly explored. The town, too, appears almost as a character.
March 9, 2013
Sadly the last one. I loved this book, less darkness, more humor.
Read
January 8, 2015not getting this right now
June 8, 2016
Fine plot, lots of 'male thoughts' (sex), like the plot & cast, not the sex thoughts so much. I think it hampers the plot — just an opinion. Forewarned is forearmed.
July 25, 2016
A clever plot with interesting twists told in a "South African dialect". Possibly non-South Africans would miss or not appreciate some of the humor.
Want to Read
March 23, 2019Synopsis: the controversial writer Naomi Stride's murder has challenged Kramer and his Zulu partner Zondi. Is it going to be a political whitewash?
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews