Publishers Weekly
03/04/2019
In Meyer’s enjoyable if slight work, the sixth outing for all-too-human Capt. Benny Griessel of South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (after 2015’s Icarus), a woman’s bleached and nude corpse turns up outside Cape Town. No clothing or possessions were nearby, and the pathologist determines that she died elsewhere, killed by a blow to the back of her head. Griessel catches a break when a hotel concierge recognizes the dead woman as Alicia Lewis, an American who was living in London. Further digging reveals that Lewis was a case manager for the Art Loss Register, a firm that maintained “the largest private database of lost and stolen art in the world,” and which searched for missing art. History professor Marius Wilke, who met Lewis when she came to South Africa, informs Griessel that she was in search of a painting, possibly worth $100 million, by one of Rembrandt’s protégés. Strong characterizations, even of secondary characters, compensate for a whodunit plot that isn’t Meyer’s best. Hopefully, he’ll return to form next time. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (May)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Woman in the Blue Cloak :
“Is it O.K. to call a murder mystery ‘lovely’? That’s the word that comes to mind for The Woman in the Blue Cloak , a short but quite beautifully told story about two women by the South African author Deon Meyer . . . Quietly moving.” —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
“Distinctive . . . Features the veteran team of Capt. Benny Griessel and his partner, Capt. Vaughn Cupido . . . Time is of the essence in this short, swift book. But Mr. Meyer doesn’t fail to evoke the subtle and often appealing qualities of his characters and their surroundings. The Woman in the Blue Cloak projects an almost palpable aura.” —Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
“A priceless work of art is at the heart of Meyer’s latest thriller . . . This novella-length tale is a worth addition to the Benny Griessel series.” — Booklist
“Anything Deon Meyer writes is welcome, especially if it features his fantastic South African detective Benny Griessel . . . [ The Woman in the Blue Cloak ] leaves us wanting more. Anyone who has yet to discover Meyer—who writes in Afrikaans—or his wonderfully rounded and very human hero is in for a treat . . . Meyer is one of the best crime writers on the planet.” — Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine
“Enjoyable . . . Strong characterizations.” — Publishers Weekly
Praise for the Benny Griessel Series:
“Mr. Meyer, the leading thriller writer in his native country, traffics in crime-novel situations familiar the world over: drunken cops, charming robbers, dangerous murderers, sudden violence—and sometimes, issues of race. Mr. Meyer’s South Africa, however, is unique. His books, translated from Afrikaans, are usually set in the Cape Town region, where mountains spectacularly meet the sea on the Horn of Africa. Amid these vistas his detective confronts his own—and his country’s—tortured past and the legacy of Apartheid.” — Wall Street Journal , on Cobra
“Meyer . . . vividly depicts the story of South Africa in his novels, from the hope and turmoil of the fall of apartheid to the corrupt and desperate aspects of present-day Cape Town . . . Meyer’s novels have an insistent forward motion, and the ones featuring Captain Griessel in particular have a pleasing relentlessness.” — Los Angeles Review of Books , on Cobra
“A serious writer who richly deserves the international reputation he has built.” —Washington Post, on Cobra
“Deon Meyer’s name on the cover is a guarantee of crime writing at its best.” —Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Playing with Fire , on Icarus
“Deon Meyer’s South Africa is laid bare in Icarus ; it is as glittering and hard as the diamonds his country is famous for . . . Meyer utilizes the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country.” — Independent , on Icarus
“South African author Deon Meyer’s Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, Icarus , is his best yet . . . [An] expertly engineered tale of sex, lies, and fraud.” — Guardian (Best Recent Crime Fiction Novels), on Icarus
“Deon Meyer continues his string of superb, tightly constructed timeline thrillers. Coming on the heels of the breath-holding Thirteen Hours , Seven Days takes us into the heart of a major police hunt for a killer targeting policemen as he demands the investigation of a seemingly unsolvable cold case.” — Globe & Mail , on Seven Days
“ Thirteen Hours has breathtaking suspense, psychological understanding, and one of the most inspiring detectives ever. Deon Meyer deserves his international reputation.” —Thomas Perry, author of The Burglar , on Thirteen Hours
“Unputdownably brilliant.” — Mail & Guardian (South Africa), on Thirteen Hours
“A smashing story. Imposing a strict time limit and a tight location on his plot, [Meyer] ramps up the suspense to an unbearable degree. Best of all, his sharply drawn characters really feel part of the new South Africa, where loyalties and beliefs must always be questioned.” — Financial Times , on Thirteen Hours
Kirkus Reviews
2019-02-17
A dead woman stripped naked and draped over a stone wall poses vexing problems for Capt. Benny Griessel and Capt. Vaughn Cupido, of Cape Town's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (Icarus, 2015, etc.).
Even before it's identified, the corpse, bashed to death elsewhere and washed thoroughly with bleach, rings alarm bells for Griessel, whose mind is focused less on his job than on the 22,000 rand he'll have to borrow if he's to buy a proper (though pawned and possibly stolen) engagement ring for former singing star Alexa Barnard, who's plotting a comeback despite the alcoholism she shares with Griessel. Once it becomes known that the victim was Alicia Lewis, an American visitor who took a sabbatical from her job with a London art-recovery company to come to South Africa and was murdered in record time after her arrival, the police are under intense pressure to close the case. Why was the foreign visitor so interested in getting directions to the nondescript town of Villiersdorp? What was she doing that got her killed so quickly after her arrival? And why, in the name of self-preservation and common decency, didn't her killer take more care to conceal her body instead of displaying it so brazenly that it was immediately spotted by a minibus carrying a dozen horrified workers to jobs in the city? Before these questions are answered, they'll lead to even more questions about a painting that's been lost for 350 years and a plot that brings the respectable Alicia Lewis into imprudently close contact with some truly shady characters.
Though it's light on the critical analysis of race relations that helped make Meyer's earlier Cape Town mysteries hefty in every sense of the word, this gemlike novella is just the thing for a one-sitting read.
