Complicated and exciting plot

books:


	• Devil's Peak: A Novel Deon Meyer Little, Brown and Company, 2008 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

SUPER!

If someone had asked me if I wanted to read a "cop" story that takes place in South Africa, I may have "passed" on it. What a loss that would have been! This is one the best I've ever read.

Complicated and exciting plot

I've read all this author's works published in this country, and found them to be consistently top notch. In this book, he carries three plot lines through it dealing with complicated people that you find sympathetic. The author uses them to deal with major issues such as prostitution, alcoholism, and unsympathetic bureaucracy, as well as looking at some social issues mentioned in previous reviews. When the plot lines are meshed, it's done in an understandable and logical fashion leading to a satisfactory ending. The book is an exciting read. The protagonists are imperfect people with their own demons with whom they struggle. It is recommended highly and especially to those who wish to explore this South African's very original novels.

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Unholy Threesome

Three very flawed but sympathetic characters populate this novel. There is Thobela Mpayipheli, a Black South African who was trained as an assassin by the East German secret police. Then there is Benny Griessel, alcoholic detective. And lastly, Christine van Rooyen, a prostitute with a three-year-old daughter. Somehow, their lives intertwine in a gripping story which keeps the reader off-balance all the way.

Initially, Thobela is introduced as a farmer who recently lost his wife, leaving him with a young boy who he loves very much. The boy is shot dead during an armed robbery, setting off a chain of events which leads Thobela to act as an avenging vigilante against abusers of children. Benny, once (and possibly even in his present continual alcoholic haze) a superior detective, is kicked out of his home by his long-suffering wife with the admonishment that he might be permitted to return if he stays sober for six months. Meanwhile, he is placed in charge of two important cases, including the serial killer of abused children. Christine's story alternates with the other two as she sits confessing to a priest. Her tale plays a pivotal role in the lives of the other two.

This is the author's fourth novel, each superior reading. His complex stories and descriptions of South Africa are exceptional, his characters unusual and graphic, his works top-notch. Like his previous efforts, Devil's Peak is highly recommended.

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A most exciting read

Deon Meyer's novel, Devil's Peak, is a complex, yet exciting tale of African espionage. The author has created a cast of characters so diverse, you will have quite a time keeping up with each of them. Yet, I wanted to know more about them as my fingers turned page by page.

There is the prostitute who visits a clergyman with a secret carton. Then a man, a modern-day vigilante, is seeking justice for the death of his adopted son. On his trail is an alcoholic detective inspector who risks his wife and children for the love of the bottle. That is just a few of the people who make the novel so compelling.

Out of all of their stories, Thobela Mpayipheli's is the one that kept me reading the book from start to finish. Here was a man who married the woman he loved and adopted her son as his. When she dies, he is left to raise the child, which he does with joy and determination. Then a fateful stop at a filing station changes Thobela's life forever. It sends him on a mission to send every criminal he encounters to a brutal and traumatic end. He is on a search for two men in particular who he has to exact a revenge that only their deaths can satisfy. Yet, he then realizes that his journey entails more than that.

There are AIDS-infected men who are raping children in an ill attempt to rid themselves of the disease. When the court refuses to condemn them to prison, Thobela decides to take matters into his own hands.

The author designs his characters in a way that their lives are all somehow entwined. This means that you must stay on your toes in order to follow the storyline. Yet, I found Devil's Peak to be an interesting and exciting read. I realize that Thobela Mpayipheli is my new hero and the man of my dreams.

Armchair Interviews says: Most interesting storyline.

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Absolutely superb

First book I've read by this author and I will be reading them all. Action is fast paced and you have to put the book down and take a respite. Not for the faint of heart. When's the movie coming out will automatically be the question once you have finished this book. Principal character, Griesell, rivals Ian Rankin's Rebus. An alcoholic detective, an avenging former Stasi trained African freedom fighter taking out his wrath on pedophiles, a beautiful call girl, and a Colombian drug lord all come together in a very well crafted suspense yarn. Through the book you are aware or suspect that things are not as they seem and the author jumbles the present with the past and the future but there is no confusion, only clarity. Meyer keeps you guessing until the very end.

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reviews: page 1, 2

From rising South African thriller writer Deon Meyer, a gripping suspense novel about revenge, forgiveness, and the race to catch a trained killer. A young woman makes a terrible confession to a priest. An honorable man takes his own revenge for an unspeakable tragedy. An aging inspector tries to get himself sober while taking on the most difficult case of his career. From this beginning, Deon Meyer weaves a story of astonishing complexity and suspense, as Inspector Benny Griessel faces off against a dangerous vigilante who has everything on his side, including public sympathy.
A gruesome abuse case has hit the newsstands, and one man has taken it upon himself to stand up for the children of Cape Town. When the accused is found stabbed through the heart by spear, it's only the beginning of a string of bloody murders - and of a dangerous dilemma for detective Griessel. The detective is always just one step behind as someone slays the city's killers. But the paths of Griessel and the avenger collide when a young prostitute lures them both into a dangerous plan - and the two find themselves with a heart-stopping problem that no system of justice could ever make right.

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