BLOG TOUR: The Dark Flood (Benny Griessel Mysteries Book 7) - Deon Meyer

One last chance. Almost fired for insubordination, detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido find themselves demoted, exiled from the elite Hawks unit and dispatched to the leafy streets of Stellenbosch. Working a missing persons report on student Callie de Bruin is not the level of work they are used to, but it's all they get. And soon, it takes a dangerous, deeply disturbing turn.

One last chance. Stellenbosch is beautiful, but its economy has been ruined by one man. Jasper Boonstra and his gigantic corporate fraud have crashed the local property market, just when estate agent Sandra Steenberg desperately needs a big sale. Bringing up twins and supporting her academic husband, she is facing disaster. Then she gets a call. From Jasper Boonstra, fraudster, sexual predator and owner of a superb property worth millions, even now.

For Sandra, the stakes are high and about to get way higher.

For Benny Griessel, clinging to sobriety and the relationship that saved his life, the truth about Callie can only lead to more trouble.

Taut with intrigue, murder and suspense, exploding with action and excitement, The Dark Flood is a masterpiece from the author of Trackers and The Last Hunt.

 

What did I think?

The Dark Flood starts with a bang and the pacing doesn't slow at all; I had to put it down at times just to stop and catch my breath.  It's the first book I've read in the Benny Griessel series so don't be put off by this being book 7 in the series as you can definitely read it as a standalone.  It's originally written in Afrikaans and translated beautifully by K. L. Seegers;  there's even a glossary at the back to explain the words that have been left in for authenticity.

I loved both Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido from the start when they're setting off in pursuit of security van robbers in South Africa.  When it all goes wrong, they find themselves demoted and shipped off to the university town of Stellenbosch.  Their first case is to investigate a missing student that uncovers a lot more than they bargained for.  I loved the camaraderie between the pair and enjoyed finding out about their personal lives too.

Running alongside the missing persons case is a story about estate agent Sandra who is experiencing what it's like to be a woman in a man's world.  It really made my skin crawl when I was reading the passages detailing her interactions with her boss and her client.  Unfortunately, a lot of women have experienced similar things so it's good to keep highlighting it.  Sandra's plotline is superb - I'll never forget it!

So you may be wondering, like I was, how the two stories relate to each other.  Well, it all comes together brilliantly; it's so good that The Dark Flood would be the perfect book to study in a crime writing masterclass.

Accomplished, tense and gripping, I absolutely loved The Dark Flood and it's certainly made me want to read the earlier books.  If you like all the great modern crime writers (such as Michael Connelly, Lee Child, and James Patterson) then you will LOVE Deon Meyer.  Very highly recommended.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; all opinions are my own.

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The Waiting Rooms - Eve Smith

Swinging from South Africa to England: one woman’s hunt for her birth mother in an all-too-believable near future in which an antibiotic crisis has decimated the population. A prescient, thrilling debut.

Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’ … hospitals where no one ever gets well.

Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother’s past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too.

Sweeping from an all-too-real modern Britain to a pre-crisis South Africa, The Waiting Rooms is epic in scope, richly populated with unforgettable characters, and a tense, haunting vision of a future that is only a few mutations away.

What did I think?

Maybe during a global pandemic wasn't the best time to read a book with a similar setting, as The Waiting Rooms scared the bejesus out of me!  Although I think even without the current crisis, The Waiting Rooms is so scarily realistic that you can easily imagine it happening.  

The Waiting Rooms is set in past and present and told from the viewpoints of Lily, Mary and Kate.  In the present day, Lily is living in a residential home and approaching her 70th birthday, however, 70 is not an age to be celebrated in this dystopian Britain as that is the age from which antibiotics are no longer given making even the smallest infection fatal.  Kate is a nurse and just beginning the search for her birth mother after the death of her adoptive mother.  The key to both Lily and Kate's lives is in the past as we read about Mary who is a research scientist looking at healing properties of plants in South Africa before becoming involved in a scandal that rocked the medical world.

Eve Smith has written such an exceptional novel that it left me completely gobsmacked.  I really shouldn't have been shocked but I was totally floored to discover how much of The Waiting Rooms is based on actual medical research.  It's so scarily believable that it's giving me goosebumps just thinking about it now.  This is a book that should have been way beyond its time but instead has been released at a time when it's as real as watching the news.

Hard-hitting, thought-provoking and scarily realistic, The Waiting Rooms should be on everyone's bookshelf.  This is absolutely outstanding writing from Eve Smith; it's almost as if her predictions have come true so I'm both fascinated and terrified to read what she writes next.  So highly recommended, The Waiting Rooms is a definite MUST read.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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Miss Fortune - Albina Hume

"Who would think that my inability to pronounce the letter R would turn my life upside down and lead me from Ukraine to South Africa?"

Albina Hume is often asked the same question - how did she meet her South African husband John, a property developer and a rhino breeder, who is 36 years her senior? She has always kept her response simple. Until now ...

Her childhood fear that no one in Ukraine would want to marry a 'crow' at first resulted in various misfortunes, from failing dreams and relationships to even ending up in a police cell for 51 days, until she finally learned to focus on her dreams, not her fears.

Now, Albina and John Hume have dedicated their lives to preventing the South African rhino population from becoming extinct by breeding rhinos for future generations. In the past six years, they have bred over 500 white rhinos, with Albina emerging as a pro-rhino activist, advocating for an end to the war on trade in rhino horn that has only resulted in illegal trade and killing of rhinos and also people in Africa. Albina calls for legalising trade in horn - a renewable product - to help create harmony between African people and their natural heritage.

What did I think?

This is a very quick read about the life of Albina Hume, and what a life it is!  Despite everything that she has gone through, you can feel that Albina did it all with a smile on her face as she refused to give up her dreams of finding a husband.  

I found that Albina's naivety caused her to be very unlucky - from taking lifts from the wrong man to illegally entering and working in Greece.  Although it is the nature of Albina not to think of these things as bad luck but as experiences that she amazingly had the strength to write about.

I admit that the writing is a little basic but it is good enough to forget that English is not Albina's first language.  To write a book in a foreign language is another amazing achievement!  It certainly casts a different light on girls working in the entertainment industry - think Bada Bing in the Sopranos!  These girls put their trust in people who abuse such trust without batting an eyelid.  They are trying to make a better life for themselves by saving what little pennies they make whilst the sleazy, greedy club owners play with them like a cat with a cage full of mice.

A book that inspires you to never give up on your dreams despite the troubles that life throws at you.  Albina achieved her happy ending, and with her as inspiration we should never be afraid to dream.

I received this e-book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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