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Unlike the majority of the reviewers (in English) thus far, I have read all of Deon Meyer’s books, each in order soon after as they were published in English. For the past few years, he has been focusing on Benny Griessel, but some earlier books featured Tiny (Thobela Mpayipheli). We first met Tiny in “Dead at Daybreak�� - as a supporting character. Then he was the main protagonist in “Heart of the Hunter��, my favourite Deon Meyer book (worth at least six stars as far as I’m concerned). Finally Tiny appeared with Benny in “Devil’s Peak��, and at the end he died. When we were first introduced to “Daniel�� in THE LAST HUNT, within the first chapter, I said to myself “That’s Tiny, but he was killed in an earlier book. How is the author going to bring him back from the dead?�� I again read the final chapters of “Devil’s Peak�� and upon re-reading realized that Meyer had left a very small hint that Tiny might not be dead. But for several books we heard no more about him. He’s back as a major character in this latest novel (generally called Daniel for newbies to Meyer’s work), again contrasting his methodological mind and actions with Benny’s emotional, intuitive ones.

I took my time reading this book �� reading it slowly over a 36 hour period instead of rushing through given its fast thriller pace. That’s because I wanted to savour every word and phrase from an author I consider one of the greatest in the world. His writing has an almost poetic quality that goes beyond the usual crime novelist. Now I need to read “The Devil’s Peak�� again because obviously I read it too quickly the first time to pick up all the subtle nuances.

Addendum: I wrote that I recognized Tiny almost as soon as he was introduced. This was before we knew his race and, as he was working in France, a reader unfamiliar with him would have assumed he was white. I recognized Tiny because I knew how he thought. This is the mark of a great writer: Characters are unique, with unique thought patterns. Deon Meyer is a great example of a writer who uses “show, don’t tell.�� I can’t praise him highly enough. I should add that the pacing near the end of the book, alternating between Daniel (Tiny) and Benny was extremely exciting but it would not have worked if Meyer had not established these as distinctly different characters with distinctly different thought and activity patterns.

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See also my review of:
The Dark Flood
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